Linda Platts

Ancient Apples

Duchess of Oldenburg, Maiden’s Blush, Esopus Spitzenberg, and Black Gilliflower. These are not exactly household names for those of us on the threshold of the 21st century, but they were as familiar to early American settlers as Granny Smiths and Golden Delicious are to us today. These ancient strains have all but disappeared from commercialContinue reading "Ancient Apples"

Linda Platts

Ashes to Concrete

One man’s trash is another man’s treasure is more than an old adage to several American companies. It is the key to their financial success. These firms are recycling the ash from trash incinerators and coal-burning electric generating stations and giving it new life as a construction material. It can be used in concrete, cement,Continue reading "Ancient Apples"

Engineering Nature

When employees of a Toronto business complained of headaches, irritated eyes and lethargy, all symptoms of the increasingly common “sick building syndrome,” their CEO called in a biologist. Typically, the answer has been to hire a phalanx of engineers and drain the bank account in an effort to alleviate the problem. In this instance, however,Continue reading "Engineering Nature"

Linda Platts

Logging for Conservation

The Nature Conservancy, known for preserving landscapes by buying land and development rights, is considering logging as another tool to protect forest land in Virginia. As the coal industry has begun to wane in the southwest portion of the state, timber cutting has increased. According to a survey by the state Department of Forestry, theContinue reading "Ancient Apples"

Linda Platts

Soaking Up The Sun

Sun and shade are working together at the International Airport in Sacramento. The largest free-standing solarport in the country has a photovoltaic system that tracks the sun across the sky, providing electricity to the power grid and cool parking spaces to airport visitors. The solarport measures 393 feet long, 30 feet wide and 14 feetContinue reading "Ancient Apples"

Straw Houses

Withstand Huffs And Puffs To many of us, straw is nothing more than brown stubble left behind after the harvest. Once considered an agricultural waste product, straw is the basis of a cost-effective and energy-efficient building material, providing an alternative to expensive lumber. In Perrytown, Texas, on the high plains of the panhandle, Cindy ThyfaultContinue reading "Straw Houses"

David Schoenbrod

Legislating Ideals

  Around 1970, the government began to go beyond enforcing society’s norms and began imposing intellectually generated ideals on society. As a graduate of Yale Law School in 1968, I was a part of this process. My contemporaries and I were instrumental in helping to launch the Environmental Protection Agency, as well as the NaturalContinue reading "Ancient Apples"

Robert Quinn

Why I am an Organic Farmer

I was not born an organic farmer or raised or educated as one. One step at a time, however, I converted my farm from conventional agriculture to the completely different system known as organic farming. Organic farming has often been misunderstood and misrepresented, and it has been defined in many ways. Over the years theContinue reading "Ancient Apples"

Kathryn Ratte

Environmental Education

  In one of my favorite Calvin and Hobbes vignettes, a dejected Calvin is standing at a booth in his yard where he is trying to sell swift kicks in the rear for a dollar. When Hobbes the tiger asks how business is going, a nonplused Calvin replies that it’s terrible, adding indignantly, “I don’tContinue reading "Ancient Apples"

J. Bishop Grewell, Matthew Brown

More Market Perspectives

Fort Peck Dinosaur Discoveries of McCone County, Montana, is trying to save debt-ridden ranchers by helping them harvest dinosaur bones. Tourists can hunt for bones on private land, accompanied by a guide, and will receive a finder’s fee for any specimens they manage to track down. Dinosaur Discoveries will sell the fossils and share halfContinue reading "Ancient Apples"