News Feeds

AI risk represents the apex of growth mania, where a few tech elites gamble with humanity’s future.

It is hard to believe that fall is upon us. Now that summer is over, I’ve had a chance to dig through some of the photos and spreadsheets I put together after my family’s road trip to B.C. in our electric vehicle (EV) this summer. Our family has...

Last Tuesday, Senator Mitch McConnell returned to Congress after a three-month absence and promptly cast a deciding vote in the Republican-led agricultural committee. Back in August, Democrats on the committee blocked the Senate’s version of the farm bill from progressing to a full vote. 

But even after McConnell’s vote, the way things are going, it’s unlikely that Congress will pass a farm bill this year — which would mark the fourth straight year that lawmakers have failed to renew the nation’s cornerstone of agricultural policy.

The issues that made Democrats oppose the farm bill last month are still there, meaning the path to surviving a vote on the Senate floor remains unclear. With 53 seats, Republicans hold a majority in the chamber, but they need 60 votes to pass a bill — so they would need to sway several Democrats to their side in a relatively short amount of time. Midterms, after all, are in November. 

Democrats mainly oppose the current draft of the bill because it doesn’t reverse cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. Changes to SNAP are typically implemented through the farm bill, which historically was passed every five or so years. However, last summer, President Donald Trump signed into law the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which slashed funding for SNAP by $186 billion. 

Democrats in the Senate agriculture committee have refused to support a farm bill that doesn’t restore SNAP funding; they have also pushed for a delay in a crucial change to SNAP that would increase states’ administrative costs for running the food assistance program. Since the farm bill that advanced out of committee does neither of these things, it remains difficult to see how Senate Democrats would support this package in a floor vote. 

The cuts to SNAP have wide-reaching impacts for millions of low-income families and individuals across the country who rely on it to buy groceries. But it also has implications for the farmers whose customer base includes SNAP benefit users. “The farmers in our network live in rural areas,” said Jody Osmund, a founding member of the FACE Ag Network, a coalition of pasture-based livestock producers. Rural areas, Osmund continued, “have a higher uptake of SNAP participation than urban areas. So it’s hurting our community.” 

Because the Senate farm bill also doesn’t delay a change to the cost-sharing structure of SNAP, states could end up with less funding overall for their own agricultural programs. “States are gonna have to rethink their budgets,” said Mike Lavender, policy director of the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition. “That could mean that states are looking at, ‘Hey, do we fund education at this level or do we fund SNAP? Or do we fund transportation or SNAP?’ So this is forcing really difficult decisions that could impact departments of agriculture at the state level.” 

These kinds of decisions will hit small- and medium-sized farmers much more than large corporate farms, making the financial calculus of growing food even harder at a time of rising input costs and unstable trade markets.

Read Next The fate of the Endangered Species Act rests on 2 simple words Sachi Kitajima Mulkey & Kate Yoder

There is one bright spot in the latest Senate farm bill for many farm groups, and that’s the exclusion of the Save Our Bacon Act, a provision that would have made it easier for livestock producers to employ some of the least humane practices for caging and confining animals on their farms. “It’s encouraging,” said Osmund. 

He and other coalition members flew to Washington, D.C. ahead of the Senate agricultural committee vote and met with lawmakers in hopes of convincing them to oppose the Save Our Bacon Act. Other pieces of the Senate farm bill that are unpopular with certain agricultural groups include cuts to conservation programs like the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, or EQIP, as well as the Conservation Stewardship Program, or CSP. Yet Osmund argues that these conservation programs don’t just suffer from a lack of adequate funding; they need to be redesigned in order to direct the most amount of money possible to the most sustainable farming practices. He’d like to see fewer conservation dollars going toward, for example, managing animal waste on industrial livestock operations and more money going toward climate adaptation on farms. 

Which is why, from Osmund’s point of view, the Senate farm bill’s unlikely path to becoming law might be a good thing. In the absence of bipartisan cooperation to pass this bill before the midterms, many federal agricultural programs will continue to be funded by stopgap measures. “A continuation of the 2018 farm bill may be better,” he argued. “It’s not good. It is not ideal, but no deal on the current versions of the farm bill, in our opinion, is much better than a very, very bad deal.” And no deal this year means Congress will be back to the drawing board in 2027.

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Has the farm bill hit a dead end? on Sep 21, 2026.

In a possibly more than averagely batshit news week, the apocalyptic clusterfuck of clowns "governing" this country just got up to some serious weirdness. As the chief clown waffled on the best way to kill us all - AI, nukes, nukes in space, forever war, hissy fits, agitprop up the wazoo - his lackeys frantically gaslit us with brain-dead pols, high T warriors and drunken sheep fuckers. No wonder Americans are said to be dreading the fall - not autumn, but the fall of democracy and civilization (sic) itself.

