Restaurant Grease Highly Coveted!

Caption: Spent fryer grease (R) is refined into biofuel (L)

With gas prices at record highs, peaking above $4.00 / gallon, people are eager for less expensive alternatives. Necessity is the mother of invention, right?

In the last few months, necessity has helped transform spent deep fat fryer grease from a waste product that business owners had to pay to dispose of into a coveted commodity that is being used as biodiesel to fuel vehicles.

Read the full story HERE or here: http://tinyurl.com/5m92zc


Healthy & Active Communities!
Walkable / Bikeable communities allow residents to be far less dependent on their cars, save money, build sense of community, support a vibrant local economy, and improve the health of residents from cradle to cane. Necessity IS the mother of invention. Fortunately, we don't have to invent good community planning, we just need to practice principles of community design that were critical before cheap oil allowed us to build cities and regions that sprawl out unnecessarily.

In the upcoming posts, we'll focus on some steps that municipalities and regions can take to ensure walkable / bikeable community design. A couple of our past posts have also touched on this topic:


Improving Street Design Standards: Click HERE

Planning for Multi-Modal Transportation: Click HERE

Is Organic Produce Healthier to Eat?

Caption: A participant in Trailnet/KDHX/Urban Stuio's "Adventures in Media Programs" holds up carrots organically grown at New Roots Urban Farm in North St. Louis, Summer 2007

We know that organic agriculture is better for the environment: less chemicals in our soils and our streams, but is it better for our health?

A recent study by folks at the University of California, Davis has found that the answer to this question may very well be YES:

"So far, the researchers have found that the organic tomatoes have almost double the concentration of two types of flavonoids — quercetin and kaempferol — which are considered to be healthful plant compounds with potent antioxidant activity. The 10-year mean levels of quercetin were 79 percent higher than those in conventional tomatoes, and levels of kaempferol were 97 percent higher."

Click HERE for the full NPR story. If that doesn't work, try this:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90914182

Why Does a Salad Cost More than a Big Mac?

We realize that the answer to this question isn't simple. Surely it involves costs of production, processing, packaging, and shipping. Supply and demand. Global markets. Numbers, numbers and more numbers.

Nonetheless, this graphic helps shed a little bit of light on the disparity between what our federal government recommends we eat and what they subsidize. Subsidies result in lower production costs on the front end, which translates to lower consumer costs in the supermarket aisles.

In short, the Federal Nutrition Recommendations suggest that 33% of our daily servings are vegetables and fruits. Yet, less than half of 1% of Federal Subsidies for Food Production support vegetables and fruit. On the flip side, the recommendations suggest consuming only 22% of our daily serving from meats, dairy, nuts, and legumes. Yet, these foods receive a full 75% of food subsidies.

Movie: KING CORN

Go rent this movie! It's funny, enlightening, and an excellent use of 2 hours of your life. Check out the Trailer below: