Sustainability has become the buzzword of environmentalists. But how do we live off the land without destroying it? In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, some hi tech and low tech solutions to our ecological quagmire. Also, why Henry David Thoreau is still a prophet ahead of our time.

Gene Logsdon says he's chosen two of the least lucrative means possible to earn a living: independent writing and small farming. He tells Judith Strasser why everyone in America should keep three hens. Logsdon farms 32 acres in Upper Sandusky, Ohio and is the author of "The Contrary Farmer's Invitation to Gardening." Also, environmental consultant Terry Gips tells Steve Paulson about the Natural Step program, launched in Sweden and growing in the United States, and gives examples from both countries of big companies that are changing the way they do business in order to promote sustainability.

Writer Bill McKibben recently edited a new edition of Henry David Thoreau's classic, "Walden." McKibben tells Steve Paulson that Thoreau is a Buddha for the Information and Environmental Age and that we are still grappling with his questions "How much is enough?" and "How do you know what's important?" Also, we hear a produced reading by Jim Fleming from "Walden."

Documentary film-maker Geoffrey O'Connor visited the Amazon over a ten year period, witnessing the greatest gold rush in Brazilian history, and the "Save the Rainforest" movement promoted by rock star Sting and companies like The Body Shop. He tells Jim Fleming that he got to know the Yanomami Indians and found it wasn't easy to reduce the situation there to a simple good guys vs. bad guys scenario. O'Connor's book is "Amazon Journal: Dispatches from a Vanishing Frontier."

Distribution dates:

• week of 09/19/99 - hour 2
• week of 11/01/98 - hour 2