Young farmers: An emerging social movement

A new farming movement is afoot.

Steeped in years of talk around college campuses and in stylish urban enclaves about the evils of factory farms (see the E. coli spinach outbreaks), the perils of relying on petroleum to deliver food over long distances (see global warming) and the beauty of greenmarkets (see the four-times-weekly locavore cornucopia in Union Square), some young urbanites are starting to put their muscles where their pro-environment, antiglobalization mouths are. They are creating small-scale farms near urban areas hungry for quality produce and willing to pay a premium.

Leaving Behind the Trucker Hat

Worlds smallest car

This is cute and funny :)



For more fun, watch this.



Jeremy Clarkson Test-Drives World's Smallest Car (via Treehugger)

Subaru Tests R1e Electric Car in New York City, Previews G4e

Subaru will test its R1e electric vehicle in New York City this summer. It will provide two R1e electric cars to the New York Power Authority (NYPA)...

The R1e is a small two-seater city car (50 miles range, 65 mph top speed). We're guessing Subaru's using it mostly as a learning platform; its first mainstream electric car will probably be based on the G4e concept, a hatchback very similar to Nissan's Versa that will have a longer range (124 miles/200 km) and carry 5 passengers.

Subaru Tests R1e Electric Car in New York City, Previews G4e (via Treehugger)

REGREEN: Remodeling Guidelines to Re-Green Your Interior Design

Interesting new initiative to set guidelines for remodeling, similar to LEED certification for new building construction. A set of guidelines are available as a PDF download from the REGREEN website.

Last week, at its annual conference in New Orleans, the American Society of Interior Designers released REGREEN, its set of guidelines for home remodeling with a shade of green.

In contrast with LEED, which scores and certifies green buildings, REGREEN is a set of guidelines, designed to give homeowners and interior design and buildings professionals the background and resources to evaluate green products and energy systems in the systems-based context of how an entire home operates.

REGREEN: Remodeling Guidelines to Re-Green Your Interior Design (via Treehugger)

Volkswagen Turbo Diesel-Electric Hybrid Golf

I wonder if we'll see this car in the US.

"Fuel economy is still rated at 3.4 L/100km, or 69 miles per US gallon, or 83 miles per imperial gallons. CO2 emissions are pretty low at 89 g/km. In comparison, the Toyota Prius hybrid emits 104 g/km of CO2, though emissions of NOx and particulate matter are lower than the Tier 2 Bin 5 Golf diesel-electric hybrid."

More Details: Volkswagen Turbo Diesel-Electric Hybrid Golf : TreeHugger

Pushing Paper Out the Door

"Some people are happy to throw away their past. Not me,” says Brad Templeton, who has founded an Internet newspaper and a software company and is the chairman of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “I’m a digital pack rat. I have phone bills from 1983 and taxes from the 1990s. But I have everything scanned, so it takes up no physical space. For me, scanners provide the magic of still having all my documents without the clutter."

Pushing Paper Out the Door - New York Times

The "Work From Home" Generation

The Good and the Bad of working from home, besides the obvious benefit of saving on fuel and energy cost associated with commuting back and forth to work.

"With the invention of modern laptops, ubiqity of broadband Internet access, and advances in communication software, there is no longer a need to be in the office. At least not everyday. Thousands of companies are rolling out work from home policies and hundreds of thousands of people are starting to take advantage of them. What are the pros and cons of working from home?"

The "Work From Home" Generation - ReadWriteWeb