With Trump's approval rightly cratering but his faithful flunkies inexplicably urging us to vote like he's on the ballot - umm, okay - he's so far gone he still giddily maintains the deranged fiction we "have the greatest economy in history," we're resplendent in "a Golden Age of America," and he's all good on shamelessly, unconstitutionally banning news outlets he doesn't like - "I don't want them in my (sic) office," aka, "I’ll take 'Something a dictator would say' for $1000, Alex" - because he evidently thinks "repressive" is a compliment, devoutly to be wished. Otherwise, heading into a mid-term election that promises ("Oh please, oh please") to be a GOP rout, he's doing nothing to drag them out of the deepening holes he's dug except flailing and digging more.

Historically, inanely dazzled by nuclear power - see his "irresponsible and dangerous and frankly incompetent" burbling about the "N-word" - he's now touting the option of a shiny new Space Force military "offensive." Never mind America's 1969 moon landing assurance from "Planet Earth," "WE CAME IN PEACE FOR ALL MANKIND"; the one relatively peaceable place in the galaxy, space-weapons free for 18 billion years, now faces possible invasion from "Mister Schlock, Trash Gordeon, Darth Hater, Puke Skyfucker." Or in the pointedly indecipherable jargon of Air Force Secretary Troy Meink, "The United States now has on-orbit space control weapons capable of defending the joint force against hostile adversary action." By more "aliens"?

Back on an increasingly fragile Planet Earth, the same dangers loom amidst an Iran debacle wherein the U.S. is committing war crimes, hiding deaths and shortfalls along with damage to buildings, equipment, vehicles - one active service member: "We’re standing with our eyes closed getting punched in the face" - lying about a vital Strait of Hormuz that remains "a parking lot" and spending up to $2 billion a month despite a third House vote to end the carnage and a defiant Iran insisting it will not reopen the Strait until “the criminal Trump and bloodthirsty Netanyahu” are gone. All as the mad child-king muses publicly about his "big decision coming up. Do I want to go in and annihilate them or do I not? Anything could happen with me."

Hence another equally incoherent whiplash on the hazards of AI: From unhinged denial spewed by the master of "Person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV": the only guardrail needed is "a STRONG AND SMART (high IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S. has that, in spades!" - to tentative hedging - a supposed concept of a plan to create an AI Czar - with the moronic, "Only High I.Q. individuals need apply!” - and an AI Force - like his "tremendous SUCCESS" the largely illusory Space Force - back to a knee-jerk "SICK conspiracy" against AI and data centers like the "many Hoaxes generated by the Radical Left Dumocrats, for purposes of destroying our Country.” When in God's name will he learn: "It ill behooves a man to rave on at length."

Still nursing a long-held grudge against the elites of the arts world, especially the storied family who both embodied it and always outclassed him, he also remains obsessed with slapping his odious name on the Kennedy Center or, now, threatening to tear it down if he can't. George Conway: "To destroy things he can’t possess or control is his essential nature." After multiple losses in court - the most mortifying the forced removal of his name, which rankled so much he's lamely kept the facade covered with a tarp - he persists in arguing the flourishing-until-he-came-along Center is "a mess" that's lost "tens of millions" or maybe "hundreds of billions" and "I’m the one capable of fixing it." Otherwise, "The building is destined to doom (sic)."

Unsurprisingly, an emerging backstory is far seedier. The only thing straining finances is the arts world boycotting him and his own Treasury holding hostage hundreds of millions in funds. After a storm brought down some ceiling plaster, lackeys left it, posted photos - Trump will fix it! - mapped the “debris field” for a 55-page bullshit briefing, and voted to close down. Richard Grenell partly replaced the art collection, including African works honoring JFK, with MAGA "art," some from "the Tony Montana Meets Saddam Hussein Collection," and workers glitzed up Trump's theater boxes. After a judge again refused to restore his name, Trump threw a tantrum and brought in forklifts, prompting the judge to issue an emergency order forbidding any mob-like, midnight demolition.

Meanwhile, he whines - The Federal Reserve is raising interest rates “to make Trump do as bad as they can possibly do” (sic) - threatens - North Carolina may get no more FEMA funding after Helene, "the biggest water hurricane" - propagandizes - the Smithsonian's "Ideological Capture” - and a desperate GOP goose-steps along. Vance lies about immigrants, RFK Jr. blithers about "chemtrails," Melania sneers let them eat flowers, fabulist MAGA Mike, seeking to be raptured, boasts of an uber-productive House "almost unmatched in history." And Mitch 'Weekend at Bernie's - McConnell is outlandishly wheeled out, dead-eyed and smile-plastered, from a months-long stupor to cast a vital "vote." Mother Mary of God, make it stop.

