Wheeler farm farmers market

“We’re really setting out to develop the eastern part of our state into a produce hub for the U.S.–taking a portion of our state that prided itself on powering the country in the coal industry and pivoting to being a leader in sustainable agriculture,” says Jonathan Webb, founder and CEO of AppHarvest, the agricultural startup that recently closed an $82 million deal to build the greenhouse. … [Read more...] about This startup is going to put one of the world’s largest sustainable greenhouses in coal country

A new project from the global design firm Stantec looks at how ancient forests and other ecosystems could come back, through “rewilding,” if we produce food differently. Raising cattle, for example, takes up vast swaths of land for grazing or growing cattle feed. (In the U.S., pasture occupies around a third of the lower 48 states; these maps illustrate just how much of the country is used for grazing.) But as plant-based burgers and bioreactor-grown dairy continue to become more common, and eventually cheaper and tastier than the versions from animals, it could make more space available for forests to return. Similarly, indoor agriculture is more efficient than traditional farming and so could help free up space. … [Read more...] about Why we need to “rewild” our environment

Trees can play a key role in capturing carbon at scale—by one estimate, nearly a trillion hectares of land could feasibly be reforested, and those trees could potentially store more than 200 gigatons of carbon. But efforts at reforestation are moving too slowly. “Essentially, we need to scale the solution in about 10 years, so that there is time for the forest to mature and become a carbon sink of reasonable size to meet various nations’ commitments to be net zero around 2040 or 2050,” says Yishan Wong, CEO of the Hawaii-based startup, called Terraformation. … [Read more...] about Reddit’s former CEO is now in the forest-planting business

Still, there hasn’t been a lot of research about resale’s impact on the planet and whether it’s actually making a dent in fashion’s enormous environmental footprint. It’s certainly true that manufacturing new clothes involves extracting raw materials, which spews a lot of carbon into the atmosphere and accelerates climate change. Meanwhile no new resources are used when you buy a secondhand piece. So if you buy a used garment instead of a new one, that purchase is more environmentally friend on its face. … [Read more...] about Poshmark’s explosive IPO bodes well for the resale industry, but how sustainable is secondhand?