In the “at least things haven’t gotten worse” department, the price of food and other essentials stabilized somewhat but remains well above what it was pre-pandemic. Factors maintaining high prices include the continuing effects of the pandemic on the food chain and the impact of the Russia/Ukraine war.

Meanwhile, climate chaos (a phrase that’s much more accurate than the anodyne “climate change” or “global warming”) is already causing havoc, contributing to higher food prices by bringing droughts to some places and floods to others, leading to crop failures and economic hardship.

In many parts of the world, climate chaos will continue to hamper food production, particularly in areas suffering from prolonged drought and relying more and more on groundwater — leading to accelerated aquifer depletion. This threatens to create massive disruptions when wells run dry — something that’s already happening in many places and is likely to intensify dramatically in the years ahead.

I was stunned by a recent opinion piece in the New York Times about Uzbekistan’s disappearing Aral Sea. A photo accompanying the article shows rusted boats stranded in a lifeless desert that used to be a thriving port — now 75 miles from the nearest body of water.

All these developments highlight the critical importance of eating lower on the food chain. Doing so can save massive amounts of land, water, and other natural resources — and can significantly reduce the food system’s contribution to climate chaos.

And, as we frequently discuss on this site, eating more plants, fewer animals, and less processed food can also be a great move for your health.

In short, the mission of the Food Revolution Network is more important than ever.

A Couple of the Many Lives Changed by the Food Revolution

At FRN, we’re privileged to hear, almost every day, from people whose lives have been touched by our message. Some of the stories we hear make us cry! And all of them fill us with determination to carry on and to spread the word.

Here are just a few of the memorable member stories from 2023:

WHOLE Life Club member Diane M. from Saugerties, NY, USA, wrote:

“With WHOLE Life Club, I sought support and information to help me on my journey to a…  whole food, plant-based diet. It has done that and a whole lot more! I have lost over 120 pounds since September 2022. My A1c dropped from 10.4 to 4.5, my triglycerides are now in a normal range, my LDL cholesterol has dropped tremendously, and my HDL cholesterol is in a healthy range and creeping higher. I feel so much better, with more energy, motivation, and a healthier mindset. Thank you to WLC and all its members! I enjoy how positive everyone is, and the nonjudgmental way the leaders include everyone as they teach, no matter what phase students are in on their journey.”

Plant-Based Coaching Certification graduate Terry Baker from Oro Valley, AZ, USA, wrote:

“Food Revolution Network’s Plant-Based Coaching Certification was truly the answer to my prayers, and I am so eternally grateful. I value the PBCC so highly because not only did I learn about the vast intricacies of the human body and exactly what it needs to be truly healthy at any age, but also I gained the knowledge and confidence to successfully share this vital information with others, hoping to end unnecessary suffering and disease. Do not hesitate in taking this course! You have no idea what a beautiful, powerful, and positive impact you could have in this world! Thank you to EVERYBODY in the Food Revolution Network for making this course possible.”

The Future of Plant-Based Eating

More and more people around the world are showing an interest in moving toward a more plant-based diet, and the number of people who make the shift is also increasing.

Veganuary — a fun portmanteau of vegan and January — broke all previous records with more registered participants than ever, from nearly every country in the world. And many of those folks maintained a more plant-based diet after the 31 days of the event.

More and more restaurants, businesses, and other organizations are responding to an increased demand for plant-based options — and sometimes leading it — by cutting down on animal products or eliminating them altogether. NYC Health + Hospitals, which operates 11 public hospitals in New York City, now serves plant-based meals to inpatients by default. Not only are the meals healthier than before, but they’re also changing perceptions of how “hospital food” tastes — with chefs creating dishes inspired by Latin American, Asian, and other cuisines representing the populations served by these institutions.

In a move that might have seemed unbelievable just a few years ago, the US Conference of Mayors (a nonpartisan organization that includes the mayors of all 1,400 US cities with populations of 30,000 or more) ratified a resolution supporting a plant-based approach to fighting the epidemic of chronic disease, mitigating climate chaos, and saving money desperately needed by the municipalities.

The number of restaurants offering plant-based menu options is also increasing. According to research by the Plant Based Foods Association, 95% of restaurants that offer plant-based selections expect sales of those items to remain steady or increase. And four times as many foodservice operators were planning to add plant-based options as the number that were planning to remove them.

A student-led campaign in the UK, Plant-Based Universities, is working to get all university catering facilities to transition 100% of their menus to plant-based. Begun in late 2021, the campaign has given a voice to students who are voting to remove animal products from university food halls specifically to address the climate crisis.

And in the US, Representative Jim McGovern of Massachusetts won our “best acronym” award by introducing the Peas, Legumes, and Nuts Today (PLANT) Act in the House of Representatives on July 28, 2023. If passed, the act would establish an Office of Plant-Based Foods and Innovative Production at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and help fund farmers who produce ingredients specifically for plant-based foods, like legumes and mushrooms. It would also create a research program to further the development of plant-based proteins that could replace meat and offer technical and financial assistance to businesses that move the food industry in a more plant-forward direction.

Plant-Based Diets Continue to be Better for Your Wallet, Health, and the Planet

One of the nice things about advocating for more plant-based eating is that it tends to make people’s lives better right away — starting with their wallets. A study by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine found that adopting a low-fat vegan diet led to a 16% reduction in grocery bills, for an average savings of $500 per person per year.

If you’d like to avail yourself of the economic advantages of a plant-based diet, a good place to start is our article 7 Healthy Recipes for Eating Plant-Based on a Budget.

While the benefits of a whole foods, plant-based diet to your pocketbook can be felt immediately, it might take a few days, weeks, or months to notice health improvements. But scientific research continues to find more and more evidence that such improvements are likely.

A 2023 study published in the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine followed 59 patients with type 2 diabetes as they were placed on a low-fat, plant-predominant diet for six months, along with receiving standard medical treatment. By the end of the study, 37% of the patients, whose average age was 71, had their diabetes in remission.

A 2023 study published in the journal Nutrients looked at how diet, genes, and lifestyle factors contribute to obesity by analyzing body fat in adults. Researchers discovered that a plant-based diet helped reduce the risk of obesity, even for those with a genetic predisposition to higher body fat.

Another article published in the past year collected data from 55 recent human trials on the effects of a plant-based diet on cardiovascular disease. The authors wrote that the preponderance of evidence showed that incorporating more plant foods into the diet can protect against heart disease and may also help prevent other chronic conditions.

Plant-based eating, especially a diet rich in whole foods, was also found to be predictive of mental health. A 2023 study found that a high-quality plant-based diet may offer protection against depressive symptoms and should be considered as a lifestyle-based treatment for people suffering from the condition.

And in November 2023, the results of a carefully conceived and remarkable randomized controlled trial involving 22 pairs of identical twins were published in JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) Network Open. The study authors concluded: “The findings from this trial suggest that a healthy plant-based diet offers a significant protective cardiometabolic advantage compared with a healthy omnivorous diet.”

What About the Earth?

One of the major drivers of the trend toward more plant-based eating is increased awareness of the scope of the chaos wrought by human-made climate change. While switching to electric vehicles and replacing energy-guzzling appliances with more efficient ones are steps in the right direction, the impact of these actions pales in comparison with the effects of adopting a plant-based diet.

Research published in the prestigious journal Nature in 2023 found that, on average, vegans produce 75% fewer food-related greenhouse gas emissions than meat-eaters. And plant-based dietary patterns also reduce harm to land, water, and biodiversity.

