"... You find that there's nothing like picking rocks out of fields to bring people together," says Rob Jones in a New York Times piece by Christine Muhlke (2/28/10). Rob is founder of the Crop Mob, a merry band of "pop-up farmers" who band together to help "small, sustainable farms" do whatever needs to be done: "mulching, building greenhouses and pulling rocks out of fields." So far the Crop Mob has helped a total of 21 farms in the Chapel Hill, Raleigh and Durham area in North Carolina, donating a total of about 2,000 hours.

The idea originated "during a meeting about issues facing young farmers, during which an intern declared that better relationships are built working side by side than by sitting around a table. So one day, 19 people went to Piedmont Biofarm and harvested, sorted, and boxed 1,600 pounds of sweet potatoes in two and a half hours. A year later, the Crop Mob e-mail list has nearly 400 subscribers and the farm fests draw 40 to 50 volunteers." Most of the volunteer farmers are young and don't have farms of their own, but the events help give them an inside track on "internships, learn about affordable land and find potential dates."

Trace Ramsey, a farmer who has benefitted from the Crop Mob, sees an explosion of interest in farming among young people. "People are interested in authentic work," he says. "I think they're tired of what they've been told they should accomplish in their lives and they're starting to realize that it's not all that exciting or beneficial from a community perspective or an individual perspective." For the farmers, it solves a big problem, too -- not only in terms of the free labor, but also the social aspects. Rob Jones thinks the idea could spread to gardening, even to cities, since "anywhere there's dirt, a community can grow."

The notion that kids today are somehow different because they grew up with digital tools may be overblown, reports the Economist (3/6/10). Sue Bennett of the University of Wollongong, writing in the British Journal of Education, argues that there could be "as much variation within the digital native generation as between the generations." She says such generational generalizations "fail to recognize cognitive differences in young people of different ages, and variations within age groups."

The point is that digital natives "do not really have different kinds of brains that require new approaches to school and work." Michael Wesch, a new-media pioneer and cultural anthropology prof at Kansas State agrees that many of his students "have only a superficial familiarity with ... digital tools."His view is diametrically opposed to professors who suggest moving "classroom discussions to Facebook," for instance, or management gurus who want employers to shift from "command-and-control" cultures to more collaborative environments.

It may also upend the idea that "digital natives will grow up to be more responsible citizens" and use their digital prowess "to campaign on social issues and exercise closer scrutiny over their government." Again, "there may simply be too much economic, geographic, and demographic disparity to make meaningful generalizations ... There is also a feeling of superficiality about much online youth activism." Joining an activist Facebook group is one thing, but a Pew Research Center study "found that internet users aged 18-24 were the least likely of all age groups to email a public official or make an online political donation."

Walmart is the new Woodstock and Glenn Beck the new Abbie Hoffman, suggests David Brooks in the New York Times (3/5/10). Clearly, there's a big difference in politics between the '60s hippies and today's tea-partiers. As David writes: "One was on the left, the other is on the right. One was bohemian, the other is bourgeois. One was motivated by war, and the other motivated by runaway federal spending. One went to Woodstock, the other is more likely to go to Walmart." But David also thinks there are more similarities than differences.

"They go in for street theater, mass rallies, marches and extreme statements that are designed to shock polite society out of its stupor," he writes. On Amazon dot-com, observes David, the same people who are buying books such as "Liberal Fascism," are also buying "Rules for Radicals," a classic handbook of the New Left. And he thinks that "both movements believe in what you might call mass innocence ... the assumption that the people are pure and virtuous and that evil is introduced into society by corrupt elites and rotten authority structures."

Both groups "go in big for conspiracy theories ... and spend a lot of time worrying about being co-opted ... have a problem with authority" and have a largely "negative agenda: destroy the corrupt structures; defeat the establishment." However, says David, they have "no clear set of plans for what to do beyond the golden moment of personal liberation ... They don't seek to form a counter-establishment because they don't believe in establishments." Both groups, he concludes, "are radically anticonservative," because "conservatives believe in civilization -- in social structures, permanent institutions and just authorities."

