Michel Nischan visits Rainbeau Ridge Farms in upstate New York, an all organic farm dedicated to making and delivering fresh food that is also good for the environment.

If you're looking for a way to combine your love of cycling with your concern for the planet, you may wish to check out the Sustainable Energy in Motion Bicycle Tours organized by Portland for Peace. This small progressive organization arranges one- and two-week group bicycle tours that offer not only a physically invigorating challenge but also the opportunity to learn hands-on about such topics as permaculture, sustainable and indigenous building practices, environmental ethics, ecology, organic farming, appropriate technologies, and sustainable energy. The slogan, "Less Pollution, More Solutions!" succinctly sums up the group's goals, but doesn't begin to hint at the natural beauty of Oregon's coast and Willamette Valley that greets the roughly 20 to 30 participants as they ride.

Students at Washington State University will soon be able to choose a major that's not available anywhere else in the country: organic farming. The university just received funding from the state legislature to start a major in Biologically Intensive and Organic Agriculture, or BIOAg for short, which will teach students organic farming practices for crops and livestock.

Where would you want to be living if the price of gas shot up to $5, $6, even $8 a gallon as a result of a terrorist attack on energy supplies or a massive hurricane that wiped out gulf coast refineries? Not Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Houston, Texas, or other unsustainably designed cities, according to a report by the environmental website, SustainLane.com. The study evaluated the top ten cities in the country to live in the event of an oil shock, judging them according to their public transportation systems, access to wireless networks for telecommuting, low level of sprawl, and the availability of locally grown organic produce.

Because he wanted to label his poultry “organic” when it wasn’t.

Congress voted last week to dilute the definition of organic, but it’s not the first time the standards have been relaxed.

Berkeley rolled out the red carpet for the green Prince last Monday when Charles and Camilla stopped by the Martin Luther King Jr. Edible Schoolyard, where kids grow organic vegetables and cook healthy meals under the auspices of Alice Waters’ Chez Panisse Foundation.

Prince Charles, long an ally of sustainable agriculture, also took his newly minted missus to an organic farm and several farmers’markets in Marin County. Camilla deviated from the path of royal restraint, sampling everything from heirloom apples and wild salmon to organic cheese and wine.

A crumb of organic pizza on Camilla’s not-so-stiff upper lip had the British press clucking their collective tongue, but the Duchess clearly won herself a whole new set of fans on this side of the Atlantic. Diana called her the Rottweiler, but to the Californians she charmed, Camilla was nuthin’ but a chowhound.