Ready to Garden? Start Here
Starting a garden can be a big step. Knowing what to plant, when, and how–that takes time. And what if you want to branch out, and start raising animals? The learning curve is steep. That’s where we come in. These guides are some of our most popular pieces, walking you through everything from rotating your […]
“Jag kan inte tänka mig att gå tillbaka till ett jobb där jag inte kan lägga all min tid och energi på klimatet”
Carl Bärstad sa upp sig från sitt jobb och startade en kampanj för att få svenska pensionspengar bort från fossilindustrin. Vi har pratat med Carl Bärstad, initiativtagare till det kreativa klimatkollektivet Fund Your Mother, om varför han bestämde sig för att sluta sitt jobb och lägga all sin tid och energi på att bekämpa klimatkrisen. […]
Why One Group is Suing the Government Over Malathion, a Dangerous Pesticide
Malathion, a commonly used pesticide for both agricultural use and home gardening, has had a long and widely disputed history. First approved for use in 1956, it increased in popularity during the 1980s due to its efficacy against the Mediterranean fruit fly. Malathion has worked its way into products many US consumers wouldn’t take a […]
Growing Corn in the Desert, No Irrigation Required
This story was originally published by Reasons to be Cheerful, and is reprinted with permission. When Michael Kotutwa Johnson goes out to the acreage behind his stone house to harvest his corn, his fields look vastly different from the endless rows of corn you see in much of rural North America. Bundled in groups of […]
Can Human Urine Fertilize Our Crops?
This story originally appeared at Ambrook Research. Twice a growing season, a big yellow truck with the license plate “P4FARMS” pulls into Jesse Kayan’s farm in Brattleboro, Vermont, loaded with a thousand gallons of pasteurized human urine sloshing around in IBC totes. For more than 10 years, Kayan has been applying human urine to his […]
The High Tech Farm
Farming has come a long way in the last few years. We know, from the last census of agriculture, that farm life is changing. The number of farms is dropping, while the size of the average farm is going up. That means fewer farmers are working more land. In order to be efficient, farmers have […]
Spotlight On the Students Growing Kalo in Hawai’i
On a Friday morning in late September, the students in Naʻau ʻŌiwi gathered in Māhukona on the North Kohala Coast of Hawai’i Island to build beehive boxes. The apiary they are building will produce honey for their secret recipe plans for the statewide Kalo Challenge, which is the culmination of their nine-month program that […]
The Night Shift
Every morning, for years, Josana Pinto da Costa would venture out onto the waterways lining Óbidos, Brazil, in a small fishing boat. She would glide over the murky, churning currents of the Amazon River Basin, her flat nets bringing in writhing hauls as the sun ascended into the cerulean skies above. Scorching temperatures in the […]
Top 12 Food Changemakers of the Year
Our food systems in North American can be complicated. While there is plenty of food, many people struggle with access to enough food, and farmers may have difficulties reaching local communities interested in their products. Over 2024, we covered many people working to address these systemic issues. This collection is a look back over the […]
Spotlight On One Texas School District Revolutionizing School Lunch
When Marissa Bell started working for the Lake Travis Independent School District in Austin, Texas in 2020, she didn’t know the food supply chain was about to be turned on its head. As the dietitian and marketing coordinator for Lake Travis ISD, Bell is responsible for ensuring students have medically and culturally appropriate foods to […]