Interview with Secretary Chhabilendra Roul of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, the powerhouse which coordinates research and education in 98 national institutes, 14 national research centres, including India’s Central Agroforestry Research Institute, and 73 agricultural universities. In 2018 he visited the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) in Nairobi to review ICAR and ICRAF’s collaboration and spoke to Cathy Watson about trees and the shock he got when he was sent to the Punjab from lush biodiverse Odisha.

In 1977, during the heyday of the emerging “alternative energy” movement, I attended a solar greenhouse conference where I remember one of our little tribe’s pioneers opined about how much less exciting the solar “revolution” was going to be when it finally went mainstream. “I know what’s going to happen,” architect Steve Baer of Zomeworks pronounced – “solar collectors are going to be advertised in Sears newspaper inserts! I’m going to hate it but I’ll know we have arrived.”

by Woody Tasch, founder, Slow Money 

I often refer to Slow Money as “the CSA of investing.” As with community-supported agriculture, our efforts revolve around informal, direct relationships and shared risk. Slow Money funding is flowing in a variety of ways in dozens of communities across the United States (and a few in Canada and France) — peer-to-peer lending, investment clubs, angel networks and pitch fests at public events large and small.

By Claire Mesesan, communications manager at Iroquois Valley Farms