Returning to agriculture’s sustainable roots
When, save the last 100 years or so, has agriculture focused on a single product (plant, e.g., corn or soybeans, rice or peanuts, etc.)? Probably never intentionally – remember the oft cited ‘Three Sisters’ from Native American practices. According to Chavonda Jacobs-Young, Ph.D. Administrator, Agricultural Research Service. U.S. Department of Agriculture, “in agricultural parlance, ‘The…
Finally, a good piece on fences
After reading Mark and Delia Owens (post here) work the veterinarian fences in East Africa caught my attention and I followed up everywhere I could to find a NGO working to remove / improve fencing. Null … just nothing. Finally this last week, a great piece with good stories and details about fences’ evil and…
Too much light for plants protects them from insects?
This post I stumbled upon from The Guardian. The key to the post was a research paper in Frontiers in Plant Science. Here’s the Guardian’s summary that should get everybody’s attention. Streetlights left on all night cause leaves to become so tough that insects cannot eat them, threatening the food chain, a study has found….
Are you doing anything about earth overshoot?
Grist published an article explaining the day – there’s a day called “Earth Overshoot Day”. “Earth Overshoot Day” reminds us that humans consume more resources than the planet can provide. Correcting that requires reimagining human behavior. Grist Humans have taken more from earth than the earth can supply within balance since 1971. The question for…
Plastic pickers – is this the root problem?
A Grist post on plastic pickers really got me this morning. Here’s the set up and helps answer, ‘who are plastic pickers?’ an estimated 20 million people make a living by collecting discarded plastic, aluminum, and other refuse from dumpsites and landfills and selling it to recyclers. They’re called “waste pickers,” and though their work is essential…