Visions of the Future

allwicked:

Me gustaria ser un duende y vivir en una de estas C:

(via ailesdecire)

unconsumption:

Pictured: pRecycle, a human-powered, aluminum can crushing machine designed by a group of industrial design students at the University of Louisiana Lafayette. Ben Bush, their professor, [provides] an explanation of how Louisiana’s local culture has informed the project.

Core77: Tell us about “pRecycling,” and the impetus behind the pRecycle.
Ben Bush: “pREcycling” is a term that we use to describe the sorting of recyclables before they are sent to a reclaiming facility. We have been seeking ways to recycle aluminum, plastics, and in the future paper. Food and drink contamination along with improper sorting are a few of our biggest issues. Special vessels and the can crusher are our latest rendtion of “pREcycling efforts.”

The initial driving force behind “pREcycling” was to create a business venture out of recycling. Louisiana has a giant festival culture and for good reason—it’s the best food in the world! Louisiana has more than 400 festivals a year, [with most involving] food or drink. A local business owner heavily encouraged us to create concepts that would be more proficient for recycling at festivals.

Essentially, if we can get patrons to sort their goods, we won’t have to send a conglomerate of recyclables to a sorting facility. Most cities like Lafayette and New Orleans send their recyclables to Baton Rouge for processing. Baton Rouge is an hour from both Lafayette and New Orleans and we know that keeping the service local would have less impact on the environment.

 More: Feedback Friday: ID Professor Ben Bush on the pRecycle - Core77

lustik:

MONSTRUM via BLDGWLF and Ce que j’ai dans le ventre

(via jmek)

smarterplanet:

VertiCrop Processes 10,000 Plants Every 3 Days Using Vertical Hydroponic Farming

forget outdoor farming people, this is the future!!! skyscraper farms is the way to go…controlled environments, no heat, no cold, no bugs, no sprays!!!

Vertical farming is one of the most innovative solutions for lowering the amount of energy, space, and water needed to grow food, but Valcent Products has taken the practice to a whole new level with their revolutionary VertiCrop technology. By applying Henry Ford’s super-efficient assembly line concept to vertical hydroponic farming, the Vancouver-based firm can produce the same amount of produce on a standard sized residential lot that most farmers would be able to grow on a 16-acre plot. Their stacked, mechanized, produce-laden plastic trays are already a hot commodity, with orders coming in from every corner of the globe. Step in for a closer look at how this technology is completely changing the way we grow food.

The VertiCrop system consists of a series of mechanical 123 plastic trays stacked 8 high that can be placed on urban rooftops and other tight spaces. They contain vegetables and herbs that are grown hydroponically with just 8% of the water and 5% of the space required by standard farms. Energy efficient LED lights are on standby to supplement waning natural light when necessary.

VertiCrops are climate controlled and use absolutely no harmful herbicides or pesticides. What’s more, they are incredibly easy to manage. A staff of just 3 people can handle 4,000 square feet of plants and 2,000 square feet of germinating, harvesting, and packing space, and they can process as many as 10,000 plants every 3 days! Valcent’s COO Christopher Ng told the Global Commodities Report, “this is what farming has to develop into.”

via mattmeetstheinternet:  foreverdante:

(via jmek)

motherjones:

For the last two years, Jeffery-James Halvorson, a 33-year-old used-car salesman, has been preparing his property outside Arlee, Montana, for the end of America as we know it. “Progressive taxation has failed,” he says, and when the dollar finally collapses, and the shelves at the Piggly Wiggly sit empty, and the oil companies sell every last drop of sweet American crude to China, people will migrate to the Big Sky en masse—and Halvorson believes his compound, where he lives with his cat, 4 dogs, 9 goats, 18 chickens, and an assault rifle, will be perfectly positioned for a new role as a refugee camp.

Fears of impending societal collapse are nothing new in northwest Montana. But Halvorson’s home is noteworthy for what it has become in the interim: the Orange Acres Dharma Station, a safe house, inspired in part by the television series Lost, where travelers passing through—or looking for work, or sightseeing, or just killing time before their Social Security check comes in—can find a soft bed, a warm shower, and some mini-golf, at no cost for three days. Longer, if they’re willing to put in a little work.

Our reporter spent three months sleeping on total strangers’ couches and lived to tell the story. Meet the “hospitality junkies.”

(via sustainable-sam)

growfoodraisehell:

Occupy Austin Guerrilla Gardeners make one new public garden every week.  Some have been destroyed the city, others remain and are sprouting vegetables.  We have had run ins with park staff who are confounded by our activities and threaten us with police who never show up. 

We do this to make people rethink notions of food, of where it comes from, of who produces it.  We do this to make people rethink the use of space and the concept of property.  We do this to make people rethink the concept of labor versus employment.  We do this so you will do it to.

(via socialuprooting)

sustainable-sam:

I cannot wait for the growing season.