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Entreprenuer Spotlight: Backyard Farming

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Every new trend sparks entrepreneurial ingenuity. Rising food prices, tainted food from China, and a growing realization among the public that transporting food thousands of miles contributes to global warming, are all leading to a renewed move to eat locally produced food. Backyard gardeners are growing in numbers and urban gardens are increasingly popular. Although many people want to grow their own food, they don’t have time to weed, compost, and harvest. That’s where the entrepreneurs come in. One of the first businesses of its kind, San-Francisco-based MyFarm helps people create a "secure, sustainable food system." MyFarm will install a small backyard organic garden and do all the chores, with services ranging from $600-$1000. After they create your garden, they show up every week to weed. They’ll even leave a box of vegetables at your door. Customers can keep the whole crop or share it with members of MyFarm’s CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). The crops can also be shared with local chefs, who integrate the products into their menus. A similar service based in Portland, Oregon, Your Backyard Farmer, began in 2006. It also offers individualized organic gardening services, intended to help customers start and maintain their own gardens. The […]

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350 Campaign: Global Warming’s Number

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The world must lower its carbon emissions to 350 parts per million (ppm). We’re at about 450 ppm now. By Amanda Peterka Skier Bode Miller is wearing the bright-green sweatband. Cyclist Adam Craig sports one. Surfers, speed skaters and hockey players have picked up on the trend. And if Andrew Gardner reaches his goal, exactly 350 world-famous athletes will soon be wearing the eye-catching color. Each wristband bears the number 350, the same as Gardner’s goal. And he wants it all to be done by December 24, 2008, 350 days before the United Nations convention in Copenhagen. The number represents the parts per million (ppm) of carbon emissions that climate scientist Dr. James Hansen says we have to return to in order to sustain life on Earth as we know it. It’s also the name of the umbrella campaign that Gardner’s work falls under-a worldwide network of people and climate change organizations committed to following Hansen’s advice. "The culture of athleticism is imitation and idolizing, and we’re hoping to take that network of people and turn them into folks who are spreading the word about 350," Gardner says. Gardner, a Nordic skier and environmentalist, is also friends with Bill McKibben, […]

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Weekly Clean Energy Roundup: November 12, 2008

DOE to Offer $25 Billion in Loans for Advanced Vehicles Missouri Voters Approve a Renewable Energy Requirement California Voters Approve Funding for High-Speed Rail System Boulder Voters Follow Berkeley with Clean Energy Financing California Approves $1 Billion for Low-Income Energy Efficiency Slumping Carbon Allowance Prices May Stymie Market Growth DOE to Offer $25 Billion in Loans for Advanced Vehicles DOE issued an Interim Final Rule last week for the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program, which will distribute up to $25 billion in direct loans to automakers and component manufacturers. The loans will help those manufacturers establish new U.S. manufacturing facilities or re-equip or expand existing ones within the U.S. for the production of advanced technology vehicles and the components for such vehicles. To expedite the loans, the rule will become effective as soon as it is published in the Federal Register, but DOE will also accept comments on the rule for 30 days after its publication. The loan program was authorized by section 136 of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, which President Bush signed into law in December 2007. To qualify for the loan, the vehicles being manufactured must meet tough emissions standards while achieving a […]

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