A recent article published in Nature Medicine highlights the ubiquitous presence of synthetic chemicals in the global food supply and emphasizes the need to transition to a safer, more sustainable food system.
Kids can’t help but explore when they’re in natural areas. They climb on fallen logs, leap over tiny streams, and wander through tall grasses. Their imaginations are as activated as their senses. These kinds of experiences open new worlds to them. In Sharing Nature with Children, Joseph Cornell writes, ‘It is very helpful—almost essential—for people at first to have startling, captivating experiences in nature. This kind of first contact extinguishes for a moment the self-enclosing preoccupations and worries that keep us from feeling our identity with other expressions of life. From that release into expanded awareness and concern, love naturally follows. And memories of moments of love and expansion act as reminders of, and incentives to, a more sensitive way of living.’
A study in Birth Defects Research bolsters existing evidence that agricultural workers, and specifically Hispanic workers in California, are disproportionately bearing the burden of pesticide exposure. Caroline Cox, formerly of the Center for Environmental Health in Oakland, and Jonathan K. London, PhD of the University of California, Davis, examine how currently-used agricultural pesticides unequally affect communities along racial and ethnic gradients. Ms. Cox is a member of Beyond Pesticides’ board.
Walaita first learned high tree climbing for seed collection more than 25 years ago at a course organized by the Danish nonprofit DANIDA Forest Seed Center and has been honing his skills ever since. Over the years, he has trained a cadre of Ugandan botanists at Tooro, who can now safely collect seeds from even the most difficult trees, he says, improving their ability to propagate native species.
In response to federal immigration enforcement targeting farmworkers and their communities around the country, the United Farm Workers union (UFW) organized a demonstration in New York today, challenging Trump administration immigration policies and calling for the release and a halt to the deportation of farmworkers already detained.
I have always had a love and fascination for plants. I began growing them as a young boy at the start of grade school. I spent my childhood in the forest, learning the names of the plants and animals and understanding how they functioned as an ecosystem. I was destined to be a farmer because growing plants is fundamental to our work. Now, in my 70s, I continue to farm because my passion for growing plants and raising animals remains strong, and I will never quit. Two events profoundly influenced my approach to agriculture. In 1973, Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird published " The Secret Life of Plants," which confirmed what I had known as a child: plants are sentient beings that communicate.
Agroforestry, the ancient agricultural system of integrating trees and shrubs with crops and livestock, has seen a revival in recent decades in the U.S. Around the country, agroforestry projects have sprung up, bolstered by federal grants like the Department of Agriculture’s Climate-Smart Commodities program. Federal agencies have also partnered with nonprofits to provide training and resources for farmers interested in diversifying their crops, bolstering their soil, and sequestering carbon.