Preening peacock Pete Hegseth, evidently thinking he’s still on TV, ordered commanders to choose only soldiers who meet “impeccable grooming and uniform standards (no exception)” to attend his upcoming “State of the Force” speech; if they’re really cute they may get to join one of his dorky workouts. He also revived testosterone screening for symptoms like low energy and “loss of spontaneous morning erections.” Rex Huppke: “OUR ENEMIES WILL QUAKE AT THE SIGHT OF AMERICA’S BONER WARRIORS!” No wonder Unholy Mike ran away - aka sent the House home early "to explain all the great things we’ve done" - so they couldn't vote on Rep. Thomas Massie's articles of impeachment against Hegseth for "high crimes and misdemeanors."

Finally, there was Kash Patel, lackiest lackey of all, with his "unbelievable" testimony before a Senate hearing on newly lowered standards to work at the FBI. First, Tom Wellborn's background on Patel, a grown, childless man who wrote a kids' trilogy about a wizard named Kash serving a king named Donald; sold Ka$h-branded merch and anti-COVID-vaccine supplements; compiled an enemies list of high-level anti-Trump conspirators; took a government plane to hear his SWAT-team-protected girlfriend sing at a wrestling match; long yelled for release of the Epstein files until he was in power and found nothing to see; likewise ignored ICE abuses, rampant corruption, right-wing extremism while purging the FBI of 1,100-plus "disloyal" agents; and abruptly lowered standards to stop losing candidates to "the rigors of the requirements from yesteryear.”

Last week, Patel defended a new policy that no longer automatically disqualifies people for several offenses: paying for sex, defrauding employers, and bestiality - having sex with animals. In the FBI's universe of moral relativism, now you're all good if you hired a prostitute fewer than three times or over ten years ago; stole from your employer at least three years ago, or did unspeakable things with a sheep, horse, goat, dog etc when you were young and presumably horny. Throughout his testimony - here starting at 5:25 - Patel, who's suing The Atlantic for $250 million for credibly charging he's often drunk on the job, frantically shuffled papers that turned out to be cheat sheets to trash Sen. Dick Durbin, who calls him "the least qualified and most partisan FBI director in U.S. history."

Patel's surreal, wide-eyed, often bellicose testimony on, say, goat-fucking rattled even Louisiana's fake-folksy GOP Sen. John Kennedy, who was trying hard to give him the bizarre benefit of the doubt. After Patel explained the earlier policy "automatically disqualified any individual who participated on either side of it," a confused Kennedy asked, "Which side of what, the bestiality?" Patel: "Yes." Kennedy: "So, you disqualified the animal?" Patel: "We have some great canines - we're not gonna disqualify them. Hang on, I'm trying to explain." Kennedy: "So if Joe participated in bestiality, not as the animal but as the human, don't you think he ought to be disqualified?" Patel: "If he voluntarily did it, sure, but if he was trafficked into it..." Kennedy: But how do you involuntarily do it?" Etc.

Bravely, Kennedy tried to understand Patel's response to what he assumed was an underling's report. "Why would you get into bestiality?" he asked. "When you saw bestiality, I say this with respect...Why didn’t you just say, 'What planet did you parachute in from?'" Smirking, Patel said that was his response until he learned people were often "trafficked (into) these awful heinous acts." Then, he summoned his best impersonation of self-righteousness. "We did not want to punish victims of bestiality," he intoned, with the once-clear word "victim" doing a ludicrous amount of work. "At this FBI, we're not gonna criminalize and prevent victims from serving (America) in the premier law enforcement agency in the world." Maybe it was, before him. Maybe not. Just sayin'.

"This is what unseriousness looks like," noted one observer, "when it finally hits a wall." And when the edict, "Do not obey in advance" matters. Per Tolstoy: "The wicked become even worse when they are tolerated." Friday night, organizers of a protest dubbed "Hands Around the Kennedy Center" hoped for a turnout of 400 to 800 people. They were pleased when about 950 signed up online. Then over 6,400 showed up. The mood was angry, hopeful, defiant. One longtime volunteer said she was ready to "stand in front of the wrecking ball." People formed a human chain around the beloved concert hall a president just closed and called "a dump," relishing what it felt like “to hold hands with somebody you don’t know for something you believe in.” Afterwards, they all sang America the Beautiful.

Culture has a central place as a means of communicating, of creating links between cultures and of struggling.

The post Culture, a universal language for peasant struggles appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.

Intergenerational Report estimates coal and gas output could shrink about 70% by 2050 if emissions are cut in line with Paris target. Climate impacts, though, remain highly uncertain.

The post Intergenerational Report plots fossil fuel decline, rise of electrification, as climate impacts mount appeared first on Renew Economy.

EPBC waves through one of a series of renewable energy projects being built to wean remote WA towns off diesel fuel generation and power them with solar and battery storage. 

The post Local utility gets green light to replace remote town’s diesel and gas power with a solar-battery hybrid appeared first on Renew Economy.

Are “fast, free buses” a pie-in-the-sky New York City campaign promise, or an urgent policy prerogative for cities across America?

