Changing Habits, Not Just Diets


With rates of obesity and diabetes at epidemic levels, you’d think it would be enough to simply tell people what they need to do. But the messages about how to eat healthfully — buy local, eat seasonally, shun industrial meat — can be overwhelming and unrealistic for both low-income and time-stressed, middle-class families. Moreover, much of today’s dietary advice ignores a fundamental truth: Most Americans seek out fast and processed foods, not for the price, but for the convenience and the taste. A recent study in the journal Population Health Management revealed that households earning $60,000 a year ate the most fast food. Households bringing in $80,000 were actually more likely to “have it their way” than those with $30,000.

Until now, mainstream “solutions” to the obesity crisis, and to the broader problem of how to forge a healthier American diet, have focused on making fresh food more affordable and accessible. But as I saw last year while reporting a book on what people eat, and why they eat it, in Huntington, W.Va., many Americans dohave access to, and can afford, better food. They just choose not to eat it. Or rather, they choose not to take the time to shop for it, to plan and cook their meals, when they can hit the drive-through or have a pizza delivered or pop a Stouffer’s entrée into the microwave.

Does this mean the battle is lost? On the contrary. A new and growing group of studies point to a third way to persuade Americans to make small but essential changes to their diets and lifestyles. Based on behavior-change theories — a kind of grassroots behavioral economics for public health — these strategies address a range of personal, cultural and environmental factors that affect what people eat. America on the Move, a Denver-based nonprofit, has shown that if overweight and obese people add 2,000 extra steps to their daily routine or cut out 100 calories a day, they can effectively prevent weight gain. In Kentucky, a program called Healthy, Well-Thee and Wise is tracking its multiyear effort to help Appalachian women make realistic changes, such as baking their pork chops instead of frying them, that lead to healthier lifestyles.

More from NYT HERE. 

World’s largest rooftop farm to open in Brooklyn

A rendering of the BrightFarms rooftop garden

The world’s largest rooftop garden will debut in Brooklyn early next year, the New York Post reported. Manhattan-based BrightFarms is set to announce a deal today to create a 100,000-square-foot commercial greenhouse on top of the eight-story Liberty View Industrial Plaza, a city-owned property, on Third Avenue in Sunset Park.

BrightFarms will use the space to grow 1 million pounds of organic produce on an annual basis, according to the Post.

“Here in New York, we don’t have acres and acres of unused land to grow fresh food,” said Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, “but Brooklyn’s got plenty of industrial buildings with unused roofs that are perfect for urban farming.”

BrightFarms adds to the borough’s rooftop-gardening trend. As previously reported,Brooklyn Grange, a commercial organic farm, will soon open a 45,000-square-foot rooftop in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. According to the Post, that garden will open in mid-May. [Post]

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Seeing Packaging as More Than a Throwaway

Companies Pick Up Used Packaging, and Recycling’s Cost

While government requirements for recycling remain limited, pressure from environmentally minded consumers and the cost advantages of reusing materials are bringing change.

Note: It is (finally) the consumer who is driving companies to put in place end-of-life plans for plastics. This is a good thing. 

More HERE. From The New York Times. 

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Source: The New York Times

To Understand Our Energy Future, Look To The Past




“I’d put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don’t have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that.”

“Anything that won’t sell, I don’t want to invent. Its sale is proof of utility, and utility is success.”

These might sound like quotes from individuals with opposing points of view, but they’re not. In fact, they were both uttered by the same person: Thomas Edison, father of the modern electric light bulb.

Edison embodied two things that tend to be lost in today’s discussion of energy dependence and new energy technologies: he was open to proactive change (even if it superceded his own inventions) and obsessed with practicality.

More HERE (article written with co-sponsor GE btw). 



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A USDA Economic Research Service report predicts vegetable prices to be at lower levels than last year. Increased supplies and slow demand growth are cited as reasons for lower prices. The report, published last week, predicts strong supplies of vegetables despite an early-year freeze in Florida. Because most production was centered in the state’s southern regions during the freeze, vegetable supplies weren’t significantly affected. Prices for most vegetables in 2012 were down by as much as 50% compared to prices in early 2011. The two crops with the greatest dip were tomatoes and iceberg lettuce, with both experiencing 57% drops in price compared to 2011. The price index for all vegetables was reported to be down 40% for the first quarter of 2012 compared to the first quarter of 2011. Follow on Twitter @Gardenupnow // ]]]]>]]>
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A USDA Economic Research Service report predicts vegetable prices to be at lower levels than last year. Increased supplies and slow demand growth are cited as reasons for lower prices.
The report, published last week, predicts strong supplies of vegetables despite an early-year freeze in Florida. Because most production was centered in the state’s southern regions during the freeze, vegetable supplies weren’t significantly affected.
Prices for most vegetables in 2012 were down by as much as 50% compared to prices in early 2011. The two crops with the greatest dip were tomatoes and iceberg lettuce, with both experiencing 57% drops in price compared to 2011. The price index for all vegetables was reported to be down 40% for the first quarter of 2012 compared to the first quarter of 2011.

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…an urban farmer at work! River Park Farm, Manhattan. 

Stop Ticks - CDC Suggestions

I’ve had ‘em on me. Ticks. Big ones. Little ones. Have pulled countless of ‘em off dogs and cats. And friends. Just thinking about them makes me itch. lol

When you’re outside this spring and summer, prevent tick bites and reduce your risk of tick-borne disease by following these tips.


More HERE. 




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US: Sound barrier key to salad safety

How much “abuse” can commercial lettuce actually take?!

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It is has long been the wish of the salad industry to find a way to ensure perfect sanitisation of related produce. Since 2006, and a particularly virulent E.coli outbreak the hunt has been on for methods by which food safety standards can be improved. 

The outbreak did, after all, cost the fresh salads industry and eye watering $350 million in lost sales and product recalls. 

Since then heralded advances have always focused on the use of chlorine washes or testing technology, which leaves the organic sector with little recourse to food safety actions. 

As a result of this Earthbound Farm teamed up with the Institute for Food Safety and Health (IFSH) at the Illinois Institute of Technology to look for solutions outside the bag. One of the promising directions of research uncovered so far is a little surprising - high power ultrasound. 

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