Tabla de contenidos para The 2024 Plants Edition en The Goodnewspaper

In 2020, a colossal wildfire tore through California's Big Basin Redwood State Park, burning 86,509 acres. But locals watched in surprise as thousands of tiny new tree seedlings sprouted from the charred remains. In an interview with Live Science, ecophysiologist Drew Peltier said researchers used radiocarbon dating to discover that the burnt redwood trees tapped into centuries-old carbon stores to grow anew. “What we found was that the trees used very old carbon reserves on the order of 50 to 100 years ago, which is by far the oldest observations of carbon reserves being used for something,” Peltier explained. These exciting new developments from the Big Basin Redwood State Park highlight how vital trees are to carbon storage. “The current scientific understanding is that forests have been absorbing a significant…

Last year, on an old sheep-grazing property in Victoria, Australia, the International Fund for Animal Welfare and Koala Clancy Foundation came together to plant 3,500 trees for future generations of koalas. The various owners of the property – which collectively spans over 1,100 acres – are former farmers who have now turned their sights on koala habitat restoration. “Landholder participation is so important,” said Janine Duffy, president of the KCF, in an interview with IFAW. “Some of the best, most fertile land in Australia for koalas is on private properties. So we need their help.” “We also need people: people from cities, people from towns, people from anywhere to come out and lend their hands to get these trees in the ground as fast as we can,” Duffy continued. “Because…

Eating vegan has the power to positively impact animals, our planet, and even our health. But switching to a plant-based diet – even just once a week – can feel intimidating. How will I get all of my protein? Does cutting out meat really make that much of a difference for my carbon footprint? Will I ever eat cheese again? Learning more about vegan diets, food science, and your own personal nutrition is paramount to an easy transition to more plant-based eating. Of course, every person – and every body – is different, so going into a dietary change equipped with knowledge is key to finding what works best for you. Whether you're just testing the waters on going vegan, or you're a beans and nutritional yeast fanatic trying to…

Vox's Meat/Less newsletter course is a great companion for going vegan. Subscribers receive emails filled with tips on consuming more plant-based foods, making new habits last, and about how food choices make a difference. Australian-based Nourish has become a global companion for those who want to adopt a plant-based lifestyle. Its newsletter includes vegan recipes, tips for health and wellbeing, mindfulness, and cruelty-free living. Another great tool for new vegans is Washington Post's Voraciously: Plant Powered newsletter. For 12 weeks, subscribers will receive a weekly email full of recipes, techniques, and tips to put more vegetables on their plates.…

For 13 years, San Diego native Rachel Nafis worked as an ER nurse in addition to juggling other jobs. When she was already on the verge of burning out, the COVID-19 pandemic seemed like a sign to leave her profession. “It was tough … but I couldn't have imagined anything else when we were at a breaking point,” Nafis told the LA Times. “I enjoy what I'm doing now.” For the last three years, Nafis has been a one-woman florist. She grows and cuts fresh flowers to sell to flower shops, event florists, and directly to locals. Her garden stretches across eight yards, forming a patchwork community garden. Nafis said her neighbors – many of whom are elderly or homebound – happily donated their lawns. “All of my gardens are…

GOOD Get to know more about the fascinating and highly complex world of trees. Our suggestion? Start by reading “The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate” by Peter Wohlleben. BETTER Donate your time, money, and skills to organizations like the Arbor Day Foundation (arborday.org), The National Forest Foundation (nationalforests.org), or One Tree Planted (onetreeplanted.org). BEST Get out there and make a difference in your own community! Local branches of the Nature Conservancy often have field volunteer opportunities to help plant and protect trees. Check out nature.org to get started.…

GOOD Plant native flowers. Before you garden, research the flora and fauna that are native to your area. They promote healthier soil, improve carbon capturing, and provide shelter and food for wildlife. BETTER Avoid pesticides. Plant pest-resistant plants and find natural alternatives like diatomaceous earth, chile pepper, and neem oil. “Companion planting” also goes a long way to repelling pests. BEST Save the bees! Nothing boosts local biodiversity like attracting bees to pollinate flowering trees and plants. Look into planting nectar-producing wildflowers in your yard, or even build a bee box.…

