MOTHER EARTH NEWS June/July 2022

Hello! My name is Marissa Ames, and I’m the new editorial director for MOTHER EARTH NEWS. In January, Ogden Publications merged with Countryside Publications, where I served as senior editor for four agriculture magazines. As our newly joined enterprises evolve, Hank Will has handed me the editorial baton, and I’ve accepted with zeal. Hank will continue to serve the MOTHER EARTH NEWS audience in other important ways. As for me, I come from a long line of farmers and homesteaders, and I’m excited to work with a magazine that shares this focus. This past weekend, I showed my compost to a new gardener. As my hands delved deep into the black gold, critters crawled across my wrists. Pillbugs, tiny beetles, and little gray spiders. My friend cringed. Twenty years ago, I would’ve…

The Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF), a PR firm started with money from Philip Morris to combat smoking bans, has been attacking synthetic meat through the website www.CleanFoodFacts.com. CCF isn’t open about its clients or funding, so it’d be conjecture to say that meat industry interests fund this campaign. The height of the campaign came in early 2020, when Clean Food Facts paid more than $5 million to run a Super Bowl ad. Since the ad, the Wikipedia pages for two chemicals found in synthetic meats (among other processed foods) became the site of information fights. On the flip side of this, Impossible Foods has its own PR arm, which was able to respond to the Super Bowl ad with a parody ad in under a week. Impossible offers many…

A group of researchers with Texas A&M believe they’ve settled a long-disputed claim by organic growers: Organic methods produce more nutrient-rich fruits. Specifically, the researchers found that strawberry plants whose leaves are damaged by insects produce more antioxidants before harvest. The research scores another point for nurture, showing that the plants we eat are more than the genetic material of the seeds they start from. Plants, the researchers write, have “a very complex defensive system” to respond to herbivores and pathogens. And the chemicals produced in this defense system happen to offer health benefits to humans. One implication of the research might be the importance of certain “pests” in agricultural processes, which likewise points to a need to protect insects for the sake of human food. Giving insects a bite to eat…

There’s a clear scientific consensus that a changing climate is leading to increased flood risks for more and more people. But there’s an even bigger factor than climate change when it comes to flood risk: development. According to a study published in Nature, “Projected population change … could cause flood risk increases that outweigh the impact of climate change fourfold.” Even as coasts and rivers become riskier to live near, more and more people are moving there. The researchers point out that the problem is systemic. From developers to lenders to home-seekers, there’s a lack of good risk assessment. They write that “academic efforts to model flooding under climate change are in their infancy and so are rarely used for commercial or regulatory applications.” They point to a need for better…

Archangel Ancient Tree Archive propagates the oldest, biggest trees left standing on the West Coast, the “champion trees” of the redwoods and sequoias. Archangel believes these trees, with more than 1,000 years of experience sequestering carbon — some more than 2,000—will prove key to fighting climate change. In a promotional video, co-founder Leslie Lee says, “They have a memory for surviving calamity, and that’s what we’re trying to capture.” So far, it’s unclear if cloning an old tree would create a tree that’s better able to grow old. Much recent research on plants has emphasized how they change in response to environmental factors. But through this research, a new understanding of forests has emerged: The strength of forest trees comes from lives spent in a diverse forest with ongoing cycles of…

Water Heater Creativity We’re so glad to see your article on a woodstove hot water heater (Hometown Hacks, February/March 2022). It’s encouraging to see others finding creative ways to heat their domestic water. My wife and I came up with a system that has worked well for 40-plus years up here in Vermont. The two main components are a stainless steel tank that we had fabricated at a local metal shop and a 30-gallon squat water heater. The 3½-by-10-by-18-inch tank hangs on the back of the woodstove and has an interior diverter that creates a U-shaped path for the water to travel and allows the inlet (cold) and the supply (hot) outlets to be on the same end of the tank. The hot water tank is located on our second floor alongside…