For the past decade there has been an uproar in the vegetable seed business as Monsanto purchased Seminis in 2005, a seed conglomerate that has 40% of the U.S. vegetable seed market. More than 55 …
Chemical Fertilizer Issues
Dark red circles indicate oil spills and gray-shaded areas indicate sea pollution and land pollution from chemical fertilizers. Originally found at …
6 Ways to Fight Anxiety with Diet
We all feel stressed sometimes, but if you suffer from anxiety it can make everything appear stressful. Learn some ways to fight anxiety with diet. Mind Body Green has some numbers for …
The World’s Best Juice Bars
London, Paris, Melbourne, Boise. Wherever you live -- or travel to -- there's bound to be a top-notch juice bar near you. Here is a roundup of the world's best juice bars. World's …
Water Ink Video
To mark World Water Day, Solidaritรฉs International and its agency BDDP Unlimited rolled out a campaign to build awareness of the scourge of undrinkable water. Water ink _ BDDP Unlimited and …
13 Year Old Copies Nature to Improve Solar Performance
Thirteen year old Aidan Dwyerย was walking in the woods in Upstate New York in the winter and noticed a spiral pattern to tree branches. Aidan realized the tree branches and leaves had a mathematical …
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Vegetable Garden Planner Creates a Free Custom Plan
If you're new to gardening, planning your garden can be tricky. Depending on where you live, what you're growing, and the space you're working with, your garden can look very different. A …
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A Practically Waterless Washing Machine
A new washing machine that uses just a cup of water, a pinch of detergent, and about 1,000 small recyclable plastic chips to clean clothes is coming to an appliance store near you, by the end of …
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The Story Of Our Waste
Each day we create an excess of waste that builds up in landfills, in our oceans, and in our bodies. Here is the story of our waste. We create a ton of waste everyday, there is no denying that fact. …
Upcycled Junk Portraits By Zac Freeman
From Zac's website: "I started making assemblage artworks of this type in 1999. The artworks are made entirely out of collected junk, found objects, and general trash. I glue the bits of junk to a …
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How to Ferment Safely: Sanitize Those Jars!
Well-sanitized jars are so important for safe fermentation. Here's how to ferment safely with properly sanitized jars. We love our ferments around here. We are big fans of the …
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Chia Seeds Vs. Flax Seeds: What’s the Difference?
We hear a lot about the benefits of eating seeds. But when it comes to the goodness of chia seeds vs. flax seeds, do you know the differences? I'm learning, and here's what I've discovered. What …
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Vertical Farming
The current 3.3 billion global urban population is expected to grow to 5 billion by 2025. Today our agricultural footprint is the size of South America...what will it be tomorrow? Vertical Farming …
Eating Vegan: 4 Simple Substitutes for Chicken Broth
Does your favorite recipe for soup or beans call for chicken broth? You don't have to give it up to live cruelty-free. Use one of these substitutes for chicken broth instead. So many recipes for …
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Composting Goes Hard Core – in Prison
Because it's so easy to blur the lines between "rehabilitative training" and "forcible slave labor", I'm always hesitant to post articles about putting prison inmates to work. Every once in a while, …
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10 Delicious Vegan Sandwiches for Back to School
Sandwiches might seem like typical, boring packed-lunch fare, but these vegan sandwiches are far from it! We are so excited to kick off our week of Daily Specials here at Insteading! Today's …
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Nikon Small World Competition 2011
Nature abstracted. The 37th annual Nikon Small World competition's theme was โRecognizing Excellence in Photography through the Microscope.โ Some of the outstanding entries: Mosquito …
What, How, and When to Plant Vegetables [Infographic]
Three months ago, I became an urban farmer. Today, our tiny backyard is almost 100% edible โย planted with tomatoes, okra, peppers, cucumbers, yellow squash, swiss chard, eggplants, radishes, green …
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3 Alternatives to Plastic Produce Bags
Are you trying to shop waste-free but aren't sure what to do about produce and bulk items? Here are some alternatives to plastic produce bags! I published a piece on my personal blog this morning …
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Is Coca-Cola Vegan? Yes and No.
The Coca-Cola Company claims that the "vast majority" of their drinks are vegan. Is it true? Is Coca-Cola Vegan? While perusing Coca-Cola's UK website the other day, I came across a page on which …
Broken Coffee Mug Planter (and How to Propagate Rosemary)
My kids are HARD on my coffee mugs, y'all! I don't know if it's because I'm a mean mom and make them do the dishes (don't feel like you have to make your kids do this, too--mine clearly do a …
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8 Vegan Restaurants: Eating vegan Gets Easier Every Day
It used to be tricky to find vegan restaurants, but thanks to vegan chains like these, finding vegan food is getting easier and easier. Whether you're looking for vegan food on a road trip or …
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You Need Chickens: Backyard Chickens and Why They’re Great
Fluffball and Arrow, our two backyard chickens, are pretty much the greatest pets ever. Chickens are easy. As adult chickens, Fluffball and Arrow have their own coop and yard right next to our …
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Apple Juice Is Not Healthy For Kids (Or You)
Apple juice is the quintessential kid's drink, right? It turns out that your child's favorite drink isn't so healthy. I'll be honest here, you guys, when I read a report revealing that apple juice …
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DIY Drip Irrigation System Costs Less than $10!