Becoming a B Corp

Speaking of impacts on the world around us, we wanted to share some exciting company news about FRN. In 2023, FRN submitted an application for B Corp status with high hopes that the submission will be approved in 2024 (our Owners and Board members are Ocean Robbins and John Robbins, as you might guess).

A B Corp, or benefit corporation, is a type of company that’s recognized for meeting higher standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency. B Corps are committed to generating positive impacts on society and the environment.

The application process includes an extensive review of the company’s mission and where its impact is and is not aligned with that mission. The review looks at things like donation of money, products, or services to social causes and at-risk communities; decreasing pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, and production of waste; use of renewable energy and resources; support of tree planting and other forms of carbon sequestration; equitable compensation of team members; integration of mission-related responsibilities into employee performance evaluations and job descriptions; and providing employment and advancement opportunities for women, people of color, and other traditionally marginalized groups.

Since we started FRN in 2012, our mission has been front and center. We’re committed to healthy, ethical, sustainable food for all! So becoming a certified B Corp seems to be a natural next step to formalize our values.

Our 2023 Contributions to the Food Revolution

In 2023, thanks to you, our million+ community members, and 25+ FRN staff, we accomplished an amazing amount.

• We published 106 articles on nutrition, health, and sustainability topics and more than 148 new plant-based recipes. Our content reached more than six million unique readers, and our website was accessed over 13 million times.
• Through customer purchases of our digital products, we supported the planting of over 75,000 organic fruit or nut trees that will sequester more than 6,000 tons of carbon dioxide while providing food to low-income communities with Trees for the Future.
• In terms of non-digital products, Food Revolution Network put out its first physical cookbook this year. Real Superfoods: Everyday Ingredients to Elevate Your Health was published by Hay House on October 31, 2023. Over 9,800 people took part in the Real Superfoods Challenge leading up to its publication. And the book was an Amazon bestseller in its first week!
• Ocean delivered a captivating and inspiring TEDx Talk at the prestigious TEDx Alexander Park this year, and the excitement is contagious! His presentation, entitled “Eating Your Way to Happiness,” has already racked up more than a million views.
• Ocean was a featured speaker at Holistic Holiday at Sea, a plant-based cruise to the Caribbean, where he presented two keynotes. More than 150 FRN members and hundreds of other wellness enthusiasts participated in the cruise. To find out more about the cruise and get a $50 onboard credit for the next one, visit the Holistic Holiday at Sea website.
• Across our social media pages, Food Revolution Network had a combined reach of 5.6 million people, over 6.2 million impressions, and over 560,000 followers. Video content was the preferred medium on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram.
• The 2023 Food Revolution Summit was a special one, debuting as a full docuseries for the very first time. This year’s Summit reached 437,302 participants who viewed over 209,800 hours of empowering and groundbreaking content.
• We debuted FRN’s first foray into the coaching world with our Plant-Based Coaching Certification (PBCC). New and experienced coaches learned unique skills to help them empower their clients to transform their lives through a plant-based lifestyle. In the first cohort, PBCC welcomed 244 students. Graduation timing is flexible, but by the end of 2023, more than half of the inaugural cohort had already graduated. After completing a brief exam administered by the Lifestyle Prescriptions University in partnership with the nonprofit Lifestyle Medicine University Foundation, graduates received 24 CE/CPD credits from the National Board for Health and Wellness Coaching and 24 CE/CPD credits from the CPD Standards Office. Additionally, for RDs/RDNs, all activities offered by the Food Revolution Network’s Plant-Based Coaching Certification were eligible to receive CPEUs by the Commission on Dietetic Registration.
• FRN helped over 10,468 people improve their blood sugar balance and metabolic health with our Tackling Type 2 Masterclass and course with Brenda Davis, RD.
• Over 46,990 people received transformative guidance on implementing a healthy diet with our Food for Health Masterclass, and nearly 2,900 went on to enroll in the Plant-Powered & Thriving course it introduces.
• We shared The Need To GROW — an award-winning, solutions-based environmental documentary — with more than 181,300 audience members.
• We gave an awe-inspiring look into the mushroom kingdom to more than 61,600 people with the film Fantastic Fungi.
• The groundbreaking health film From Food to Freedom debuted to over 81,300 viewers.
• Our Healthy Heart Masterclass reached over 23,500 people, with 1,500 enrollments in the Healthy Heart course with holistic integrative cardiologist Mimi Guarneri, MD.
• FRN relaunched our Brain Breakthroughs Masterclass, taught by husband and wife neurologist team Drs. Dean and Ayesha Sherzai, to over 31,700 people, and shared their Healthy Brain course with over 1,750 people.
• More than 19,850 people participated in our first-ever Eat the Rainbow Challenge with the reopening of WHOLE Life Club registration.
• We helped over 3,300 people take small steps every day for two weeks with our 14-Day Plant-Powered Accelerator. Participants received healthy eating secrets straight to their inboxes to support lasting changes to their diets.
• And within WHOLE Life Club, we provided 53 Action of the Week videos, 12 expert interviews, 312 recipes, and monthly live member events (In the Kitchen Live Calls, Culinary and Coaching Q&As, and Community Connection Calls) with our WLC community, which has grown to more than 10,000 active members.

The Most Popular Food Revolution Network Blog Posts Published in 2023

These were FRN’s most popular new posts of 2023.

• Is Bone Broth Good for You? (88,432 views)
• Plant-Based Lysine: Do You Need Meat To Get Enough Lysine? (87, 715 views)
• The Importance of Fiber in Gut Health and Hormonal Balance (64,881 views)
• Goitrogens: Should You Worry About Their Effect on Your Thyroid? (58,403 views)
• The Zesty Truth About Limes: Exploring Their Health Benefits and Potential Risks (50,054 views)

The Most Popular Food Revolution Network Recipes of 2023

Snacks dominated the top-viewed recipes list this year, along with a couple of tasty and legume-filled curries. Unsurprisingly, our Super Simple Homemade Date Paste made the top ten again but has been dethroned as the most popular recipe.

Our most popular recipes for 2023 were:

• Easy Cheesy Herbed Crackers (18, 474 views)
• The Best Creamy and Crunchy Snack! (14,486 views)
• Thai Almond Chickpea Curry (13,409 views)
• Super Simple Homemade Date Paste (13,403 views)
• Sweet Red Lentil Curry (13,214 views)
• Creamy Vanilla Cinnamon Chia Pudding (13,206 views)
• Cherry Cheesecake Smoothie (12,376 views)
• Super Seedy Granola (9,794 views)
• Oatmeal Banana Bites (9,393 views)
• Sheet Pan Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp (9,139 views)

On a Personal Note

In 2023, my dad, colleague, and dear friend — and FRN cofounder — John Robbins, experienced the progression of a health condition, post-polio syndrome, that has had a significant impact on his life and on our family. He is working with it in a profound way, and we shared about it in this video. We have received nearly a thousand deeply moving responses to this sharing, and they have lifted our family’s spirits. The way my dad is working with this condition is profoundly moving to me — and to many other people, too.

My dad and I are profoundly privileged to work with an amazing team of 25+ at FRN. This is, without a doubt, the most friendly, cooperative, dedicated, accountable, and effective team either of us has ever been a part of. The FRN team works virtually, and as much as digital tools like Zoom and Slack allow us to collaborate and be in each others’ lives, they aren’t a perfect substitute for in-the-flesh human interaction. So I’m delighted to share that in October 2023, we hosted our first in-person team retreat since 2019.