Today, the fashion industry is dominated by harmful dyes that are toxic to both the humans that wear them and to the planet as a whole, as pollutants from textile dyeing systems harm waterways. So when Vietnamese designer Thao Vu created the sustainable fashion label Kilomet109, she set out to make clothing collections out of nuts, wood, cotton, fruit, yam root, and more. “Luxury here means that it's not harmful to the environment,” Thao said in an interview with CNA Luxury. “Most of the raw materials, we grow ourselves. We do the weaving, dyeing, and designing in-house, so it's a complete cycle.” Thao's brand logo is “fashion from the ground up,” and she takes that motto seriously. The natural indigo they use comes from a decade-long collaboration with textile artisans…

Jenny Rosenstrach's “The Weekday Vegetarians” shows readers how to adopt a weekday plantbased mentality, laying out a plan for home cooks to create delicious meat-free meals that are easy, comforting and family-friendly. “How To Be Vegan & Keep Your Friends” by Annie Nichols is a guide for how to “cook, eat, and socialize” as a vegan in a world of meat-eaters. The book contains more than 50 recipes to help the reader feel like a more easy-going herbivore. “Seed To Plate, Soil To Sky” by Lois Ellen Frank & Walter Whitewater is a cookbook full of plantbased recipes using Native American ingredients that will leave readers with a full belly and a deep reverence for Indigenous history.…

There's a phrase – typically attributed to Greek poet Dinos Christianopoulos – that many of us may be familiar with: “They tried to bury us. They didn't know we were seeds.” It has taken root in a number of social justice movements and might be displayed on protest signs – but the cultural significance of seeds, agriculture, and land isn't always taken so literally. The following stories remind us how intrinsically connected nature is to both the atrocities and triumphs of the human experience. Protecting The Legacy Of The Palestine Heirloom Seed Library Home to deeply important crops like olive trees, grapevines, fig and citrus trees, Palestine's loss of agriculture through decades of political violence is an especially salient experience of grief and displacement for Vivien Sansour. The Palestinian artist,…

In May 2023, researchers from the University of WisconsinMadison made an exciting discovery. Their research, published in Science, found that saplings (baby trees) grown in soil microbes that have experienced drought, cold, or heat are more likely to survive when faced with those same conditions. So what does that mean, exactly? Soil that has endured harsh environments can help trees survive harsh environments, too. A win for climate resilience, these findings could help massive tree planting efforts by determining what types of soil can give young trees the best shot at survival. One difficulty scientists have had in predicting and maintaining the health of trees is that they live a long time and don't move or evolve very quickly. Fortunately, soil microbes and fungi are part of an intricate ecosystem…

For half a century, Atala butterflies were nearly impossible to spot in Florida, a state where they once thrived. Fortunately, there has been a decades-long community effort to plant native flowers vital to the Atala's survival, and it's finally paying off. “It shows if you put something in your yard, you get something in return,” Craig Huegel, a wildlife biologist, told WUSF NPR. The butterfly – which has black wings, beautiful blue spots, and a red body – relies on coonties (a type of drought-tolerant palm) as their preferred host plant. They flock to coonties to lay eggs and provide a food source for future generations of hungry Atala caterpillars. The coontie plant used to grow wild throughout Florida, but they were largely wiped out in the 1920s due to…

Water shortages, rising temperatures, and droughts caused by climate change have an immense impact on agriculture – and today's farmers are desperate to find solutions. In the western United States, some are turning to dry-farming, a form of agriculture that doesn't require irrigation. Here's how it works: Dry-farmed plants take moisture stored in the ground, rather than sprinkled from above. All farmers need is a wet, rainy season, followed by a dry growing season, as well as some methods like insulating a layer of mulch on top of soil to retain moisture, spacing plants more widely, and planting earlier in the season. It's not a one-size-fits-all solution, but dry-farming can save farmers thousands of liters in water every season – and help maintain a climate-resilient business. And the best part?…

