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An entrepreneur takes the power of healthy soils from local farms—and delivers it to people’s doorsteps
By Roberta Attanasio All around the world, champions of regenerative farming are spearheading new projects in their communities—bringing the marvels and potential of healthy soils to everyone’s everyday life. We need them! Few of us realize that—because of industrial farming practices—most of our soils are sapped, devoid of life and nutrients. Healthy soils, instead, are a bubbling universe of microbes and other organisms that work all together—creating a beautiful and efficient web of lively interactions. They all provide nutrients for exuberant plant growth, and therefore for our own growth and health. But how can we fully enjoy the products and benefits of regenerative farming and healthy soils during the still…
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Edith Meusnier — an environmental artist inspired by forests
By Roberta Attanasio Textile art is all around us, from the clothes we wear to the rugs in our homes. Made of interlacing fibers of any material, woven or knitted, textiles belong to the mundane as well as to the world of artistic expression. In her classic book on the art and history of weaving, Anni Albers writes “Along with cave paintings, threads were among the earliest transmitters of meaning.” Contemporary artists keep this ancient art form alive, mixing it with unique and innovative elements. “The zeal for textiles today is part of a larger global nostalgia for handmade things—alongside ceramics, glassware and mezcal—as an antidote to mass production, with…
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Sustainability in Action: Christmas Trees Provide Habitat for Coho Salmon
By Roberta Attanasio There are many remarkable features of salmon, and one of these is their ability to travel thousands of miles in the ocean, struggle with river currents and waterfalls, and finally reach their hatching place. Indeed, salmon live in the ocean, but are born and spawn in freshwater rivers and streams. The young salmon spend at least some of their early lives in freshwater, before swimming to the sea — where they grow and mature. With a few exceptions, Pacific salmon spawn only once and die within days of digging their nests in the gravel and mating. Coho salmon — one of seven species of Pacific salmon — is famous for its…
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Sustainability in Action: Family Farming
By Roberta Attanasio There are many family farms in the world, farms based on rural activities managed and operated by a family — they deserve our support for their contribution to the global food system and are now a recognized reason for celebration worldwide. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimates that there are about 500 million of these farms on our planet. The FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva said in his statement of November 22, 2013 “Family farmers rely mainly on family labor. Many times they have little more than their own physical strength to harvest the land. They usually run non-specialized, diversified…
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Sustainability in Action: Mushrooms Replace Polystyrene Packaging
By The Editors We’re all familiar with polystyrene, one of the most widely used plastics. Because polystyrene can be easily cast into molds with fine detail, it has a zillion uses and you can find it everywhere. Think of protective packaging products such as packing peanuts (foam peanuts), clamshell containers, CD and DVD cases, lids, bottles, trays and more. Polystyrene is very slow to degrade – it persists in the environment for a long time. Do you remember the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and the Plastic Footprint? What can be done to address this global environmental issue? Here we have an example: an innovative idea that becomes mushroom-based packaging, and …..…