Thank You for All that YOU Do

We work hard at FRN, and sometimes the mission that we’ve staked out, along with the tasks and deadlines that bring that mission to life, can feel daunting. So it’s important for us to constantly remind ourselves that the food revolution movement is a mission much bigger than my dad, much bigger than me, much bigger than any one person, and much bigger than the FRN staff. It’s a movement that is growing and gaining traction, saving lives and bringing healing to our world.

And that movement includes you, about whom I’ve saved the last word.

FRN has a voice and influence because of you. When famous and influential people and brands consider whether to partner with us, one of the things they look at is our “reach.” Because we’re over a million members strong, we can work with the folks who gave the world movies like Fantastic Fungi and The Need to GROW. We can interest a book publisher like Hay House in publishing our cookbooks (with another coming back for final editing next week for publication in 2024).

We can attract an all-star lineup to share their ideas in our annual Food Revolution Summit because they know that a huge audience is there to “eat up” their wisdom — and use it to improve the lives of themselves and their loved ones, their communities, and the entire world.

There’s a video that was published in 2009 on YouTube that went viral and has now amassed over 24 million views. Titled “Sasquatch Music Festival 2009 — Guy Starts Dance Party,” it’s a 3-minute clip showing a lone dancer doing a series of pretty goofy moves. After a while, he’s joined by his first follower and then a second. A little over one minute into the video, it suddenly turns into a dance party — a mass movement. The energy grows and becomes contagious. When I first watched it, I wanted to jump through my laptop screen and join in.

Without you, dear reader, my dad, our staff at FRN, and I would still be the first three dancers, enjoying ourselves but lacking impact at scale. Your willingness to embrace the mission and the frequent calls to action — and to share and amplify the messages and make them your own — is what allows us to make the contributions highlighted above.

So please know how absolutely grateful we are to you for all the ways you generously support our work and provide loving and helpful feedback to help us improve. And for all the ways you assume leadership in your families and communities, day in and day out.

Like: Moving toward a plant-based diet. Choosing organic produce when you can. Buying local, from farm stands and farmers markets. Buying less and loving more. Donating to worthy causes. Loving the people you love with your whole heart. Trying new healthy recipes from our blog articles. Sharing articles, films, and healthy food with friends and loved ones.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Thank you for caring about the food that you eat and the food you share with others. Thank you for caring about the well-being of the people who produce that food.

Thank you for aligning your actions and purchases with your values, and for being willing to look at inconvenient truths and adapt your behavior accordingly.

Thank you for all the ways in which you strive to be the change we all wish to see, and to manifest, in the world.

Here’s to all we accomplished together in 2023, and to the healing, compassion, and beauty we’re creating, one meal at a time.

May all be fed. May all be healed. May all be loved.

Ocean Robbins and John Robbins

Cofounders, Food Revolution Network

Tell us in the comments:

• How has the food revolution impacted your life in 2023?
• What was your favorite Food Revolution Network article from this past year? What made it special for you?
• What are you looking forward to in 2024?

Featured Image: iStock.com/Irina_Strelnikova

Read Next:

• Food Revolution Network’s End of Year Review: Looking Back on What We Accomplished in 2022
• Why the Global Rise in Vegan and Plant-Based Eating is No Fad (30x Increase in US Vegans + Other Astounding Vegan Stats)

The post Looking Back: Food Revolution Network’s 2023 Year in Review appeared first on Food Revolution Network.

At first glance, the operations of We Are The New Farmers and iwi could not look more different. One occupies a 1,200-square-foot space in a warehouse on the waterfront in Brooklyn, New York, where a microscopic organism called Arthrospira platensis grows in stainless steel tanks illuminated by grow lights. The other sits on 300 acres of scrubland in West Texas, where a similar single-celled species thrives in brackish ponds surrounded by mesquite and javelinas.

Despite the vastly different settings and scale, these companies are tackling the same challenge: producing food for a world in which fresh water and arable land are increasingly scarce.

With as many as 10 billion people crowding the planet by 2050, the world’s farmland, strained by extreme weather events, will be hard-pressed to churn out enough calories to feed everyone. It doesn’t help that the Western US is seeing the worst drought in 1,200 years, and American farmers are experiencing lower yields and livestock forage as a result. Or that the US has lost 11 million acres of farmland to development in the last 20 years.

Enter microalgae, a life-form that, like a plant, gets its energy through photosynthesis. It can grow in fresh, brackish, or salt water, and it doesn’t need soil.

While most often used in animal feed and nutritional supplements, algae like the kind We Are The New Farmers and iwi grow is gaining attention as a sustainable food for humans. It is “a crop for people who want to turn climate-stressed land into more productive, more resilient forms of agriculture,” says Jonas Guenther, cofounder of We Are The New Farmers, which started producing Arthrospira platensis — more commonly known as spirulina — in 2017. The start-up’s dark green food product, which has the consistency of hummus, can add protein, vitamins, and minerals to anything from smoothies to veggie meatballs.

The wide range of possible environments and the speed with which the single-celled organisms grow leads Miguel Calatayud, the CEO of iwi, to call microalgae “kind of perfection.” His nutraceutical company plans to make it a central ingredient in a line of protein bars and drinks later this year. “It’s unbelievable, like it’s coming from a different planet,” he says. “This is really a revolution in farming.”

Growing Algae

At iwi’s farm in West Texas, in a region where most conventional crops struggle to get enough water, the microalgae Nannochloropsis thrives. Iwi pumps brackish water from aquifers that have grown saltier over time from generations of agricultural use, and the algae love it. And since it’s grown in ponds, soil quality is irrelevant.

Algae is pretty much the most efficient organism at converting sunlight into nutrients.

Sean Raspet, Co-Founder and Product Developer of Nonfood

The growing process itself is also incredibly water-efficient. “It sounds counterintuitive because it grows in water,” says Guenther. During harvesting, the tank-grown spirulina makes several trips through a filter to remove more than 90% of the H₂O. The same goes for the Nannochloropsis grown in iwi’s open ponds. That reclaimed liquid nourishes the next round in a process that can be repeated several times.

Outdoor ponds inevitably lose more water to evaporation than indoor operations. “We can’t get around that,” says Jakob Nalley, iwi’s director of agronomy. But those losses are offset by how much protein algae provides with the relatively little water and land it requires, he says.

One analysis found that microalgae yields between 22 and 44 tons of protein per hectare, depending on the region. That’s as much as 36 times the amount from soybeans. It helps that the entire organism is edible — algae has no stems, no roots, and no leaves. It also grows at a staggering rate; under ideal conditions, spirulina, for example, can double its biomass in as little as 48 hours.

“It’s explosive growth,” Guenther says. Given that, algae can be harvested as often as every few days. And indoor systems can be customized with the ideal temperature, light, and salinity levels for a given strain, making the yields even higher and more consistent throughout the year. (It’s even possible to grow it without any light at all.)

“Algae is pretty much the most efficient organism at converting sunlight into nutrients,” says Sean Raspet, cofounder and product developer at Nonfood, which produces a microalgae powder meant to supplement savory food dishes. Raspet and others also celebrate the crop’s minimal “resource footprint” —  most algae operations do not use pesticides, and although they all require electricity to run, they don’t need fossil-fuel-intensive equipment like tractors.

Eating Algae

When Guenther first learned of spirulina in 2017, he recalls asking himself: “If we have this magic crop, if you will, why is it not something that we eat a lot more?”

