In California’s Central Valley, a small water district is pioneering the use of solar energy to power water desalination through distillation. An extensive article on the pilot project in yesterday’s San Francisco Chronicle reported that this approach cuts the power requirements for desalination by as much as three-fourths, which is a breakthrough in cost-effectiveness. We learn more in this conversation with the article’s author.

Restaurants and caterers throw away tons of unused food scraps each day. A new project in Marin is working to keep that food out of the landfill and using it to create renewable, clean-burning bio gas. After nearly 5 years of negotiations and testing, it officially began operations yesterday. 

Organizers say the project, called the  Food-to-Energy (F2E) program, is the first of its kind: a partnership between a the private Marin Sanitary Service  and the public Central Marin Sanitation Agency.  

A series of 24-hour fasts across the country is meant to point out that Latino families bear the harshest consequences of America’s dysfunctional immigration policy. More than three dozen Sonoma County women took part in one that ended Monday morning. KRCB’s Bruce Robinson was there when a shared breakfast was served.

Craig Ramini came to his second career through a combination of luck and pluck. After deciding to leave the Silicon Valley tech industry with a near-terminal case of boredom, Ramini launched himself into cheese making after a relative asked, "Why don't Americans make buffalo mozzarella? 

Now, at Ramini Mozzarella, they do, in what Ramini believes is the only domestic farmstead buffalo mozzarella operation. Ramini is part of the farm tours organized thorough this year's California Artisan Cheese Festival. The festival is Mar. 21-23 at the Sheraton Sonoma County, Petaluma.