Wendy Gordon

Asparagus, dandelion greens, rhubarb. It's late April and this is what's in season near me. How do I know this?

As is increasingly the case, there is an app for that. No, it's not Siri. It's called NRDC Eat Local and after downloading it for free, in just...

Their mothers must be proud. The idea for their ingenious new packaging material, made from mycelium -- the hidden roots of mushrooms -- came from the fungus growing under their dorm room beds.

True, it was growing there on purpose, for a class assignment at Rensselaer Polytechnical Institute, but...

It's well known that poor diet and physical inactivity are the main contributors to obesity -- an epidemic which afflicts 17 percent of America's children. But why would the rate be higher -- closer to 25 percent according to a new study conducted by the Columbia University Center for...

My husband and I tend a garden in the western Catskills. The late springs and early falls common to our mountain valley have meant typically short but productive growing seasons, but the new norm seems to be longer by a good month or more. These changes to the growing season...

It's as thin as a slice of Wonder bread, but The Prince's Speech: On The Future of Food, is "by any measure, remarkable." Or that's how Wendell Berry, in his foreword to this new pocket-sized Rodale publication of the text, describes the speech HRH The Prince of Wales delivered at...

The California Assembly did not pass the Consumer Right To Know Act, AB 88, introduced by Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) and put to a vote earlier this month. This is too bad. It would have meant that food is "misbranded" if it is a genetically engineered...

When it comes to cars, my husband and I won't trade on safety.

Don't get me wrong. I'm all for the Obama administration’s proposed 54.5 miles-per-gallon carbon pollution and fuel efficiency standards for cars and light trucks. And who doesn't feel a real sense of American pride to...

Forty-five can be a sizeable number. Especially when it's the number of gallons of sweet beverages the average American consumes in one year. This jolting news was reported in a new study published in the January 2012 issue of Health Affairs.

How much sugar comes with all that? About...

"When I grow up I am going to be a little old lady in tennis shoes," Mary Catherine Bateson, the septuagenarian writer and cultural anthropologist, told the audience at the TEDx Women conference held in New York City near the end of 2011. To the room full...

Thanks to President George W. Bush and his brilliant idea to sign into law in 2007 a federal energy bill establishing energy-efficiency standards for light bulbs, inventiveness in the lighting sector has been unleashed and manufacturers are on fire with excitement about all the new products they're bringing...

"It was a converted carriage house," says Jane Cameron of the home in Hastings, New York, where she and her husband, Jamie, raised their family. Seven thousand square feet on two acres of land, the open-style house had five bedrooms, two and a half baths, and a loft-turned-rumpus-room that was...

My nephew's wife had signed on for the midnight-to-7 a.m. shift at the Old Navy in a New Jersey suburb. My niece was on duty all day at J. Crew’s flagship store in Manhattan’s Flatiron District. I wished them both multiple sales and sizable commissions. But otherwise my plan this...

"If you are an environmentalist, why do you eat meat?" I get asked this a lot, often around Thanksgiving when of course the traditional meal contains a giant turkey with meat enough for days of sandwiches, casseroles, and pot pies.

It's tough enough being an environmentalist, but if you...

Everyday was Halloween for my kids. Well, not the candy collecting, but dressing up in costumes was a part of their everyday play from the time they could talk. My oldest was a fireman and wore red for about a year before deciding he was a cowboy, which yes, meant...

"The people I meet just don't get it," Gray is Green's Kath Schomaker says of her conversations at faith communities and senior centers about the attacks on environmental safeguards. "'Why would anyone be against clean air?' they ask."

"This is the most anti-environment House in history," said Rep. Waxman (D-CA)...

Does it matter if the chicken you buy for your family is from a farm that uses low doses of antibiotics in the feed? Consider this: Premier Healthcare Alliance recently contracted with Murray's Chicken of South Fallsburg, New York, to provide affordably priced Certified Humane Raised and Handled...

"The interstate signs read 'Smog Alert: Bundle your Errands' and 'Smog Alert: Fill up after 8 PM,'" Kath Schomaker, outreach coordinator for Gray is Green, told those gathered at the coffee shop in the Northside Neighborhood of Cincinnati on a warm Saturday morning in August. She was there to talk...

Bob and Irene were farmers in upstate New York. To me, they weren't hurricanes -- they were dear family friends. Actually they sold their farm to my husband in the late '70s, and in the years to follow Bob helped take care of things, right up until his death.

"It's why I do what I do," says Kath Schomaker, outreach director for Gray Is Green, as she sets off on a trip this week and next to several midwestern states to meet and talk with seniors about the Clean Air Promise Campaign. "I may be nearing retirement,...

In what country is it legal for deadly salmonella to be in your food? Um, well, there may be others, but I am sure of only one, the United States.

Bad joke, right? No, deadly serious. "In strict legal terms," Maryn McKenna, author of Superbug, explained here, "there may...