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Water has been described as the 21st century oil. Water shortages, water quality and water rights are hot-button issues at the local, national and international levels. Climate change, population growth and contamination from industry, farms and human settlements have dramatically impacted water supplies and disrupted natural nutrient cycles. Strategic wastewater management will be a critical tool in protecting this valuable but threatened resource.

Reusing the Resource is a comprehensive guide to using plants to stabilize, clean, filter and reuse wastewater, while simultaneously eliminating expensive and polluting sewers and septic systems. The book profiles more than 30 successful ecological wastewater recycling systems that save money, protect public and environmental health, and provide plant-based fuel, fiber, construction materials, habitat and landscapes. It details the pros and cons of various systems, and provides tips for designers, regulators and builders. Case studies include:

• a greenhouse-enclosed wastewater aquaculture system
• a regional wastewater-recycling plant
• a city's wastewater-treatment wetland
• graywater planters.

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Sustainability has become a buzzword in the last decade, but its full meaning is complex, emerging from a range of different sectors. In practice, it has become the springboard for millions of individuals throughout the world who are forging the fastest and most profound social transformation of our time - The Sustainability Revolution.

The Sustainability Revolution paints a picture of this largely unrecognized phenomenon from the point of view of five major sectors of society:

• Community (government and international institutions)
• Commerce (business)
• Natural Resources (forestry, farming, fisheries, etc.)
• Ecological Design (architecture, technology)
• Biosphere (conservation, biodiversity, etc.).

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Every 15 seconds on our Earth Island, a child dies from waterborne disease. Three times an hour, another species becomes extinct. Each day we consume 85 million barrels of oil and pump 23 million tons of carbon dioxide into an already warming atmosphere. But against this bleak backdrop, beacons of hope shine from thousands of large and small initiatives taking place everywhere from isolated villages to major urban centers.

Thriving Beyond Sustainability draws a collective map of individuals, organizations and communities from around the world that are committed to building an alternative future - one that strives to restore ecological health, reinvent outmoded institutions and rejuvenate our environmental, social and economic systems. The projects and initiatives profiled are meeting the challenges of the day with optimism, hope and results, leading the way in:

• relocalization
• green commerce
• ecological design
• environmental conservation
• social transformation.

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Keep your home clean, green and healthy! Common, nontoxic kitchen ingredients such as baking soda, lemon and vinegar are wonderful household cleaners and great replacements for harmful chemical cleansers. Pair them with essential oils to clean, disinfect and freshen every room. With more than 150 recipes for all-natural, easy-to-prepare solutions, you can clean wood, glass, tile, porcelain, fabric, carpets and much more — naturally and safely.

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These 150 quick-and-easy recipes turn bumper crops into mouthwatering pickles and relishes, using little or no salt. All techniques meet current USDA guidelines.

New recipes for today's cooks include:

• Freezer pickles that can be prepared in less than half an hour
• Salt-free pickles for dieters
• Sweet Pickled Pears
• No-Salt Hot Sesame Parsnips
• Sunshine Pickles
• And more!

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The era of the penicillin miracle is over. Through our indiscriminate use of pharmaceutical antibiotics in hospitals and factory farms, humans have created "Superbugs" — tenacious and virulent bacteria that develop resistance to solitary antibiotic compounds at an alarming speed.

In this empowering book, Stephen Buhner offers conclusive evidence that plant medicines, with their complex mix of multiple antibiotic compounds, are remarkably effective against drug-resistant bacteria. You'll learn how antibiotic herbs such as aloe, garlic, and grapefruit seed extract represent our best defense against bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus, E. coli, and Salmonella — and how their use will ensure that, in the future, antibiotic drugs will still be there when we really need them.

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In this new book, Ann Lovejoy exuberantly consolidates her gardening and cooking expertise into a year-round feast of fruits, vegetables and herbs, complete with color photographs. Her simple, uncluttered recipes emphasize bright flavors and a creativity centered on an abundance of fresh produce, from the familiar to the exotic.

Fresh from the Garden will appeal even to readers who don't have a vegetable garden or orchard in their backyard. Thanks to the ever-expanding farmers markets and popular community-supported agriculture programs in the Pacific Northwest, fresh, organic produce is always easy to come by.

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Inquiries into the Nature of Slow Money presents an essential new strategy for investing in local food systems and introduces a group of fiduciary activists who are exploring what should come after industrial finance and industrial agriculture. There is a vision for investing that puts soil fertility into return-on-investment calculations and serves people and place as much at it serves industry sectors and markets.

Leading the charge is Woody Tasch, whose decades of work as a venture capitalist, foundation treasurer, and entrepreneur now shed new light on a truer, more beautiful, more prudent kind of fiduciary responsibility. He offers an alternative vision to the dusty old industrial concepts of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries when dollars, and the businesses they financed, lost their connection to place; slow money, on the other hand, is firmly rooted in the new economic, social, and environmental realities of the 21st century.

About the author Woody Tasch is president of the newly formed NGO Slow Money and Chairman Emeritus of Investors’ Circle, a nonprofit network of angel investors, venture capitalists, foundations, and family offices that, since 1992, has facilitated the flow of $130 million to 200 early-stage companies and venture funds dedicated to sustainability. He lives in northern New Mexico. For information about Slow Money please visit www.slowmoneyalliance.org.

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In his insightful new book, Holy Shit: Managing Manure to Save Mankind, contrary farmer Gene Logsdon provides the inside story of manure — our greatest, yet most misunderstood, natural resource. He begins by lamenting a modern society that not only throws away both animal and human manure — worth billions of dollars in fertilizer value — but that spends a staggering amount of money to do so. This wastefulness makes even less sense as the supply of mined or chemically synthesized fertilizers dwindles and their cost skyrockets. In fact, he argues, if we do not learn how to turn our manures into fertilizer to keep food production in line with increasing population, our civilization, like so many that went before it, will inevitably decline.

With his trademark humor, his years of experience writing about both farming and waste management, and his uncanny eye for the small but important details, Logsdon artfully describes how to make fertilizer and humus by managing farm manure, pet manure and human manure.

About the author
Gene Logsdon farms in Upper Sandusky, Ohio. He is one of the clearest and most original voices of rural America. He has published more than two dozen books. He writes a popular blog at OrganicToBe.org, is a regular contributor to Farming Magazine and The Draft Horse Journal, and writes an award-winning weekly column in the Ohio Progressor Times.

Recommended Product for Wiser Living: Today, more than ever before, our society is seeking ways to live more conscientiously. To help bring you the very best inspiration and information about greener, more sustainable lifestyles, Mother Earth News is recommending books and products to readers. For more than 40 years, Mother Earth News has been North America’s “Original Guide to Living Wisely,” creating books and magazines for people with a passion for self-reliance and a desire to live in harmony with nature.