Results are still pending on now-mayor Zohran Mamdani’s pledge to free NYC transit riders from gridlock and the farebox. Advocates at the Climate and Community Institute argued last spring, though, that other cities can and should aspire to the same goal — even in an era of sharp federal transit cuts that have only escalated since their report was initially released.

“When we zoomed out from New York — which to many people seems like an outlier in the United States — we started finding so many examples of smaller cities that were implementing these kinds of changes, both to speed buses up and to reduce or eliminate fares,” said John Stehlin, a professor at University of North Carolina, Greensboro and co-author of the report. “Sometimes, [they’re even doing both] at the same time. It seemed like way more of a national story, despite the fact that New York was getting the biggest headlines.”

Why fast and free?

Stehlin notes that transit agencies across the country are already working to speed up routes or zero out the price of a ride — even if most do neither, and few have done both.

On the “fast” side of the equation, Pittsburgh has been building dedicated bus corridors since the 1970s; meanwhile, true bus rapid transit has been operational in places like Los Angeles, Cleveland, and Eugene, Oregon, since the late 2000s. Countless others have explored lower-lift strategies, too, like giving buses first priority at traffic signals.

When it comes to free transit, dozens of cities have gone zero-fare on at least a few of their routes for decades, especially in downtown business districts or tourist areas. Many small communities like ski towns have even stopped collecting cash system-wide — and more could probably afford to, since US transit agencies recovered just 13 percent of their operating expenses on average from ticket sales in 2024.

In some communities like Olympia, Washington, agencies found that enforcing fare collection actually cost them more than the amount their riders were paying.

“A lot of places looked at the cost of collecting fares and found that the juice wasn’t worth the squeeze,” added Stehlin.

And the societal payoff for giving folks a free ride could be huge. One study cited by the researchers found that ridership shoots up an average of 56 percent after fares are eliminated.

When policies that make buses fast and free are implemented together, though, Stehlin says both priorities are often easier to achieve.

Eliminating fares, for instance, can get buses out of the stop and back on the road faster, since drivers don’t have to wait extra time for passengers to fumble with fare cards and loose change.

Speeding up routes, meanwhile, can attract new riders, which helps make whole systems more efficient – and helps make the case for what Stehlin calls “collecting fares on the societal level.” He encourages skeptics to think of it like the taxes and bonds communities currently collect to fund public libraries, where we’d never think of charging for books per check-out.

Still, he acknowledges that some “free” transit programs haven’t translated into steep ridership increases, while cannibalizing scarce revenues that agencies sorely need to speed buses up. But he says that’s all the more reason to think of the two policies as two sides of the same positive feedback loop — and fund both robustly.

“This is evidence that we should really look at implementing fast and free together, because if you have a bus system that’s not working well enough for people and meeting their needs, then making it free is not going to attract a lot of people,” added Emmett Hopkins, Stehlin’s co-author and the Transportation Policy Manager for the Institute. “But if we can do both together, then it can.”

Perhaps the best reason to do fast and free together, the authors argue, is simply how many lives it would make better.

“We found stories of specific people [whose] buses had been made faster or free, and those people were just better able to stay connected to the things that they needed in their lives — whether it be housing, health care, school, work, groceries, recreation, or their loved ones,” said Hopkins.

Recommended Why Arguments Against ‘Free Transit’ Are Missing the Point Streetsblog August 23, 2022

As Washington aims for steep federal transit cuts and transit agencies across the country follow suit, both Hopkins and Stehlin acknowledge that achieving the dream of fast and free buses nationwide won’t be easy. Still, they say it is possible — with a few ambitious policies.

First, both co-authors emphasize that forward-thinking state DOTs already have the ability to “flex” capital dollars away from highways and towards transit agencies, freeing up funds to plan and build faster infrastructure like bus rapid transit.

Advocates, meanwhile, can fight for funding explicitly to support fare-free operations, like Virginia already did to eliminate fares in its capital city of Richmond — at the cost of just $5 million, or 0.4 percent of the DOT’s annual budget.

State legislatures can clear the way by abolishing outdated “minimum farebox recovery” mandates that effectively require agencies to charge for a ride, and let localities pass local bond measures, raise taxes, and pursue other revenue streams to amp up transit investment of all kinds.

And if full-scale bus rapid transit redesigns and system-wide fare abolition aren’t in the cards, agencies can always start small with interventions like changing signal priority to benefit buses, or making key downtown routes free.

“States and cities have the opportunity to give people those better options on a pretty short time scale,” added Hopkins. “That could happen in a matter of months or within a year — or, in some cases, almost immediately.”

Stehlin adds that there’s hope for faster, free buses even in communities not known for being progressive on transit — because many of them are already doing it, at least at small scale. Perhaps the best example is Birmingham, Alabama, which saw ridership rise sharply after its free, 10-mile rapid transit project, Birmingham Xpress, opened in 2022.

“One of the things that we noticed when we did the research for this report was that we’re already seeing a lot of success in these kinds of initiatives in relatively conservative states,” Stehlin said. “There are aspects of this that are more popular than a car-only agenda.”

