Now in its third year, Sacramento’s Farm-to-Fork month features events to stimulate your appetite and your curiosity. The Sacramento Convention and Visitors Bureau promises more beer, an innovative conference and plenty of delicious tacos with locally-sourced ingredients.

Originally, U.S. zoos put wild animals on display for the entertainment of humans. But progress in our understanding of animal welfare, science and technology means zoo animals are no longer captive for our pleasure, but for their conservation and for the survival of genetic diversity.

How many generations does it take to belong somewhere? For the people born on U.S. soil, the law is pretty clear: only one. A pity then is the plight of the humble signal crayfish, pacifastacus leniusculus, who despite getting on more comfortably than even humans in the gentle climes of Northern California, is, and will seemingly always be, invasive.

One of the biggest challenges facing California “pot czar” Lori Ajax in developing the first statewide regulations for medical marijuana might simply be getting folks to grasp what she and her team are and are not doing.

Chanowk Yisrael wants to change the ‘hood for good. That’s his motto. But what does it take to truly transform a community through gardening? 

The Sacramento region prides itself as the Farm-to-Fork capital, and the UC Davis World Food Center is looking to bolster that reputation by developing a thriving economic hub for innovation in food and agricultural technology.

The Center for Land-Based Learning launched the Urban Farm Program in 2014 on a city-owned lot and with seed funding from two local banks. Fiery Ginger uses land owned by the Washington Unified School District. Other farmers use private property, for four sites total, representing six separate farm businesses — with two more to be added by 2017

As West Sacramento’s mayor since 1998, Christopher Cabaldon has been an integral part of the city’s metamorphosis from a gritty industrial outpost to one of the region’s most up-and-coming locales. We recently sat down with him to talk about riverfront development, craft breweries and the impending “green rush” of legal marijuana.

Oak Park’s Broadway throbs as bass bumps from one car and another’s engine belches. Someone honks their horn. Other cars buzz by well above the speed limit. This is urban living. But it doesn’t have to be. Thanks to Oak Park Sol, a newly-formed nonprofit serving as an urban land trust, this neighborhood is bringing nature back to its city-dwelling folks.

All water, conventional scientific wisdom goes, is recycled. The Earth’s water has been here since the planet formed some 4.6 billion years ago, and any given molecule may have passed through the bodies of dinosaurs, fish throughout the oceans, the living tissue of giant trees and numerous human beings.