Of course, you can’t eat the scum on the sides of a pool or poisonous algal blooms, but humans have been enjoying a handful of edible algae varieties for hundreds of years, if not longer. The Aztecs harvested spirulina and ate it as a dried cake. And it has long been harvested from Lake Kossorom in Chad, as well as in many countries in Asia. But algae is not a regular part of the modern diet in the Western world.

Guenther learned that microalgae’s primary market for humans is in the form of nutritional supplements because many varieties are rich in omega-3 fatty acids and protein. Companies like EarthRise, Nutrex Hawaii, and iwi grow algae for exactly that purpose. But Guenther saw an opportunity to use algae as the foundation of a whole range of foods.

“We want to create a world in which microalgae is a staple in every kitchen, making any meal better, brighter, and more sustainable,” says Guenther.

The folks at Nonfood had a similar idea: The best way of expanding algae production, they thought, was to produce an appealing product consumers could easily add to almost any dish. Nongredient, which is microalgae in powdered form, can be used in stews, curries, salads, and more, enriching them with protein and healthy fats. Cofounder Lucy Chinen says it has an umami flavor profile, and she compares it to nutritional yeast, a product vegans turn to for its savory, cheesy flavor.

Chinen isn’t aiming to create the next fake meat product. Algae stands on its own as both a historical food and something novel. “There’s a lot of talk… about meat replacements and stuff like that,” she says. “Nonfood is not really a replacement for anything.”

Scaling Up Microalgae Production

According to the Department of Energy, 139,886 square miles of land in the United States is suitable for microalgae ponds — a figure that does not include current cropland, forests, or environmentally sensitive areas. That’s larger than New Mexico. Although that analysis was aimed at expanding biofuel production, the fact remains there is plenty of land available to grow algae, regardless of its end use.

But a few hurdles need to be addressed for the algae industry to reach its full potential. Algae start-ups are tackling consumer barriers to embracing algae as a food by demonstrating just how many ways it can be eaten.

Another barrier to seeing algae in more kitchens is its cost. But We Are The New Farmers believes it can make algae more affordable by increasing yields. It is experimenting with injecting carbon, which drives algae growth. They predict the increased productivity, along with expanding production, will bring down retail prices. Iwi, which uses about 20% of its ponds, hopes its new algae bars and drinks will bring production to full scale.

Guenther hopes that by 2050, one-fifth of protein consumed worldwide will come from algae. While most of it won’t be produced in high-density areas, like the New York warehouse his company occupies, he sees growing algae in cities as a way to decentralize the supply chain. “Instead of building one large facility somewhere in the middle of nowhere where it’s super cheap, I’d rather have six facilities close to a major population,” he says. “And if there’s one thing we learned during the pandemic, it’s that being reliant on just one single stream of output is not the best way of operating.”

No one is arguing algae will become humanity’s primary source of food. But there is a growing understanding among environmental scientists, algae producers, and consumers that the magical single-celled organism, which thrives pretty much everywhere, could be a critical part of our culinary future. “We believe in the potential of microalgae to reimagine how we eat,” says Guenther. He hopes for “a circular future in which what we consume supports — rather than depletes — the planet we live on.”

For any environment, from abandoned industrial buildings to regions where the water is too salty for terrestrial crops, there is a type of algae (and a type of growing method) that can work. And that versatility is its power. “We can bring farming to places in the world where farming wasn’t even a concept,” says Calatayud.

Tell us in the comments:

• Would you eat algae?
• Have you ever had spirulina or another algae-based food product?
• What other sustainable crops are contributing to the future of food?

Featured Image: Mihály Köles on Unsplash

Read Next:

• Are Sea Vegetables Good for You and the Planet? — And Are Some Better Than Others?
• Are Green Powders Healthy?

The post Why Algae Could Be a “Magic Crop” for a Drought-Stricken World appeared first on Food Revolution Network.

The doctrine of signatures says that plants that resemble a condition or body part can in some way treat or alleviate related illnesses. Following that thinking, walnuts, which look like brains, were thought to ease headaches and mental health issues. Similarly, the scarlet roots of bloodroot were thought to treat diseases of the circulatory system. And since ginseng root looks like a human being, it was thought to aid and strengthen all parts of the human body. Indeed, the very word “ginseng” comes from the Chinese word for “man-root.”

But the doctrine of signatures is controversial and based on theory over scientific fact. So is it true that walnuts are actually good for brain health? What other walnut health benefits are there? And are walnuts good for the environment?

What Are Walnuts?

If you’re a word lover, you might enjoy adding “juglandaceous” to your vocabulary, in case you were missing a word for “of or pertaining to walnuts.” Walnuts are proud members of the Juglans genus, along with about 20 other tree species, including hickories and pecans.

Technically, walnuts can be classified as nuts or dry drupes, which is science’s alliterative way of talking about fruits with a single seed and a dry husk. Walnuts grow in groups of two or three and range between 1.5 and 2 inches in circumference.

The nut of the walnut forms inside a soft green outer husk and a hard shell. Crack that shell open carefully enough, and you’ll behold a whole walnut that resembles a human brain — including wrinkles, folds, and ridges.

Types of Walnuts

There are two main types of walnuts that you’re likely to encounter in your culinary adventures: English walnuts (also known as Persian), and black walnuts.

English or Persian Walnuts

English walnuts are the kind most walnut-eaters are familiar with, as they’re the type you’re likely to see in grocery stores. They have a sweet, mild flavor, and feature prominently in desserts, salads, and many savory dishes.

Although Persian walnuts originated in what is now Iran, they’re often referred to as English walnuts because they were brought to England by the Romans and traded throughout Europe. Since then, their popularity has led to them being grown commercially worldwide.

In the US, English walnut trees grow best in USDA Zones 4–8 (a classification system that tells farmers and gardeners which plants are hardy enough to thrive in various locations). More than 99% of US commercially grown English walnuts come from California, which supplies about half of the world’s walnut trade. Romania has become the main producer and exporter of walnuts in Europe.

Black Walnuts

Black walnuts are native to North America, and almost all of them come from trees growing in the wild rather than in commercial orchards. Since black walnut trees don’t grow in neat, evenly-spaced rows, they’re harvested by hand rather than by machine. The largest black walnut processor is Hammons Black Walnuts in Missouri.

Black walnuts are bolder and sweeter than English walnuts, with a distinctive earthy or musky flavor.

These nuts were and are an important part of Indigenous diets in the regions where they grow. It takes a lot of effort to harvest and remove their tough green husks and then crack open their extremely hard, black-ridged shells. There are even specialty nutcrackers made just for black walnuts.

In addition to eating black walnuts, you can use them for their oil, and for making deep black or brown dyes.

Walnut Nutrition

Like other tree nuts, walnuts have been an important source of plant-based fat and protein throughout much of recorded human history. They contain polyunsaturated fat in the form of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, including roughly 2.5 grams per ounce of alpha-linolenic acid (ALA). Omega-3s can also reduce the risk of heart disease and contribute to brain and immune health, as well as bringing anti-inflammatory benefits to the body.

Walnuts are high in B vitamins and are a rich source of minerals, including magnesium, phosphorus, manganese, and copper. Of all the tree nuts, walnuts are antioxidant champs, with higher concentrations than any other commonly consumed tree nut. As a whole plant food, they’re also a solid source of fiber.

Black walnuts may pack an even more potent nutritional punch. They’re higher in zinc and selenium than English walnuts and contain more antioxidants and polyunsaturated fatty acids.