If youโve ever come home from work and found your lovely garden wilted, this DIY drip irrigation system might be just the thing for you. Best of all, it costs less than $10. There are a lot of drip …
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Processed Food vs. Whole Foods: Where does Tofu Stand?
Since it's October Unprocessed, I thought it would be a good time to look at one of my favorite foods that I think gets a bad rep: tofu. There's a perception that tofu is a highly processed food, but …
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13 George Orwell Quotes Make 2013 Seem Like 1984
There's no doubt about it, we live in a weird time in American history. Consider that our phones are tapped, our conversations are recorded, our purchases are monitored. Heck, even curiosity is …
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How to Get Maggots to Take Over Your Kitchen, On Purpose (w/ video)
In the future, we're going to be eating bugs. I think that's the real message of schmeat and the Eat-a-Bug cookbook. Oh, and that thing, up there. It's called the Farm 432, and it promises to turn …
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Why Did You Think They Were Called “Heirloom Seeds”?
Most of us in the Western world get the majority of our food from the local grocery store. Generally, they are huge buildings that are stocked with an amazing variety of food from across the planet. …
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Blue Green Box Helps Turn Your Aquarium into a Hydroponic Fish Farm (w/ video)
Urban farming, living off the grid, surviving a zombie apocalypse, spaceflight, and Formula 1 racing. Those seemingly unrelated activities do, in fact, have something in common: the people who are …
Skinnygirl Exposed (Again): Not-So Naturally Flavored Vodkas
Bethenny Frankelย recently unveiled four newย Skinnygirlย flavors: Mojito, Sweet โn Tart Grapefruit Margarita, Moscato and White Cherry Vodka. And while all of them sound kind of suspect, I am …
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Top 10 Reasons I Love My Dehydrator!
We met about three years ago, on my birthday. I'd checked out his profile, and knew he was interesting... but I never dreamed how well we'd hit it off! I'll never have a dehydrator-free kitchen again, …
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Spotted: Growing Mushrooms in…a Laundry Basket?
I've used a mushroom-growing kit before and seen folks growing mushrooms in those inoculated logs, but over the weekend I stumbled on a different - and versatile! - way to grow mushrooms: in a laundry …
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Barley vs Brown Rice: The Ultimate Smackdown!
Ever wondered how barley stacks up nutritionally against brown rice? Here's a side-by-side comparison plus some ideas for how to cook barley. The other night, two moths flew out of our uncooked …
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Minimize Food Waste By Storing Food In Your Refrigerator The Right Way
I tossed out a bag of mushy strawberries this evening, damn! Did you know that the average American wastes 40% of the food they purchase?ย Iย haven't measured my own waste, but 40% doesn't seem …
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Soy — Devil-fruit, or Bean? (Hint: Bean)
Detractors frequently demonize the humble soybean. It stands alone in that regard, among its less maligned cousins: no one accuses pinto beans of causing cancer, black beans of causing man-boobs, or …
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Easy Lemon Cucumber Refrigerator Pickles
I love simple and easy recipes for fresh produce, so when I came upon this recipe and method for refrigerator pickles I jumped on the pickle bandwagon. Iโm new to pickling, but my lemon cucumbers are …
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How To Make A Rain Chain
A rain chain isn't just beautiful. Itย can help manage water runoff around the home and help mitigate soil erosion and water pollution caused by water pouring out of your gutters. In this video, DIY …
Best Fruit Trees for Seattle
At my permaculture design course last weekend the guest speaker was Douglas Bullock, of the well-known Bullock Brothers Permaculture Homestead on Orcas Island. Douglas was lecturing on the …
How to Build a Raised Bed with Grass Sod Walls
Pictured Above: Here are our finished raised beds before planting. All together there are 7 beds, all roughly 5' x 9', totalling about 450 sq feet. It's May, and I need to overhaul a large section of …
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Hoop Houses
The earth may be giving, but the winds and the snows often conspire to take away that which the earth gives. So, for thousands of years people have been trying to protect a patch of earth from the …
Environmental Impact of Eating Meat
New United Nation Food and Agriculture report tells us again that eating meat has perhaps the largest negative environmental impact of any human action. And more than half of the world's crops are fed …
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Hunting for Wild Chicken of the Woods Mushrooms
Like the oyster mushrooms I wrote about in my last post, Chicken of the Woods is another great wild mushroom species for beginning foragers. It's relatively easy to identify, and has only a …
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Top Ten Pea Shoot Recipes (In Season Now!)
Like most green leafy vegetables, pea shoots - the young tendrils and leaves of the garden pea plant - are incredibly nutrient-dense. You can start looking for them at farmers markets or Asian markets …
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Eating Vegan: Where do You Get Your Protein?
Second only to "I would die without cheese!" folks ask all the time about where vegans get their protein. For someone accustomed to centering their dinner plate around a piece of animal protein, I …
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Reduce Water Waste by Installing a Rainwater Harvesting System
Got a roof? Get a tank! Harvesting rainwater is a great way to conserve this one of the scarcest natural resources and save your dollars in the bargain. An average family uses about 107,000 gallons …
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