Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
A self-sustaining forest ecosystem includes not just a mix of trees but the understory of smaller trees, shrubs and groundcover plants, the animals, the soil and its biota, and all the dead matter lying on the forest floor.
This focus on resilient agrarianism underlines the point that ‘taking care of ourselves in a world on fire’ – to invoke the subtitle of Adam’s book – is going to be a heavily rural affair.
Is it smart to intentionally give up control over the release of modern GM plants at the very moment when AI technology will transform this technology to the extent that human intelligence may no longer be in the driving seat?
First you taste the fruit, then you know the territory, then you find the flower. That is the way round it is. Sometimes you travel a long way to come home with empty hands.
The rise of supermarket chains, the fast food chains, factory farming, food waste, the conversion of landscapes into monocultures, food deserts, obesity, malnutrition, ultra-processed food, you name it –the four mega-drivers have a lot more explanatory power than the prevailing, and infantile, narrative of consumer preferences.
As I see it, people generally seek peace, health and prosperity where they can. They care less whether those things are to be found in the city or the country. It’s the things themselves that matter.
And so, I plant. I keep pounding the ground, accompanied by several jars of saved seeds… I am lifted from my lethargy by the promise of arugula, endive, radicchio, lettuce, chicory… and resilience.
Increasing energy prices will also realign the balance between the urban and the rural to some degree and will most certainly pose a big challenge to megacities of thirty million people in areas without food production.
Immigration and border security will be the likely focus of U.S.-Mexico relations under the new Trump administration. But there also is a growing water crisis along the U.S.–Mexico border that affects tens of millions of people on both sides, and it can only be managed if the two governments work together.
The disciplines of regenerative agriculture and nature restoration both seek to establish a more natural relationship with land. Both are experimenting with understanding what that relationship might look like in a modern world.
The rivers in this region of northwestern Peru are running dry as the Amazon Basin experiences its most severe drought in decades.
A 2008 study found that individuals without access to supermarkets were 25 to 46 percent less likely to maintain a healthy diet. Farmers markets, supported by federal, state, and private food assistance programs, are helping to bridge the gap by offering a direct distribution model.