GOOD Check out the USDA's Local Food Directories to find farmers’ markets, CSA programs, agritourism, on-farm markets, and more in your area! The best place to get started? Visit usdalocalfoodportal.com. BETTER Donate to the First Nations Development Institute, which oversees the Native Farm to School program, educating young people with Indigenous knowledge and decolonizing food systems. Visit firstnations.org. BEST Start or join a community garden! There are plenty of ways you can volunteer to support these projects, like tending to gardens, harvesting plants, distributing goods to neighbors, and even just spreading the word.…

GOOD Watch the documentary “Seed: The Untold Story” to learn about the ongoing threats to seed diversity and the importance of seed preservation through a multicultural and diverse global lens. BETTER Join the Seed Savers Exchange – a virtual seedbank – at exchange.seedsavers.org. Here, users can list fruit, vegetable, grain, flower, and herb seeds. Plus, you can even submit requests by mail. BEST Ask your local library if they have a seed library or seed exchange program that you can join. And if there isn't a program available, you can ask your library for resources on starting one!…

Isaias Hernandez uses his platform to improve environmental literacy, teaching over 100,000 followers about food sovereignty, intersectional en vir onmen talism, urban ecology, and more. @queerbrownvegan Tabitha Brown has taken over the feeds of 13 million followers with her soothing voice and wholesome approach to veganism. She is also an author and the host of the Food Network's first-ever vegan cooking competition show. @iamtabithabrown Bringing her audience along on her NYC vegan eating adventures, Rebecca Doudak combines her love of food and mutual aid to share community resources, vegan recipes, and local restaurants to connect others. @bodegacatx…

When we want to purchase a bouquet of flowers, most of us probably find ourselves shelling out a few bucks for a plastic-wrapped arrangement at our nearby grocery store (which might rhyme with Shrader Shmoe's). But as convenient as this is, the mainstream flowering world isn't so pretty. While the global floriculture industry is worth over $36 billion a year, the U.S. is the largest consumer of cut flowers, with a not-so-rosy penchant for importing flowers from other countries. Most flowers in the U.S. are flown from Colombia and Ecuador, and the ideal goal of getting a bloom from the farm to your kitchen centerpiece within five days means that the environmental footprint of your cute little bouquet might look a little like Taylor Swift's private jet tracker. Plus, flowers…

The term “GenX” might conjure up images of a generation raised on punk rock, grunge, and hip-hop, but it is also used to describe a family of chemicals known as PFAS (per- or polyfluoroalkyl substances). GenX has been infiltrating the water supply in coastal North Carolina for years, as the result of negligent chemical manufacturing by DuPont, Corteva, and Chemours, companies that make paints, laminates, cookware, and more. Exposure to GenX in the Cape Fear River Basin has been linked to health problems, including weakened immune systems, decreased infant growth, and higher rates of kidney cancer. It has also had a devastating impact on regional tribal communities like the Skarure Woccon, who rely on the river for fishing, herb collection, and medicinal plants. Jane Jacob (Eagleheart) of the Tuscarora tribe…

Plants have their own secret language – and entomologist Richard Karban has spent 30 years trying to decode it. “Gaining an understanding of how plants do such a good job, so much better of a job than we are able to do, is ultimately going to protect our agricultural plants,” Karban said in an interview with Fast Company. In 1990, he cut sagebrush to see how it affected a neighboring strip of wild tobacco. The tobacco became more resistant to pests, and Karban realized that it was due to volatile organic compounds released by the sagebrush, which sent a “warning” to the tobacco of its altered environment. Without root or physical connection, Karban concluded that the plants were communicating with each other. Karban is not alone in his fascination with…