Is your supermarket produce traditional, organic, or genetically modified?

Ever see those digits on food produce? Well they actually represent the produce and whether it was grown organically, genetically modified, or traditionally.

Wikipedia:
"The code is usually a four-digit number, currently in the 3000–4999 range, identifying the type of bulk produce, including the variety. A fifth digit may be prefixed to the number to indicate if the produce is organic (prefixed by a '9') or genetically modified (prefixed by an '8')"

This means the specif code for the produce will either look like one of these three: XXXX, 8XXXX, or 9XXXX.

Let's take the Fiji Apple: if the apple says 4131 its traditional, 94131 its organic, and 84131 it's genetically modified.

Now, whether genetically modified food is actually harmful in anyway is still largely up for debate.

Burning Plastic

Let's burn plastic.

Plastics are necessary for agriculture, yet "used" plastics fill our dumps and pristine wilderness.  What should we do with the leftover plastics we use?  We can recycle some, but Penn State Extension is learning about how we can responsibly burn it.

Take a look at this slideshow:  Penn State Extension Plastic Fuel
By heating the furnace up to 1100 degrees centigrade, the compressed plastics burn clean.

As the project suggests though, a desire by communities to legalize this resource must come first before implementation.  Let me know if your community has made any progress on burning plastics!

Biochar: a partner to compost

Take a look at what could be the future of growing food.

Few people know how difficult it is to grow food in rainforests.  All that biodiversity on the surface is based on topsoil that is very thin.  How thin?  2 inches, and that disappears after 2 years of "slash and burn" growing.

So how did civilization spring up in the amazon? Biochar.  Excess wood, animal bones, and manure was burned in covered "kilns" that converted into a specific charcoal, biochar.

Today it is becoming much easier and sustainable to produce biochar from simple things like excess wooden building materials that would normally head to the dumpster.

How does it work in growing food?  Biochar sequesters carbon (helping lower carbon emissions), and is a porous structure (like a pumice stone) that allows for a lot more water and nutrients to become lodged in the charcoal, preventing it from being washed away.

So make sure to add some water and compost to the biochar so it can become enriched, then set it in your soil to boost your yield!

Philadelphia

Copyright "The Mind's Eye Photography"

This blog concerns three things. I communicate "smart growth" principles for Philadelphia's urban/regional development.  I advocate an ecological and ownership perspective within local and greater Philadelphia economies.  I relay household/community projects promoting the ambiguous concept of "sustainable design."