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  The Food is Free Project launched in Austin, Texas, in January 2012, and within a few short months the project had spread to more than 40 cities across the world. Their mission? To grow fresh healthy food, build community amongst neighbors and line urban streets with front yard gardens. We think they're doing awesome work and want to share with you an Urban Gardens story that we found about the project. Here is an excerpt from the article: "Participants build the free gardens using salvaged resources that would otherwise be tossed in a landfill. The project introduces a very easy method of growing organic food with very little work using low maintenance drought-tolerant,...

The new Ebook Trailersteading: Voluntary Simplicity in a Mobile Home by Anna Hess describes a new trend in local food and homesteading: trailersteading. "Trailersteading profiles nine mobile-home dwellers who have used trailers as a stepping stone toward achieving their dreams. Some have spent the cash they saved by renovating their trailer on extra insulation, pitched roofs, classy interiors, and even basements, while the found money has allowed others to go off the grid. Many also took advantage of the low-cost housing option to pursue their passions, becoming full-time homemakers or homesteaders." Read more at Mother Earth News

By virtue of being a small, rural, and community-driven state, Vermont has been a beacon of light in the effort to build a strong local food system. The Green Mountain State is already the national leader in selling direct to consumer. But leadership in Vermont – Governor Peter Shumlin, Agriculture Secretary Chuck Ross, and Commerce Secretary Lawrence Miller, among many others – have put their money, and a 10-year strategic plan called Farm to Plate (not to be confused with the site you’re currently perusing, FarmPlate.com), where their mouths are. "The Farm to Plate (F2P) Initiative, approved at the end of the 2009 Vermont legislative session, directed the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund,...

Several weeks ago, we noticed an important development in the GMO labeling debate that continues to rage around the country, particularly in California. Wal Mart had decided to sell Monsanto GMO corn without labels.   A recent study from France has concluded that GMO corn caused lab rats to develop tumors. Since the study’s release, there has been a firestorm of debate on the study’s scientific validity. An interesting and contentious article in Slate by Keith Kloor argues that the study was not only rigged and biased, but that the whole anti-GMO movement occupies a similar psychic space to the most fanatical of climate change skeptics. No one is suggesting that “pseudo-science” should...

After the release of a Stanford University study that cast doubt on the nutritional benefits of organic food, the last couple of weeks have featured a nearly constant debate about the merits (or supposed lack thereof) of organic food.  We’ve gotten drips and drabs of context on the topic, from those who say the study ignored the real merits of organic, namely that organic isn’t about nutrients, but about choosing farming methods designed to harmonize with nature. Others have argued that organic is about choosing not to willingly serve as guinea pigs for testing the relative merits of pesticide use. Today, in the New York Times, we get our first balanced look at the issue, from a set...

First things first. We are not here to pass judgment on Wal-Mart, which we can only assume has done its own research on whether GMO products are safe for consumers (their conclusion is obvious).  Instead, what’s interesting about Wal-Mart’s decision to sell Monsanto’s GE sweetcorn is that it’s the first time a consumer product developed by Monsanto will go straight from the farm to plate, instead of being processed first. Other retailers (Whole Foods and Trader Joes among them) have either decided not to sell the product, or have yet to weigh in. The other interesting element to this story, which we learned from EcoWatch, is that the product also won’t be labeled as genetically...