An earlier version of this story misstated how much it cost for Virginia to fund free buses in Arlington. It was 0.4 percent, not 0.07 percent.

Let’s imagine a city that wants more visitors to explore its downtown on foot. The photographs on the city’s website show a pedestrian paradise: broad sidewalks, outdoor tables, even a trail along the water. A family arrives by bus, follows the map the city provided … and discovers that to reach the trail entrance, they have to cross a busy road. Those last few hundred feet might ruin the whole afternoon. 

Let’s take another example: a public plaza has been open for years, but its restrooms close before evening programming begins. Or imagine a visitor’s district which promises a car-free day out, yet the last return bus leaves before the advertised evening activities finish. 

In each example, an attractive public promise meets a practical challenge that the whole trip depends on — and it fails the test. 

These are different problems with different owners. But they all share the same planning question: has anyone tested the whole journey that people are being invited to make, from beginning to end? 

Whether we’re talking about streetscapes, trails, transit connections, or public spaces, the usefulness of our local investments often depends on what happens beyond a construction boundary or departmental responsibility. A bike path can be finished while the connection to the larger bike network remains unresolved; an event can be staffed while the route home is overlooked. A map can describe a continuous experience for which no single organization is responsible, so it doesn’t deliver on its promise. 

The framework I call “Visitor Readiness” offers a way to examine those dependencies, through five questions: What is being promised? Who has the capacity to deliver it? What conditions must exist? How will delivery work? What will actual use teach us?

Visitor readiness in practice  

Despite the name, Visitor Readiness applies to residents as well as tourists. Someone crossing town for a shift, accompanying a child, or visiting an unfamiliar neighborhood should not need insider knowledge to make a public space work. Residents also have knowledge that a promotional itinerary can miss; their experience should help define readiness from the beginning.

Start with a specific promise. The vague desire for a “A connected waterfront” is difficult to meet. But a community canguarantee that “a person arriving at this bus stop can reach the waterfront on a continuous, usable route and return after the event.” Specificity gives a team something to examine. It also makes clear where transportation, parks, event operations, and communications have to coordinate.

Then, follow that journey with the people who depend on it. Include disabled residents, transit riders, nearby workers, and caregivers. Compensate participation where possible. A lunchtime walkthrough by project staff cannot establish what happens after dark, during a busy event, or when a usual route is closed. Ask who is missing from the test and what their absence leaves unknown.

For planners and advocates, the practical questions are straightforward: Can someone find and complete the trip without a car, a smartphone, or prior local knowledge? Do opening hours and transportation schedules actually support the activity being promoted? Where can someone rest, find a restroom, or get help? Who corrects conflicting information? When a connection fails, who has the authority and budget to fix it?

Record the answers in ordinary language. Separate what has been observed from what is assumed. Assign each unresolved question to someone who can answer it, and pick a date to check on their progress. “Coordinate with partners” is insufficient when everyone believes another organization owns the problem.

How quickly you respond to those questions should correspond to how urgent the problem is. Correcting an outdated map could happen immediately. Extending restroom hours requires staffing and an operating budget, and that needs to be sorted out soon. A dangerous crossing needs a substantive safety response; better directions cannot compensate for unsafe access. When not all problems can be immediately solved, communicate the limitation clearly and specify the work needed to finish the job. 

An evolving process 

Visitor Readiness must also remain open to revision. An established trail or plaza can become unusable when service hours change, a nearby connection closes, or maintenance falls behind. Teams should revisit the journey after significant changes and use complaints, staff observations, and conversations with people who stopped coming to identify what might have been missed. 

In addition to capital funding, advocates can and should ask for the operational resources they need to do this work: an operating owner, maintenance and access, a test of the full journey, and a public review after use begins. That makes readiness part of delivering an improvement, rather than another indefinite hurdle to be surmounted in the quest to build safer streets.

Promoting a public place creates expectations about how it will work. The useful test is whether someone can actually do what that space invites them to do, under the conditions they will actually encounter. Public investment earns its value in those ordinary trips — including the last few hundred feet.

