EcoHearth: Come Home to the Earth

Despite all the advancements in agricultural technolgy, there has been a movement toward the traditional practice of gardening with heirloom seeds. An heirloom garden eschews modern technology in hybrid plant varieties and genetic engineering for the simple practice of saving seeds from desirable plants for use the next year. It tries to reclaim some of what has been lost in man’s attempts to optimize crops for large-scale agriculture, and provides an opportunity to preserve the genetic diversity of plants from the threat of monoculture. Read on…

Would you eat a plant that had a gene from a bacteria added to it? Would you favor advancements in agriculture that could help relieve world hunger and save millions of lives? These are two of the extreme sides of the debate over the use of GE seeds, considered by proponents as part of the “Green Revolution" capable of boundless benefits, and by detractors as “Frankenfoods” with potential catestrophic consequences. Read on…

It’s harvest season. Time to stock up at the farmers’ market or home garden, then can some fall produce for the long, cold winter. Without canning or freezing, in most climates you’ll find it nearly impossible to keep your carbon footprint low by eating locally throughout the year. Even if it weren’t environmentally important, canned tomatoes and vegetables are a wonderful taste treat—and reminder of summer—all year round. Read on…

Swine flu, bird flu and BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy, widely known as mad-cow disease) are the most well-known plagues caused by factory farming and poor animal welfare—there are others. And because illnesses spread quickly between animals reared in tight spaces on cannibalistic diets, it’s only a matter of time before other such viruses mutate into strains that can infect humans working on or living near factory farms—and then spread to the rest of us. Read on…

Traffic, smog, pollution, haze... whatever the cause, the effect is lower air quality in cities across the world. While there are different ways to tackle this problem, researcher Kamal Meattle has come up with a novel solution–to grow your own fresh air. At a recent TED Conference, Mr. Meattle made an enlightening presentation on how you can transform an indoor space into a living one.

According to Mr. Meattle’s research conducted in Delhi over a period of 15 years, it takes three types of plants to vastly improve the quality of indoor air. The study was conducted on a 20 year old, 50,000 square feet building which houses 300 occupants and 1,200 plants. The three plants that Mr. Meattle recommends are the Areca Plant, Mother-in-law’s Tongue and the Money Plant. Read on…