PRE-19TH CENTURY Eli Whitney (December 1765 – January 1825) In 1794 US born inventor Whitney patented the cotton gin which revolutionized cotton production by dramatically increasing the speed of seed removal from the fiber. This was accomplished by running the cotton through a wooden drum fitted with a number of hooks that caught the fibers and …
kill-it-and-eat-it locavores give cities indigestion
This article describes how urban farmers who chose to slaughter their own meat are facing new regulations and even bans on home butchering. This is coming after many residents filed complaints that home slaughtering is inhumane and that there are no animal welfare standards in effect. Officials have acknowledged that a growth in urban farming …
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the social basis of agro-environmental concern: physical versus social proximity
This article attempts to answer the questions, “Is environmental concern widely diffused throughout society or is it more strongly expressed by particular sub-populations? How has concern changed over time?” This was accomplished by studying the attitudes about agriculture and the environment in relation to an individual’s geographic and social distance from agriculture. They began by …
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the influence of social involvment, neighborhood aesthetics, and community garden participation on fruit and vegetable conspumption
“I feel like I’m a co-creator in the world with my garden, helping bring forth life, nurturance. It nurtures me as much as I nurture it. And it gives me hope.” The objective of this article was to examine the relationship between the fruit and vegetable consumption by urban adults and several selected social and …
review and analysis of of the benefits, purposes and motivations associated with community gardens in the united states
“The varied purposes and benefits of community gardening make it an ideal interventional strategy for community-based practitioners because myriad goals may be addressed through this approach.” Community gardening emerged in the United States in the 1890s as, “a means to address urban congestion caused by immigration, economic instability and environmental degradation”. Immigrants, children and the …
bringing good food to others: investigating the subjects of alternative food practices
“Watsonville is a largely Latino community, where many farm workers live – and several students […] have gone there with the intention of teaching Latino youth how to grow food, apparently with nary a trace of irony shown.” Julie Guthman, a professor at the University of California at Santa Cruz in the Department of Community …
book review: everything i want to do is illegal by joel salatin
Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal is a satirical, yet very serious first-hand account of how government regulations affect small-scale farmers. The author, Joel Salatin, full-time ecological farmer, part-time public speaker and educational leader, details various encounters he and those like him have had with the food police, politicians, industrial farmers, customers, regulating agencies, …
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ECOSYSTEMS UNITED 