• Rural communities that only have bare-bones transit service as it is will feel the brunt of congressional Republicans’ cuts to federal transit funding. The proposed BUILD America 250 Act provides only $103 billion for transit over five years, compared to $120 billion from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act signed by President Biden in 2021. (Grist)
• Meanwhile, the stopgap transportation funding law signed by President Trump three weeks ago cuts funding for three rail grant programs from $9 billion to just $200 million. (Railway Supply)
• Several rail and transit funding referendums are scheduled for November, and with federal support flagging, losses at the ballot box could be catastrophic. (Governing)
• Probably the largest of those is a Bay Area vote to help the region’s four struggling transit agencies (San Jose Mercury News). Oakland residents gathered at city hall recently to push for passing the $14 billion measure (Oaklandside).
• A set of key votes on Austin light rail are scheduled for today (KXAN).
• In addition, the Atlanta city council will vote on a resolution in support of light rail along the Beltline (CBS News).
• The California High-Speed Rail Authority reimbursed $600,000 in unallowable expenses like Uber rides and bar tabs, according to an investigator general’s report. (CalMatters)
• The Federal Transit Administration has closed a years-long review of safety on Boston transit. (WGBH)
• The Miami-Dade government shifted $5 million to its already flush tourism bureau at a time when transit is struggling. (WLRN)
• Both U.S. Senate candidates in Michigan favor suspending state and federal gas taxes (Michigan Public), even though that doesn’t save drivers much money and hampers transportation projects.
• North Carolina started an initiative making it easier for Raleigh-to-Charlotte intercity rail passengers to connect to local transit. (ABC 11)
• San Antonio is starting a pilot program to help late-shift service industry workers get home. (KSAT)
• A bus rapid transit project in Bloomington is on hold as the city awaits federal grant approval. (Bloomingtonian)
• Quartz ranked Cambridge, UK as the most bike-friendly city in the world, with Marrakech, Warsaw and some other surprises landing in the top 10 along with the usual Northern European suspects.

Victoria's coal country is rapidly morphing into battery country, as one huge project starts commissioning, while another marks a construction milestone with major expansion plans.

The post Renewables retailer doubles down on coal country battery plans as huge new BESS prepares to power up appeared first on Renew Economy.

British Columbia should make long-term care part of its big-project building agenda and commit to a construction timetable for seven deferred public care projects, says a new report from the Centre for Future Work.

The report examines the economic benefits of building public long-term care facilities, and the dangers and costs of relying on for-profit operators. It argues that full accounting of the costs and benefits of long-term care construction needs to include financing charges (which are much lower for public builds), broader economic spin-offs from new construction, and a range of savings resulting from superior health outcomes demonstrated in public facilities.

Projections indicate the province needs 16,000 additional subsidized long-term care beds over the next decade—about 1,600 a year. But over the last six years, B.C. added an average of only about 240 net new beds annually.

Despite that gap, seven public long-term care construction and redevelopment projects were deferred in the province’s 2026 budget. The provincial government continues to list the projects in its long-term capital plan, but without firm timelines for construction.

The report challenges exaggerated stereotypes about the cost of building public long-term care facilities, and called for more transparent and systematic comparisons of cost estimates. Many public projects include services such as child care, hospice spaces and other services, often accessible to the broader community – making simple per-bed comparisons misleading.

Financing is an important cost advantage for public builds. In an illustrative comparison, the higher cost of private borrowing increases cumulative interest costs by 41 per cent, adding $49 million to a $200 million project over 25 years.

Most long-term care in B.C. receives provincial government funding, regardless of whether a facility is publicly owned, non-profit, or for-profit. Those payments help cover building and financing expenses as well as operating costs. Data published by the B.C. Senior’s Advocate indicates that building costs in private facilities (ultimately charged to the public purse) are much higher than non-profit facilities.

Outsourcing new builds to private operators does not make the public cost disappear. Government still pays for those facilities through decades of care funding.

The report calls for a transparent comparison of construction costs across public, non-profit and for-profit facilities. It identifies ways to improve value in future projects, including using public land, sharing sites with other health services, standardizing designs and coordinating procurement.

It recommends that the provincial government quickly complete its review of the deferred projects, and publish a reliable construction timetable by the next provincial budget. It also calls for capital funding and development support for non-profit providers, alongside a longer-term plan to meet projected demand.

Please see the full report, Economic Benefits from Construction of Public Long Term Care Capacity in British Columbia, authored by Jim Stanford, Economist and Director of the Centre for Future Work.

The post The Build-Big Agenda in B.C. Should Include Long-Term Care Homes appeared first on Centre for Future Work.

VicGrid has released its preferred route for the 60 km new transmission line needed to bring offshore wind power to the main grid in the Latrobe Valley.

The post Route for first offshore wind transmission link mapped out amid scramble to meet 2032 target appeared first on Renew Economy.

In this special episode recorded live from Everything Electric Sydney, we explore how close Australia is to making V2G an everyday reality.

The post The Driven Podcast: Is Australia finally ready for V2G? | Live from Everything Electric Sydney appeared first on Renew Economy.

State Electricity Commission says it will slash the power bill of major sports and aquatic centre by as much as $80,000 a year through a rooftop solar system it has installed and will operate.

The post State utility partners on massive rooftop solar array to slash sports centre’s annual power bill by $80,000 appeared first on Renew Economy.

NSW takes lead on mandatory recycling for solar panels that could set a national benchmark, and bypass a roadblock created by stalled federal scheme.

The post NSW takes lead on mandatory solar panel recycling as ministers call for urgent action on rising tide of waste appeared first on Renew Economy.

