Snow melt from the snow pack in the Sierra Nevada mountain range provides drinking water to about 30% of California's residents, irrigates key crops in the San Joaquin valley, and runs hydroelectric power plants that supply at least 15% of the state's electricity. Scientists Martha Conklin and Tom Harmon of the University of California, Merced are conducting research at the Southern Sierra Critical Zone Observatory, using wireless sensor technology to more accurately measure snow pack and snow melt so that state water managers can make better decisions on how to allocate this precious resource. Published on Jul 12, 2013

Part of the earth's largest surface freshwater system, Lake Erie is a vital source of drinking water for 11 million people. Researchers Anna Michalak, Tom Bridgeman, and Pete Richards are studying how farming practices and severe weather can increase the amount of fertilizer-derived nutrients in the water, which diminishes water quality and threatens the lake's ecosystem and the public's health.

Published on Jul 12, 2013

Kansas farmers Stan  Townsend and Mitchell Baalman and others that sit atop the Ogallala aquifer -- the largest freshwater aquifer in North America -- are pumping out water for crop irrigation far faster than natural seepage of rainwater can replenish it. Scientist David Hyndman from Michigan State University is helping develop a plan to better manage this vital resource for sustainable farming.

Published on Jul 12, 2013

Daniel Beltra gives us insight to his experience documenting the Gulf oil spill and his motivation for continuing his efforts to capture our changing environment. Uploaded on Aug 4, 2010. His interview on "ICE" is here.

Short listed for the Prix Pictet, The global award in photography and sustainability for his series, Spill.

Thierry Vrain retired 10 years ago after a long career as a soil biologist and ended head of a department of molecular biology running his own research program to engineer nematode resistance genes in crops. In his retirement career as a gardener he learned five or six years ago how the soil ecosystem really functions. He finds himself with a good knowledge of genetic engineering technologies surrounded by people in fear of being hurt by the food they eat. He found that he cannot ignore them anymore and has joined the campaign to educate consumers about the potential health problems reported in the recent scientific literature. Published on Jun 7, 2013 More information here.

Now in his third year with the Vineyards at Chateau Hough, Mansfield Frazier has just received angel funding to kick off his next urban agriculture project, the BioCellar at Chateau Hough.

Remove the shell of any of the 15,000 abandoned homes in Cleveland that are beyond repair, and build a greenhouse over top, leaving the basement under the frost line, where mushrooms, selling for $12 a pound, can be grown in a hi-tech BioCellar to grow crops, create jobs and reuse the land, for a triple net bottom line.

This testimony shows how, by saving and exchanging his seeds, a small farmer in El Salvador preserves biodiversity and contributes to fighting hunger. Communities of Bajo Lempa in El Salvador declared in 2013 their intention to focus on agroecology including protecting local seeds, defending the soil and preserving water sources.Published on Jun 7, 2013

Democracy Now for today, May 20th reports on the hundreds of farmworkers and their supporters who are in New York City ahead of Wendy's shareholder meeting to ask for improved working conditions for those who pick its tomatoes in the Fair Food campaign organized by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. CIW farmworker and organizer, Gerardo Reyes-Chavez talks about the campaign.  So far McDonald's, Subway, Burger King and Taco Bell have all joined the White House-recognized Social Responsibility Program, agreeing to pay an extra penny per pound of tomatoes to raise wages and only buy from fields where workers' rights are respected.

Business and Human Rights, Corporate Social Responsibility

The fifteen-day, 200-mile March for Rights, Respect, and Fair Food came to a loud, colorful, and jubilant end on Sunday, March 17th outside Publix corporate headquarters in Lakeland, Florida.