On average, each U.S. citizen produces 4.5 pounds of garbage every day, of which 60 percent goes into landfills. According to Rodale’s Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening, three-quarters of a household’s waste is compostable. Not only does composting minimize landfill impact, but it is an awesome free fertilizer for your garden and house plants.

As citizens and environmental advocates from across the globe prepare to celebrate Earth Day this week, activists in the Land of Enchantment are squaring off against state construction regulators over building codes. Environmentalists are accusing regulators of side-stepping the law by refusing to comply with a New Mexico Court of Appeals ruling concerning the codes.  

Ed O'Donnell is hard to categorize. He's well-known locally as a vintage Volkswagen mechanic and for being an avid proponent of using vegetable oil as an alternative to big oil. In 2001, O'Donnell purchased a plot of land somewhere outside the city limits; there, he maintained an off-the-grid lifestyle by scavenging nearly everything he needed to build and power his home. O'Donnell spoke with the Alibi about repurposing discarded items, wind-generated electricity and the current state of the vegetable oil-powered vehicle phenomenon.

Locavore fundamentalists might call it blasphemy, but there's no reason a meal made with local foods can't contain ingredients from the other side of the world. What's wrong with imported oyster sauce on homegrown broccoli? Why not use curry powder on your homegrown lamb? Much less defensible are lamb from New Zealand (since we grow tasty sheep here at home) and strawberries flown in from Chile (because we can't wait for summer) and carrots from anywhere else (because they grow everywhere).