Mount Vernon, Washington based scientist Jackie Heinricer and her biotech company, Booshoot, are perfectly poised to change the agricultural landscape in the U.S. and meet the skyrocketing demand for bamboo.  Exciting stuff.

As you may already know, bamboo is fast-growing, and primarily grown in Asia and India.  It can be used to create energy, textiles, furniture, clothing, flooring and paper — but few realize that bamboo is being dramatically over-harvested, and the world’s supply is disappearing at an alarming rate. According to a UN report, as many as half the world’s woody bamboos may be on their way to extinction.

Bamboo is very hard to propagate and grow from seed.  Yet, Booshoot’s patented tissue culture technology makes it possible, for the first time ever, to produce the types and quantities of plants needed to replenish the world’s dwindling bamboo supply.  The company has the unique ability to clone true species, without genetic modification, in vast numbers.

Most of Booshoots’ inventory is currently sold wholesale to large nurseries in the U.S. for resale to the public. (more…)

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1. Leave the car at home.  Instead, take a walk or ride a bike to work, the store or across town.  You’ll save on gas and reduce your circumference; and besides, biking is so European.  Also, use public transportation.  Don’t be afraid to join the rest of your community on the bus or train.  Being a gas guzzling loner is so overrated.
2. Re-use or repurpose.  Put down the paper towels and use a cloth dishrag or re-usable cleaning wipe, (ie Eco-cloth). Stop throwing away money on single-use stuff.
3. Turn off the TV and do something constructive.  You’ll save on electricity and you may actually accomplish something.
4. Try air drying those clothes on a clothes line instead of in that energy-gulping electric dryer.  Save your threads, the planet and money.
5. Get off the beef and dairy products for at least a few days a week.  Cattle, and the cattle industry, are a major source of greenhouse gas emissions.  Eating fresh fruits and veggies instead of that t-bone will also help you live a little longer, so you can spend the money you save.