The Health Benefits of Walnuts

Measuring the amounts of nutrients found in walnuts is all well and good, but what’s the effect of all that nutritional goodness on human health? There’s some powerful evidence showing that eating walnuts can benefit your heart, digestive system, and, yes, your brain. They may also be able to fight cancer and decrease chronic inflammation.

Walnuts and Heart Health

A 2013 clinical trial found that people who added walnuts to their diet improved the health of their blood vessels. The addition also improved their cholesterol efflux, a process by which the body removes excess cholesterol from blood vessels. Both of these outcomes are beneficial for heart health.

A large study published in 2018 looked at health and dietary outcomes for over 200,000 participants, none of whom had heart disease at the start of the study. After following them for 25 years, about 14,000 of the participants experienced coronary events (heart attacks and strokes). But those who ate at least one serving of walnuts per week had a 13–26% lower risk of heart disease.

Since walnuts are high in calories, some people worry that they might contribute to weight gain and thus increase the risk of heart disease. A 2018 meta-analysis addressed that very concern.

Researchers looked at 26 studies that included over 1,000 participants, to see the effect that walnuts had on lipid levels, weight, and other heart disease risk factors. Their analysis showed that, on average, walnuts actually lowered total and LDL (“bad”) cholesterol, and didn’t impact weight one way or the other.

Walnuts and Digestion

Walnuts can help to improve your gut health by promoting the growth of beneficial bacteria.

A 2018 study found that when healthy people started eating just 43 grams of walnuts a day, after eight weeks, their gut microbiomes became healthier and more diverse.

Another 2018 study found that eating walnuts increased concentrations of beneficial bacteria that produce a substance called butyrate, which is good for intestinal health. Additionally, walnuts can reduce the number of harmful substances produced by certain bacteria that can cause inflammation and increase “bad” LDL cholesterol.

Walnuts and Brain Health

Now we get to the brain. Are walnuts good for cognitive health?

A 2014 review article concluded that walnuts should be included in prevention strategies against the epidemic of cognitive decline and dementia. The phytochemical substances present in walnuts not only decrease oxidative stress and inflammation in brain cells but also boost communication between neurons, stimulate the formation of new neurons, and assist in the removal of harmful proteins associated with the development of dementia.

While human studies have repeatedly shown that diets that include walnuts are associated with improved cognitive performance and better memory, a 2020 mouse study explored the possible mechanisms for this. The study found that walnuts’ antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties suppressed the production of free radicals and enhanced antioxidant protection, consequently lowering the risk of brain degeneration. (Our view on the use of animals in medical research is here.)

A 2022 article also reviewed some of the ways walnuts are known to combat neuroinflammation, a major contributor both to aging in general and to neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s in particular. It quickly got technical on me, with phrases such as “inhibition of peripheral inflammation mediated by macrophages.” But the bottom line is that walnuts appear to reduce neuroinflammation through a number of synergistic biochemical mechanisms.

Walnuts and Cancer

A 2019 clinical trial studied the impact of walnut consumption on breast cancer growth and survival. Women with confirmed breast cancer cases were divided into two groups, one whose members began eating two ounces of walnuts daily after their initial biopsy, and a control group that did not change their diet.

After about two weeks, further samples were taken from the tumors. In the walnut-consuming group, the expression of 456 specific genes in the tumor was significantly altered to encourage cancer cell death and suppress cell growth and migration processes. This supports the idea that eating walnuts could potentially slow the growth of cancer cells and increase breast cancer survival rates.

A 2020 study found that black walnuts also demonstrate impressive anticancer activity, thanks to compounds such as penta-O-galloyl-β-d-glucose and quercetin 3-β-d-glucoside. I tried to remember the names of these compounds by putting them to the tune of “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious,” but I couldn’t get the syllables to match.

Walnuts and Inflammation

Black walnuts, in particular, show amazing anti-inflammatory powers. Two cultivars, named Surprise and Sparrow, demonstrated the ability to suppress inflammatory human white blood cells in a 2019 test-tube study.

But common English walnuts are no slouches in the anti-inflammatory department, either. In 2020, researchers published the results of a two-year trial in which one group of older adults consumed roughly 15% of their daily calories from walnuts, while others ate a similar but walnut-free diet. They found that the walnuts had a health-promoting effect on several inflammatory molecules implicated in cardiovascular disease.

Walnuts may battle inflammation through a compound known as ellagitannins, which can do some very cool anti-inflammatory things. It breaks down in your body to release another compound called ellagic acid. And your gut bacteria then transform this into substances called urolithins, which may have strong anti-inflammatory properties.

Are Walnuts Sustainable?

In general, nuts and other plant-based protein sources produce far fewer greenhouse gas emissions than animal-based food products. The main issue for walnuts is their need for water since half the English walnuts consumed in the world are grown in California — a state perennially vulnerable to drought.

Each pound of walnuts takes about 1,260 gallons of water, which is less than a pound of almonds or beef (which is kind of in a class by itself, requiring 2,400 gallons of water per pound), but still quite a bit — especially in a water-poor region.

However, walnut trees can also benefit the environment in some important ways. Walnut plantations studied in China increased soil carbon and promoted microbial growth and activities.

And black walnuts are potentially even more sustainable, at least on a small scale, since they are wild-grown and harvested by hand. They require no pesticides and don’t need fossil-fuel-driven machines for harvesting.

Walnut shells also have many industrial uses, some of which are being explored to replace less environmentally friendly alternatives. For example, the shells are being added to substances called geopolymers that can make highly effective insulation.

Walnut shells also have uses as gardening mulch and ground cover, animal bedding, ingredients in the manufacture of activated carbon, abrasive elements in cleaning products, and an energy source for bioethanol production.

Walnuts for the Win

Walnuts are an important tree nut and have been for thousands of years. And while they do use a lot of water, walnuts can also be good for the environment by pulling carbon into the soil. Their impressive nutritional profile makes them a standout for both culinary purposes and medicinal uses. Walnuts are a rich source of healthy fats and protein. And they’ve been found to have benefits for heart, brain, and digestive health, as well as in fighting cancer and inflammation.

For more on how to choose, store, and use walnuts in recipes, check out our article here.

Tell us in the comments:

• How often do you eat walnuts?
• What are your favorite ways to enjoy them?
• What surprised you the most about the health benefits of walnuts?

Featured Image: iStock.com/aslanyus

Read Next:

• You Won’t Believe How Healthy Nuts Are for You
• Are Hazelnuts Good for You? How & Why to Use Hazelnuts

The post Walnuts: Understanding Their Benefits, Nutrition, and Sustainability appeared first on Food Revolution Network.

Before long my fever was raging at 104 degrees, and I was so weak I was unable to muster a cry.

I’m grateful that my parents took me to a doctor, who put me on antibiotics. Within hours, my fever was down, and my sickness had reversed.

That antibiotic prescription may have saved my life.

What Exactly Are Antibiotics?

Alexander Fleming, a professor of bacteriology at St. Mary’s Hospital in London, discovered penicillin — the first antibiotic — in 1928.

He’d been experimenting with colonies of Staphylococcus bacteria growing in Petri dishes. And he noticed that one dish had a spot of mold with a clear ring around it. This ring was a secretion from the mold that prevented further bacterial growth. It turned out to be penicillin.

Fleming and his colleagues worked to isolate penicillin, discovering its ability to attack other bacteria, like streptococcus, meningococcus, and diphtheria bacillus.

In later years, researchers developed new antibiotics that were effective in killing different classes of bacteria.

Altogether, antibiotics have saved millions of lives worldwide — overpowering such potentially lethal diseases as meningitis, tuberculosis, and cholera.

