Last week, the world's population passed the 7 billion landmark. With so many mouths to feed (and so very many hungry already), the question becomes: What can the planet handle? Is there enough food for us all, and with the population continuing to grow, what can we do to ensure enough for the generations ahead? More

Busy urban dwellers might feel relegated to a life of commercial supermarkets, but there's a new book out to disprove that assumption. Using personal success stories, charts, grocery lists, recipes and more, The Urban Farm Handbook shows readers how it can be done, even for busy families. More

It's World Food Day—a day that's been missing from our calendars for over 30 years. Help do your part to honor World Food Day, and learn why it's so important to eat locally today with these five reasons to support local farmers. More

If you have chickens in your backyard, may I make a suggestion: put those girls to work! Chickens love to scratch and dig, a habit that is annoying if they get loose in your garden accidentally, but quite handy if you want to prepare your vegetable beds for winter. The hens will eat any plants left in the beds, gently till the soil as they look for insects, and leave little deposits of, um, fertilizer as they work. More

I hear it over and over again, people talking about how they'd eat locally and organic if it wasn't so expensive. Eating organic doesn't mean blowing the budget. We've found a great guide to help you eat green without spending all of your cash. More

Someone recently told me that honeybees are the new chickens for urban farmers. I think it would be awesome if urban bees became more popular, because they help pollinate our vegetable gardens and fruit trees and produce amazing honey. If you are considering getting bees next spring, now is a great time to think about where you will keep them and how you will fit them into your garden and your routine.
More

While colorful chilled cocktails may be the darlings of summer, the damp, blustery nights of fall lend themselves to heady pints of hearty ambers and rich lagers. In celebration of the season, consider turning your next dinner or get together into a tasting party as a fun way to introduce your friends to local microbrews. More

Do you buy locally for your pets? I may be late to the game on this one but I recently added "buying locally produced dog food" to my list of ways I contribute to reducing my carbon footprint. I had been shopping at Petsmart, which I guess is the Wal-Mart/Target of the animal world but recently happened upon a local dog goods store that sold me on a higher quality dog food made locally in Texas. More

In Cuba over 7000 market gardens called organoponicos dot the outskirts of towns and cities. These intensively planted spaces provide most of the country's fresh vegetables. I was lucky enough to visit eight organoponicos in the summer of 2009 and came back filled with ideas on how to incorporate elements of this sustainable agriculture model into my own backyard garden. More

Michael Williams, the stylish proprietor behind the blog A Continuous Lean, compiled a go-list of companies and brands who make their goods in the US, and started a Tumblr blog called F*ck Yeah Made in USA featuring various factory videos. (You know, short films that show the manufacturing process, something many small independent companies are quite proud of.) While Williams' list references a lot of clothing companies, he also cites various US bicycle manufacturers and makers of home objects and accessories. More