"Our goal has always been to overlay the real world and the digital world," says Keith Lee, founder of Booyah, in a Wall Street Journal article by Tomio Geron (3/3/10). Booyah offers a mobile phone app called MyTown that lets users build a virtual city based on the buildings they visit in real life. MyTown claims to be the largest of a growing number of so-called "check-in" apps that use "GPS technology to pinpoint a user's location" and share the information with friends.

So far, MyTown has attracted "one million users, with as many as four million check-ins a day." Some see it as part of an emerging phase in social media, letting friends tell friends not only what they're up to, but also where they're up to it. An app called Foursquare enables this "by clicking on a location listed in the Foursquare mobile-phone application, usually a restaurant or bar or such." It is "built to be addictive" by including a game in which "users get points for going to different places, and compete to be at the top of the leader board among their friends."

Gowalla, yet another check-in app, specializes in "places that are not businesses, such as a cliff above a remote beach." And Causeworld, via Shopkick, Inc., "allows people to 'win' virtual money that they can donate to real-life charities." Kraft and Citigroup are among the companies making donations, and Shopkick takes a cut. Albert Wenger, a Foursquare investor, sees checking-in as a companion to other forms of social media, like blogging and Flickr. "Sharing is not a short-term trend that's going to reverse itself," he says. "That's here to stay."

The consumer conundrum of too much choice may actually be more an issue of too little information, reports Alina Tugend in the New York Times (2/27/10). Benjamin Scheibehenne, of the University of Basel, believes that "it is too simple to conclude that too many choices are bad, just as it is wrong to assume that more choices are always better." He thinks it's important to separate "the concept of choice overload from information overload." The problem, in other words, is that we're often forced to make choices based on incomplete information.

This can happen even when there aren't many choices, of course. And trying to become better informed by conducting research can make things worse because we tend to become obsessed with finding the perfect choice, as opposed to one that's good enough. Lori Gottlieb wrote about this in her book, "Marry Him: The Case for Settling for Mr. Good Enough." Lori thinks that women should think more about whether the guy makes her happy than if he's the best she can do. So, maybe the same applies when choosing peanut butter, right?

Sheena Iyengar, author of The Art of Choosing, meanwhile, thinks the answer may be to increase information and remove choices, and effectively defer to expert decision-makers. Her example is the difference in the way doctors handle life-support decisions in France versus America. In France, doctors pull the plug unless the family challenges them, while in America, the family has to decide. The result: "French families weren't as angry or confused about what had happened, and focused much less on how things might have been or should have been."

Innovative supermarkets tap into emotional and functional desires.  By Randi Moore. (more)

"Most kids wouldn't know a deer from a dog," says Jim Paine, complaining about the lack of interest in hunting among kids these days, reports Mark Yost in the Wall Street Journal (2/10/10). Brad Bowser blames videogames: "Why are they going to come out and freeze in a blind all day and maybe get one shot when they can sit in their living room and shoot all day long?' he says. Ted Nugent, the guitarist, thinks the issue is political: "We need to be celebrating the utter joy and spirituality of hunting, not apologizing for it," he says (sorry).

Others point to the fact that fewer people live on farms, the high cost of hunting and "the stigma of guns. In the 1950s, nearly every high school in New York City had a shooting team. Today, if you brought a gun to school you'd be expelled." Tom DePersia, who runs fishing trips, points to the divorce rate: "A 10-year-old kid can go out and play baseball without his dad, but they can't go hunting or fishing," he says. The outdoor industry is trying to address these issues by serving up more father-son and father-daughter hunting trips, "but with little success."

Some states have tried to help by lowering the hunting age to "as young as five." Cable TV is also stepping up with a show called Whitetail Freaks, "featuring young, attractive, female hunters." Kandi Kisky, the show's host, says, "The message is that it's okay to have pigtails, wear makeup and shoot things." Remington meanwhile is out with "a pink version of its Hot Shot, a single-shot .22 rifle designed for youngsters" (link). Others suggest safaris where the hunters wield only cameras. "It very well may be the future of the business," says Robert Dunn, who organizes such trips.