When used appropriately, antibiotics are a blessing and a welcome arrow in humanity’s medical quiver. But the reality is that they’re vastly overprescribed.

According to the CDC, in 2021, health care professionals prescribed 211.1 million antibiotic prescriptions — and many of these prescriptions are unnecessary.

Many health care professionals prescribe antibiotics at an alarming rate. Sometimes they prescribe them without making sure the drug will effectively attack whatever germ is involved — or without confirming that it is a bacteria and not a virus. (Antibiotics are completely ineffective against viral infections.)

And this lax approach doesn’t come without consequences.

The Dark Side of Antibiotic Use

Antibiotics don’t just target harmful bacteria in your body. They’re destructive to all microbes, which can leave your body’s natural microbiome unbalanced and damaged.

And this ecosystem won’t always go back to normal unless you consciously make an effort to make it so. Odds are, if your microbiome is currently out of balance, past antibiotic use has significantly contributed to your condition.

It’s also likely that the health care professionals who prescribed those antibiotics to you didn’t discuss how to counteract the collateral destruction of good bacteria in your body.

A couple of years ago, I was considering taking antibiotics to fight a strep infection. I asked my doctor if he could recommend any protocol for repopulating my body with healthy bacteria.

He replied that he didn’t learn anything about that in medical school, so he couldn’t offer me any advice. “My wife took a nutrition class online,” he told me, “so she’d be a better person to ask.”

It’s pretty crazy, if you think about it, that our medical system is so good at destroying a bacterial ecosystem but so ineffective at rebuilding it.

For more on the importance of gut health, and the use of prebiotics, probiotics, and postbiotics, read our in-depth article here.

How Antibiotic Overuse Is Creating “Superbugs”

Not only do antibiotics damage good bacteria, but their overuse encourages the widespread development of “superbugs,” or bacteria that display antibiotic resistance.

Bacteria, you see, are very much like accountants. No matter how much you change the tax laws, there will always be wily accountants who will find a way around them to escape taxes. Similarly, when you increase the dose of antibiotics or engineer new ones, some bacteria will find a way to mutate and resist them.

As a consequence of antibiotic overuse, we’ve had to start turning to “last-line” antibiotics, or medications typically only used as a last resort when the usual medications no longer work.

These drugs are meant to be used sparingly in human medicine to limit bacterial exposure to them, in the hope of preventing the development of antibiotic resistance. Unfortunately, because antibiotic resistance has increased, the prescription of last-resort antibiotics has also increased.

Antibiotic Resistance Can Be Deadly

Antibiotic resistance is leading to more and more deaths that were once preventable. That doesn’t sound like the kind of progress we’ve come to expect from the field of medicine.

In the United States, nearly three million people contract an antibiotic-resistant infection each year — with more than 35,000 people dying. Worldwide, antibiotic-resistant microbes are estimated to cause nearly five million deaths per year. And these numbers are rising.

Superbugs now threaten to make many common infections, such as urinary tract infections and pneumonia, lethal once again.

Many public health authorities fear that we could be on the verge of entering into a “post-antibiotic world” that threatens to kill millions of people annually by 2050. Antibiotic resistance already costs over $55 billion in medical treatment and hospitalizations just in the US. And this number is expected to rise dramatically in the coming decades.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise, then, that the World Health Organization has declared antibiotic resistance to be one of our greatest global threats to health, security, and development.

But is the medical overuse of antibiotics really the primary cause of the rise of the phenomenon of antibiotic resistance?

Antibiotics in the Livestock Industry

Factory farms, also known as Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs), were created as a way to keep up with an enormous demand for animal products that’s emerged in the last century.

Modern farms look far different from farms of the past. The images that leap to mind when many of us think of a farm — the iconic red barn or a green pasture full of animals happily grazing in the sun — no longer represent how most farm animals spend their lives.

To say that animals in CAFOs endure close quarters and overpopulation would be an understatement. The average chicken raised for meat has less than one square foot of space per bird. And modern broiler operations have bred birds to grow so quickly that they often become unable to walk. As a result, these birds spend their lives sitting in feces. Animals regularly get sick, injured, and even die as a result of these miserable conditions.

So how do modern CAFOs cope with the threat of disease wiping out their livestock? Antibiotics to the rescue! Antibiotics are routinely administered (through injections or medicated feed) not just to livestock who have become sick, but rather to every single animal housed in these filthy and brutally inhumane conditions.

In addition to helping keep animals alive in an unsanitary environment, antibiotics serve another purpose, too. It turns out that antibiotics make animals gain weight faster — which increases producer profits.

How Do Bacteria Become Antibiotic-Resistant in CAFOs?

When bacteria have continual exposure to low doses of an antibiotic, any of the microbes that are resistant to the drug will survive and reproduce. The rest die off, resulting in a new bacteria population resistant to the antibiotic.

Modern factory farms provide continuous low doses of antibiotics to billions of livestock — thus creating the perfect conditions for breeding antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

If, for some diabolical reason, someone wanted to create conditions that would breed antibiotic-resistant bacteria, they would be hard-pressed to do better than the conditions prevalent in industrial meat production today.

The Truth About Food Recalls

Already, the breeding of bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics in modern meat production is hurting human health in many ways.

Have you ever gotten sick after eating at a restaurant? It’s an experience that’s not easy to forget. You just ate the most delicious meal, yet hours later, you’re regretting ever leaving the house that day.

Foodborne illnesses — such as salmonella, listeria, and E. coli — affect one in six Americans every year. That’s more than 55 million people annually. About 128,000 of them have to be hospitalized for their symptoms. And 3,000 of these people end up dying.

Two of the most common foodborne pathogens, Salmonella and Campylobacter, cause a combined 660,900 antibiotic-resistant infections in the United States each year.

Where do these bacteria come from? The truth is most pathogens that cause food poisoning originate with the intensive, confinement-based livestock production methods used in factory farming.

The US federal government tests supermarket meats to track trends in bacteria and resistance. Recent findings show that 73% of bacteria that FDA testing found on ground turkey were resistant to tetracyclines, the most widely used antibiotic in farm animals and a critical medicine to treat serious bacterial infections in humans.

Additionally, one in five strains of Salmonella in chicken meat were resistant to amoxicillin — the second most frequently used antibiotic on farms and the number one medication prescribed to children. And 1 in every 25 packages of raw chicken is said to have Salmonella contamination, according to the CDC.

E. coli has also been found to contaminate 40% of raw chicken samples tested. But beef is the most common source of E. coli exposure for humans. This bacteria is thought to cause up to 85% of urinary tract infections each year. It’s also a major part of the Salmonella risk.

What About Food Recalls from Vegetables?

“But, wait!” you say. “What about the E. coli that have been found in plant foods, like romaine lettuce or tomatoes? Aren’t vegetables as risky as animal foods?”

It’s a reasonable question to ask, given the media coverage of E. coli outbreaks. But the truth is, E. coli lives in the intestines of animals.

Last I checked, romaine lettuce and tomatoes don’t have intestines. The only way any vegetable can be linked to E. coli is to be contaminated by the feces of animals.

Usually, this contamination happens because there’s a factory farm upstream (or up-manure) from a vegetable farm. It’s remarkable how often these plain facts are not conveyed in media coverage of E. coli scares.

Pathogens, like E. coli and Salmonella, are abundant in animal waste, which can run downhill during a rainstorm or seep into underground aquifers, ultimately getting into nearby water systems that spread the pathogens elsewhere.

