MOTHER EARTH NEWS December/January 2023

I thought I had a lot to offer. But I have even more to learn. In January 2017, I made my first trip to Africa as part of a tiny nonprofit called I Am Zambia. For years, I’d watched the endeavors of a good friend, Heidi, who traveled to Zambia with another non-profit. I felt that Africa called to me, but I had no travel money or anything to offer. Then, Heidi co-founded I Am Zambia, focusing on educating young women to give them more options. The nonprofit purchased land within Mwembeshi village with the intent of building an elementary school with an attached farm to address food insecurity. Suddenly, I could help—and I Am Zambia wanted my help! Before that first trip, I created a business plan based on climate research…

“I’m so grateful for the early years of my life and the skills I learned. I’ve used them with raising my kids and now my grandson, teaching them to appreciate Mother Earth and use her resources wisely.” EDITORS’ PICK Checkin’ Out Moss I loved reading “Mossin’ Annie” (October/November 2022). After spending most of my life in Phoenix, Arizona — where we were always amused by newcomers’ fascination with cacti — I found myself being the one to entertain the locals when I moved to the Pacific Northwest a few years ago. My initial awe of “Wow, look at all these trees!” quickly became “Wait, what’s all this fuzzy stuff growing on them?” Perhaps folks aren’t amused to see a stranger lurking at the corner of their yard to examine the rocks in their…

Notably, it provides millions of dollars for building infrastructure to combat climate change in rural areas across the country. And through tax credits, energy rebates, loans, and grants, the IRA provides billions of dollars to support climate-friendly agriculture, forest conservation, and climate-resilient forests as well as sustainable, domestic production of biofuels. The IRA is the largest investment the United States has made in combating climate change. More than $20 billion has been designated to help farmers implement and expand conservation practices, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and encourage carbon sequestration in soil and trees; $14 billion will be invested toward clean-energy transitions in rural areas and creating clean-energy jobs in rural communities. According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the bill is unlikely to improve inflation for Americans in the near term.…

Nontraditional housing wasn’t necessarily something I was interested in when my husband and I were working on plans for building our new home. However, between our circumstances, our budget, and being open to something different, we ended up with a home that definitely fits in the nontraditional category. While we were researching our options, a few factors dictated our final decision. For one, we wanted to do a lot of the building ourselves. We knew we’d save money with sweat equity, but we had limited building experience, so whatever we chose had to be something we could either learn or figure out. Second, we didn’t want a basement, as we had endured all kinds of basement issues in the past with other homes. However, I had grown up in Kansas, a…

“Ancient grain” is a term commonly used as a marketing device by the health-food industry. Although there’s no technical definition, it’s widely accepted that “ancient grains” are grown for their edible seeds and have remained relatively unaltered since their original domestication. Modern grains, such as commercial wheat, have been dramatically altered from their original state through extensive breeding. While this has led to the creation of crops better suited to largescale commercial production, these modern crops often lack the nutrients available in their ancient counterparts. Most ancient grains are part of the grass family, Poaceae, although there are a few exceptions, such as the pseudo-cereals amaranth and buckwheat. In recent years, especially since the pandemic, there’s been an incredible surge of interest in local foods, gardening, and sustainable food production. Of…

When I was a kid, my grand-parents lived on a rural Kansas farm surrounded by fields of alfalfa and, later, adjacent to a wind farm. We’d drive by the turbines, with their giant blades slicing the wide sky, and continue down dirt roads until we saw the “Lazy S Farms” sign in front of their wooden farmhouse. I savored these trips, during which we’d visit the horses in their pen, the chickens in the garden, and the Red Wattle hogs in their run. I loved the piglets, but at the time, I gave no thought to what breed they were. So when my grandparents, Larry and Madonna Sorell, were later featured in Time magazine for raising a special breed of hog in high demand among well-known chefs, I glimpsed a world…