EPBC waves through 2 GW wind, solar and battery project proposed for Australia's biggest isolated grid, with list of conditions to protect endangered black cockatoos and native flora.

The post Huge hybrid wind project gets final green tick, but must use tall turbines to avoid black cockatoos appeared first on Renew Economy.

The Amazon does not need new masters Channel News brendan 21st September 2026 Teaser Media

On Thursday evening, Sept. 24, Food Tank, New York University, and Rodale Institute will host Marion Nestle’s 90th Birthday Party at Climate Week NYC 2026. The evening will honor and celebrate Nestle’s legacy of advancing evidence-based nutrition, championing transparency in the food system, and empowering people to ask critical questions about the food we eat.

“Marion Nestle has spent her career teaching us that food is never just food. The choices we make about how we grow, sell, market, and eat shape our health, our communities, and the future of our planet,” said Jeff Tkach, CEO of the Rodale Institute.

Nestle is Professor Emerita of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University and one of the world’s most influential voices on food, nutrition, and public health. She has spent decades shaping the national conversation on food policy, corporate influence, nutrition science, and the importance of healthy, equitable food systems. Nestle is also a bestselling author of numerous acclaimed books, including Food Politics, What to Eat, Slow Cooked, and, most recently, Sugar Coated, which will be on sale in the lobby by Books On Call NYC.

With live musical performances, toasts, cake, and a fireside chat with Nestle herself, the evening will celebrate how she has inspired generations of researchers, policymakers, journalists, and advocates.

To conclude the evening, Rodale Institute will present Nestle with the Organic Stewardship Award for Lifetime Achievement in Education. Since 2011, the award has recognized individuals whose work has profoundly influenced efforts to improve the health of our agriculture and food systems. Nestle will receive the inaugural award for education, recognizing her visionary work to inspire lasting change by deepening public understanding of the vital relationship between agriculture, nutrition, environmental stewardship, and human health.

“For decades, Marion has had the courage to ask the questions others won’t, challenge conventional thinking, and bring clarity to complex issues. In doing so, she has shaped how generations understand our food system and empowered them to think more critically about their role within it,” says Tkach. “It is a privilege to honor her extraordinary body of work with Rodale Institute’s first Organic Stewardship Lifetime Achievement Award for Education.”

The evening will feature toasts to Marion Nestle by food system visionaries including Jennifer Berg, Clinical Professor and Department Chair, Nutrition and Food Studies, NYU Steinhardt; Mark Bittman, Editor-in-Chief, The Bittman Project; Nancy Easton, Executive Director and Co-Founder, Wellness in the Schools; Kathleen Finlay, President, Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming; Cathy Kaufman, Culinary Historian and Food Studies Scholar; Corby Kummer, Executive Director of Food & Society, the Aspen Institute, Senior Editor, The Atlantic, and Senior Lecturer, Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science; Frances Moore Lappé, Author and Co-Founder, Small Planet Institute; Kristie Patten, Gale and Ira Drukier Dean, NYU Steinhardt; Ruth Reichl, Author and Former Editor in Chief, Gourmet; Kim Severson, The New York Times; Max Sinsheimer, Literary Agent, Sinsheimer Literary, LLC; and Lisa Sutherland, Co-Author with Marion Nestle, Sugar Coated: Unboxing the Hidden Forces Shaping America’s Favorite Breakfast Food, and Interim President, Jacksonville University.

The event will kick off at WNYC-NPR Studios’ The Greene Space in New York City at 6:35pm with light food and live musical performances, followed by a reception until 9:30pm.

The birthday party will also feature special musical performances by Singer-Songwriter Amber Rubarth; Jake Pedersen, a Broadway and TV actor currently in Ragtime on Broadway, who recently starred as Boq in Wicked on Broadway and on tour, as well as Frankie Epps in Parade on Broadway; and Maria Caputo, a New York-based composer, pianist, vocalist, music director, and Broadway music copyist whose work spans musical theatre, jazz, classical, and contemporary music.

The event will be streamed live on FoodTank.com and Food Tank’s YouTube channel, here. Join the Food Tank newsletter list for reminders, and click here for Food Tank’s full lineup of events at Climate Week NYC 2026.

Articles like the one you just read are made possible through the generosity of Food Tank members. Can we please count on you to be part of our growing movement? Become a member today by clicking here.

The post Celebrating Marion Nestle appeared first on Food Tank.

On Monday afternoon, Sept. 21, Food Tank will host the “Mission-Driven Brands Sustainability Summit” at Climate Week NYC 2026, in partnership with Bel US, Northstar Recycling, the Global Traceability Framework for Beef and Leather, and Bonterra Organic Estates.

The event is Food Tank’s annual gathering of Chief Sustainability Officers, mission-driven brand leaders, impact directors, and founders at Climate Week NYC. The afternoon will feature food system industry leaders discussing challenges and opportunities for brands to make an impact across retail, food service, and hospitality.