These hardy pathogens can spread not only to raw meat products but also to produce (through water or soil contamination) and to cooking surfaces where food is prepared. When you consume this contaminated food, that’s when you may get sick.

The largest multistate E. coli outbreak in over a decade, related to romaine lettuce, occurred in the spring of 2018. It ended up affecting people in 36 states, resulting in 210 illnesses, 96 hospitalizations, and 5 deaths. What caused it? All evidence points to a large industrial cattle farm near the affected romaine crop in Yuma, Arizona.

How Factory Farming Drives the Problem with Antibiotics

It’s true that antibiotics are overprescribed to people, and that is a problem. But antibiotics are used and abused even more egregiously in animal agriculture.

According to a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2015, the world uses about 63,000 tons of antibiotics each year to raise cows, chickens, and pigs. That’s roughly twice as much as the volume of all antibiotics prescribed by doctors globally to humans.

In fact, 80% of the antibiotics used in the United States are not given to sick humans, but to animals on CAFOs.

And antibiotics are typically NOT used to cure disease on CAFOs. Rather, they’re used to promote growth or prevent diseases from keeping animals in unsanitary conditions.

What’s worse, last-resort antibiotics for humans are commonly used in CAFOs. So it’s no wonder that resistant bacteria are rampant in industrial meat products.

Regulatory Efforts Have Been Botched

Attempts have been made to better regulate antibiotic use in CAFOs.

In January 2012, the FDA prohibited the use of cephalosporins in food animals. This didn’t make much difference, though, because this class of antibiotics makes up less than 1% of the antibiotics used in the United States on food animals every year.

A study published by researchers at Ohio State University in 2016 warned of the very real potential of a post-antibiotic age. The study was sparked when bacteria that was resistant to last-line antibiotics was found on a Midwestern hog farm.

The FDA eventually took action in 2017, stating that farmers were no longer allowed to give antibiotics to animals for the purposes of weight gain, nor could they buy antibiotics without the oversight of a veterinarian.

But even after the 2017 attempt to crack down on CAFO antibiotic use, government records show that things haven’t changed as much as many had hoped. While sales of antibiotics for agricultural purposes dropped right after the 2017 ban on use for growth promotion, they’ve somewhat leveled out since then. Officially, there’s no ban on using antibiotics to prevent or treat diseases in animals — and so many animals in CAFOs are unhealthy, that this could potentially allow for very widespread use. The fact is that many companies that pledged to reduce antibiotics in their food supply haven’t followed through.

Beef suppliers for some of the largest fast-food corporations, like McDonald’s and Taco Bell, are still using the highest priority, critically important antibiotics (HP-CIAs) on farm animals, despite the risks to human health. USDA testing shows that between 2017 and 2022, all 10 of the biggest meat packers in the US were using at least one HP-CIA on livestock. And according to reporting by The Guardian, the dosages used are identical to the ones used previously to fatten up cattle.

Because there’s no universal ban on antibiotics in the food supply, companies seem likely to continue finding ways to exploit regulatory loopholes.

Antibiotics Aren’t Only Used for Land Animals

Just as we’ve industrialized agriculture for land animals, we’ve done the same to aquatic animals. And although fish aren’t what typically comes to mind when we envision factory farms, that doesn’t mean that farmed fish are living in better conditions. Antibiotic use runs deep in the aquatic environment, too — and so does antibiotic resistance.

Farmed fish are often packed tightly together in huge, unsanitary pools. Just as happens in the factory farming of land animals, the fish are given antibiotics (and other drugs, like pesticides) to prevent the spread of disease.

A 2015 study published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials sheds light on this hidden problem. Researchers looked at 27 fish from 11 countries. The researchers found residues of five antibiotics — including tetracycline and other drugs used to treat human infections.

Remarkably enough, they even found residues in farmed fish with an antibiotic-free label. It turns out that farmed fish don’t have to be given antibiotics directly to carry them because many are eating antibiotic-contaminated fish meal.

Levels of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in seafood have exploded in the past 30 years.

For more on the true cost of farmed fish, see this article.

What Can You Do About Antibiotic Resistance?

The hope, of course, is that one day, governments will take stronger action against antibiotic use on factory farms.

Some countries have done so already, including Denmark, Sweden, Germany, and the Netherlands. And they are seeing significant reductions in antibiotic overuse.

Whether or not government policy grows more enlightened, we can all take positive actions now to help preserve the efficacy of antibiotics and to support better industrial food practices.

The most significant contribution we can each make is to transition to a plant-powered diet. And for those who opt to consume animal products, it’s best to go organic since the use of antibiotics is not permitted under organic certification. If enough of us make these changes, we’ll drastically reduce consumer support for industrialized animal agriculture — the inhumane industry that’s fueling this public health crisis.

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) has made avoiding factory-farmed animal products easier than ever with this handy Shop With Your Heart Grocery List.

How to Change the Future Right Now

Antibiotics are a miracle of medicine. But now, thanks to factory farming, antibiotic overuse has become a driver of what could become one of the most terrifying public health emergencies in history.

Unless we take action to preserve the viability of antibiotics for future generations, millions of lives will be lost.

The problem of antibiotic-resistant bacteria isn’t one that any of us can solve all by ourselves. Slowing its spread is going to take collective action from governments, farmers, corporations, and concerned citizens around the world. It’s also going to take reducing the frequency with which doctors prescribe antibiotics to humans.

But just because you and I can’t solve it all by ourselves doesn’t mean we should refuse to do what we can.

As a concerned citizen who wants a safe future for humanity, the number one step you can take is to boycott factory-farmed animal products. You can also go a step further and urge restaurants and supermarkets to do the same.

We should ensure a future in which, if a crisis arises, every baby’s life can be saved by these miracle drugs the way mine was when I was three months old.

Tell us in the comments below:

• Have you ever encountered antibiotic-resistant bacteria?
• Does this help you understand antibiotic resistance and how antibiotic use on factory farms affects humans?
• What did you find useful, interesting, or surprising in this article?

Featured Image: iStock.com/branex

Read Next:

• Unhealthy Conditions for Farm Animals are — No Surprise — Bad for Humans, Too

The post The Surprising Truth About Antibiotics, Factory Farms, and Food Recalls appeared first on Food Revolution Network.

According to economists (who, it seems to me, are a lot better at explaining the past than predicting the future), this massive food inflation is actually caused by a perfect storm of rising demand and lower supply — both intensified by several calamities (like droughts, floods, wars, and knock-on effects of the COVID-19 pandemic) — as well as rising costs for fuel and fertilizer.

For perspective, food prices have typically been rising by about 2% a year for a long time. But from 2021 to 2022, they went up by an average of 11%. And while things seem to have calmed down a bit since then, it’s still easy to get sticker shock any time you visit a cash register.

Even if you’re not paying more outright, you might be paying more in subtle ways. The food industry has recently implemented a tactic known as “shrinkflation,” whereby they offer the same product for the same price — in a smaller quantity, thus avoiding the appearance of higher prices. (“Hey, this is one expensive cornflake!”)

So why exactly have food prices gone up so much? Why do some foods always seem to cost more (or less) than others? And what can you, as a consumer, do about it?

What Influences Food Prices

Did I mention that I’m not an economist? That might be good news here because I’m going to try to simplify the issue of food pricing. There are a few major factors that always influence food pricing. These include how much it costs to produce the food (including the cost of labor for everyone involved in growing and processing it), the cost of transportation and distribution, good old supply and demand, and global trade policies.

Why have food prices gone up so much in the last few years? Three factors stand out, in particular: the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and the intensifying climate crisis.