"There's alternate ways to grow food," says Rob Torcellini, whose alternative-of-choice is known as aquaponics, reports Michael Tortorello in the New York Times (2/18/10). Aquaponics is a closed-loop system, in which water and waste from a fish tank is used to hydrate and fertilize plants planted in gravel. The gravel filters the water, which is then returned to the tanks. You not only get fresh fruit and vegetables throughout the winter, but you can also eat the fish, usually tilapia, if you want. Rob built his aquaponics rig in a greenhouse in Connecticut, and he's cultivating bumper crops.

"We actually keep a tally of how many cherry tomatoes we grew ... And from one plant it was 347." He says three cucumber plants yielded 175 cukes, too. "I don't want to push it down people's throats," says Rob, "but if someone's interested, I'd like to show them how you can do this with cheap parts and a little bit of Yankee ingenuity." If you're not quite as handy as Rob, there are kits, like Farm in a Box, that provide everything you'd need. There's also a website, Backyard Aquaponics, where growing numbers of enthusiasts commune.

But be forewarned: Aquaponics can be addictive, says Sylvia Bernstien, who posts aquaponics videos on YouTube (link) and has a blog. She says that "people start with this little 100-gallon backyard system ... Next thing, they'll say, the tilapia were really cool, but I want to grow trout." For now, estimates are that "there may be 200 to 1,200 aquaponic set-ups in American homes and yards, and perhaps another 1,000 bubbling away in school science classrooms." Most enthusiasts are tinkerers, gardeners, gadget-freaks and greenies. But some see a future in which apartment-aquaponics produce fresh veggies and all the tilapia you can eat.

"Men tend to see shopping as less of an indulgence than women -- which meant they did not cut back as much during the downturn," report Christina Passariello and Ray A. Smith in the Wall Street Journal (2/11/10). An October survey by the American Affluence Research Center says, "Twenty-three percent of male respondents said they hadn't reduced overall spending since the recession started, compared with 14 percent of women." A study by NPD Group meanwhile says that, last year, about "75 percent of men shopped for themselves last year, compared with just 52 percent of men in 1995."

Because more men are shopping for themselves, without women helping them, retailers, are picking up on this, with Hermes, Coach, Ralph Lauren and others opening up boutiques especially for men. Hermes, for instance, has opened Hermes Man, across the street from its flagship women's boutique in New York. Not surprisingly, it features plenty of wood paneling. For the opening, the retailer also offered "an $8,500 baseball glove in a signature Hermes red (image)." Coach's new men's store similarly will feature "leather club seats."

But the main thing is that men have their own stores. "Men don't like to enter a men's and women's store to find their products at the back of the store," says Michele Norsa, ceo of Ferragamo, which is also opening special stores for men. Retailers also see big male opportunities in "emerging markets such as Russia and China," where newly wealthy men tend to spend on themselves before their women. Indeed, in South Korea, sales of men's apparel was up 48 percent between 2004 and 2009, compared with 7 percent for women's" reports Euromonitor International.

"A good plant should be shared, and a rare plant should be shared," says Charles Cresson, who has been swapping seeds with fellow gardening enthusiasts for years, reports Anne Marie Chaker in the Wall Street Journal (2/10/10). Charles is a member of the Hardy Plant Society, a so-called "seed exchange" with 850 members, ranging "from backyard warriors to rare-plant collectors." Charles would fall into the latter category, as he "oversees a garden that has been in his family since 1883."

He's donated rare seeds, such as a clivia called Sir John Thouron (image) "that once fetched $2,400 at a rare-plant auction," but expects nothing in return. "This seed exchange is a great way to make the seed available and be able to say why it is so special," he explains. Another exchange, the North American Rock Garden Society "has an exchange listing more than 4,500 different types of seeds from more than 250 donors." Others are specialized, such as the Species Iris Group of North America, which allows enthusiasts to "delve into unusual varieties."

On the other hand, some join the groups because the plants are unusual and the seeds are inexpensive, costing "as little as 50 cents or less -- a fraction of what commercially sold seed packets can cost." Availability is limited though, and "annual dues can run from as little as $5 to $40. Some gardening websites such as blossomswap dot-com also host seed-trading forums, which don't require membership fees." While memberships aren't necessarily growing, the Hardy Plant Society says members "seem to be getting younger, perhaps a sign of new interest in gardening."