“We’re honored to join this conversation during Climate Week NYC and to celebrate the organizations demonstrating that purpose and commercial leadership can go hand in hand,” says Mark Kaplan, Chief Marketing and Sustainability Officer at blockchain-based traceability system Wholechain.

Speakers will explore how to build a common language for supply chains, including through solutions like The Global Traceability Framework for Beef and Leather. The pre-competitive platform for collaborative action provides a shared foundation for how traceability data is captured and exchanged, so systems can work together across companies and geographies.

“Leather has traditionally been treated as a byproduct and afterthought of the beef industry,” says Jason Weller, Chief Sustainability Officer at JBS, the world’s largest meat processor. “At JBS, we have spent years building the expertise and techniques to elevate leather as a valuable resource: tracing hides to the source farm groups, re-engineering tanning chemistry to cut water and chemical use, and performing in-depth analyses so that we understand opportunities to improve the greenhouse gas emissions performance of our products.”

“We are thrilled JBS is joining us and showing their leadership by example to advance standardized, interoperable traceability,” says Kaplan. “Their leadership shows how mission-driven brands can accelerate meaningful progress by building the common language for data sharing that benefits their entire industries.”

The conversation will also turn to regenerative agriculture and how brands can support more resilient farming systems. Panel topics and fireside chats include “Mission Driven from Brand to Shelf,” “Regenerative Agriculture Grain to Glass at Star Hill,” and “How Regenerative Vineyards Are Shaping the Future of Wine.”

Immersive tasting experiences throughout the afternoon will feature traceable beef, lobster, and honey, Bel US cheese, Maker’s Mark whiskey, and wines from Bonterra Organic Estates.

“As climate change continues to challenge our food system, we must transition from extractive to regenerative models of production,” says Beatrix Scolari, Sustainability Manager at Bonterra Organic Estates. “Food Tank provides a forum for sharing the ideas, partnerships, and practical solutions needed to make that transition possible. Bonterra is honored to join this year’s summit, and we hope participants leave inspired by the growing evidence that regenerative agriculture can both strengthen farm resilience and help restore the health of our planet.”

With lightning talks on topics like the future of circular food systems, speakers will also emphasize the importance of collaboration across the food system to turn sustainability goals into action.

“Meaningful progress in sustainability happens when leaders across the food system come together to share what’s working, challenge conventional thinking, and learn from one another. That’s what makes gatherings like this so valuable,” says Shawna Laczko, Chief Revenue Officer at Northstar Recycling. “I hope attendees leave with new perspectives, practical ideas they can take back to their organizations, and a stronger sense of how collaboration across the value chain can turn ambitious sustainability goals into real, scalable progress.”

The event will kick off at WNYC-NPR Studios’ The Greene Space in New York City at 1:30pm with food and live musical performances, followed by a reception until 5pm.

Speakers include Jordan Catalana, Senior Manager, Social Impact, Tapestry Foundation; Dana Cowin, Founder, Progressive Hedonist and Former Editor-in-Chief, Food & Wine Magazine; Stephen Cronk, Co-Founder and Trustee, The Regenerative Viticulture Foundation; Co-Founder and CEO, Maison Mirabeau; Diana Hanus, Senior Executive Vice President, Commercial & Business Development, Sovereign Seas; Ann Marie Hourigan, Head of Quality Standards, Whole Foods Market; Mark Kaplan, Chief Marketing and Sustainability Officer, Wholechain; Shawna Laczko, Chief Revenue Officer, Northstar Recycling; Elaina Leibee, Wine Director, Erewhon; Peter McGuinness, CEO, Bel North America; Sarah McMullin, Senior Vice President, Owned Brands Product Operations and Manufacturing, Target; Danielle Nierenberg, President, Food Tank; Rob Samuels, Eighth-Generation Whisky Maker and Managing Director, Maker’s Mark; Beatrix Scolari, Sustainability Manager, Bonterra Organic Estates; and Jason Weller, Global Chief Sustainability Officer, JBS.

“Mission Driven Brands Sustainability Summit” will feature a special musical performance by Daniel Quadrino, Broadway actor currently starring as Boq in Wicked, with additional Broadway credits including The Who’s Tommy, Newsies, and Bye Bye Birdie. He will be joined by Ryan Fielding Garrett, a New York City-based composer, music director, orchestrator, and musician whose Broadway credits include Kinky Boots, Wicked, Back to the Future, The Notebook, and Mean Girls.

This summit will be streamed live on FoodTank.com and Food Tank’s YouTube channel, here. Join the Food Tank newsletter list for reminders, and click here for Food Tank’s full lineup of events at Climate Week NYC 2026.

Articles like the one you just read are made possible through the generosity of Food Tank members. Can we please count on you to be part of our growing movement? Become a member today by clicking here.

The post Food and Agriculture Businesses Tackle Food Sustainability at Climate Week NYC appeared first on Food Tank.