The COVID-19 Pandemic

Starting in 2020, the pandemic disrupted nearly every link in the food supply chain. The food processing sector was hit particularly hard, with COVID-19 outbreaks racing through the workforce, due to many people working in close, inadequately ventilated quarters. And the increase in worker turnover, in addition to new COVID protocols, further increased food production costs.

The same labor shortages affected the shipping industry, causing delays and increasing competition for limited shipping space. This led to rising transportation costs. It also increased the price of labor: In order to attract workers, companies had to increase wages, a cost they largely passed directly on to consumers.

As many people shifted their food spending from restaurants to grocery stores, suppliers could not keep up with the change in demand, resulting in massive food waste that effectively decreased supply.

And while 2020 is in the rearview mirror, there’s a funny thing about economics. When prices go up, they rarely come down again. So in some ways, we’re still feeling the effects of the price increases that started in 2020. And now, some additional factors have intensified the situation.

The War in Ukraine

Before the war, Russia and Ukraine were among the largest wheat producers in the world, together accounting for 30% of all exports — and a staggering 12% of all agricultural calories traded on earth. Both production and export have dropped dramatically due to the war.

Russia set up blockades of Ukrainian food exports in the Black Sea, stranding food in ports and creating global shortages. Western countries responded with sanctions against Russian grain exports, intensifying those shortages.

In addition to embargoes on food, the West has also implemented partial bans on Russian exports. These have included oil and gas, which have increased the energy costs associated with food production around the world.

Another blockaded product is fertilizer. As Russia is a major exporter of synthetic fertilizers, accounting for almost 30% of all exports globally, fertilizer prices have also been soaring — impacting farmers and, therefore, food prices.

Increasing Climate Chaos and Disasters

As temperatures continue to rise, crops are sustaining damage from excess heat. And as precipitation patterns change, droughts and flooding (sometimes alternating in the same place) also prevent crops from thriving. This can harm crops by eroding soil, depleting soil nutrients, and increasing runoff.

No farmer wants to try to coax crops out of the ground in conditions of extreme and prolonged drought. As more and more of the arable land on Earth suffers under multiyear drought, farmers are increasingly relying on groundwater, which they’re depleting at an alarming rate.

Additionally, rising temperatures increase pest populations and sometimes allow new pests to take up residence in regions that had previously been inhospitable for them. Temperature shifts can also cause a mismatch in pollination cycles, so the “good” bugs can’t do their jobs — leading to low pollination rates or delayed pollination.

One more disastrous effect of a warming planet is the danger to agricultural workers. More and more of them are suffering from the effects of extreme heat as they toil in parched fields. The National Institutes of Health tells us that farmworkers are 35 times more likely to die of heat exposure than workers in other industries. As conditions become less hospitable, it can be harder for farm owners to find the skilled laborers they need to get their fields planted and harvested. And dynamics in US immigration policy have contributed to a shortage of these workers.

As the planet continues to overheat, and as groundwater gets depleted and droughts and floods intensify, food prices are expected to continue to increase in the coming decades.

Why Do Some Foods Always Cost More (or Less)?

Governmental policies cause some foods to be more expensive than they would be otherwise — while others are made artificially cheaper. To see this in action, let’s look at a category of foods whose price is inflated (organic foods) and another whose price is deflated (grains and the products derived from grains).

Organic and Healthy Food Costs

Organic foods are more expensive than their “conventional” counterparts for several reasons. For one, organic food typically costs more to produce because the process is more labor-intensive than large-scale industrial agricultural methods.

Supply and demand play a role here as well. There’s a much smaller supply of organic food than nonorganic, even though demand for organic foods has more than doubled in the past 10 years. While this demand has caught the attention of some farmers who have decided to convert part or all of their operations to organic methods, this process takes time. In the meanwhile, prices continue to rise as demand grows, but supply lags.

There’s also a policy choice that makes organic food more expensive, which is that organic certification is costly, and getting that certification can be time-consuming. Organic farmers must keep extensive records and pay for organic certification, while farms that use synthetic pesticides don’t have to do either.

Another reason for organic’s higher prices has to do with the concept of “externalities” — that is, costs that arguably should be included in the market price but aren’t.

For example, what are the true costs of topsoil erosion, pesticide exposure for farmworkers and consumers, water and air pollution, or of the routine use of antibiotics in modern factory farms? If these were factored in, we might find that organic food would cost less, not more, than its conventional counterparts.

The fact is that organically grown foods tend to be better for environmental protection and carbon sequestration, deliver higher standards for animal welfare, and contribute to a safer and healthier food supply.

But consumers still have to pay more, and sometimes a lot more, to purchase foods that are grown organically.

Despite this, there are still some compelling advantages to go organic if you can afford to do so. And if you can’t, then you might want to soak your produce in a dab of baking soda to help rid it of pesticide exposure (for our article on what works best, click here).

Government Subsidies

The US government provides agricultural subsidies — monetary payments and other types of support — to farmers or agribusinesses. This ensures that farmers receive a minimum price for their crops while also incentivizing overproduction and inflated production costs. That way, subsidized foods and products made from them appear cheaper than nonsubsidized foods.

Generally, only the largest producers can take advantage of farm subsidies. According to a report from the Environmental Working Group, between 1995 and 2021, the top 10% of all US farm subsidy recipients received almost 80% of all subsidies, while the bottom 80% got less than 10%.

The five major “program” commodities are corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton, and rice.

Most soybeans and corn are produced by massive monocrop farms rather than small family enterprises. A lot of this subsidized corn and soy is fed to livestock, which artificially lowers the price of animal-derived foods produced on factory farms. All told, the US federal government spends $38 billion every year subsidizing the meat and dairy industries. Without these subsidies, a pound of hamburger meat could cost $30, rather than the $5 price seen today. But the true cost plays out in its impact on our health, animals, and the environment — and in the form of taxes and expansion of the national debt.

Is it better in Europe? Well, in many ways, it’s not. According to a 2019 report from Greenpeace, nearly one-fifth of the EU’s entire budget goes to subsidizing the livestock industry.

In effect, these subsidies consistently decrease the price of things like factory-farmed meat, high-fructose corn syrup, white bread, and many of the additives in our food supply — creating a marketplace distortion that makes fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and other healthy staples more expensive in comparison.

To my eyes, it’s a bit like we’re all being fined for wearing our seatbelts. If we want to do the safer and more responsible thing, we have to pay extra.

What You Can Do About Rising Food Prices

If you’re feeling the pinch of rising food prices yourself, there are several strategies that can help you stay within your budget without sacrificing your family’s health.

Make a budget and shop from a list to avoid making impulse purchases while at the store. Prioritize nutrient-dense foods over calorie-dense ones. The latter may seem cheaper by the pound or the calorie, but in terms of what foods can do for you (or to you), good nutrition is more economical than impaired functioning or chronic disease. And buy and cook in bulk to save money and time.

Try to shop locally if you can to avoid incentivizing costly supply chains. If you’re in the US and use SNAP benefits, keep in mind that you can use them to shop for fresh produce at many farmers markets.

Also, buy organic when you can. If you are in a position financially where you can afford to spend more, you can “vote with your dollars” (or euros or pounds or rupees) to make the system fairer and more accessible to everyone. But if you can’t afford the organic price premium, then aim for non-GMO produce items and wash them thoroughly to reduce your pesticide exposure as much as possible.

If you have to choose which fruits and veggies to buy organic, check out the Environmental Working Group’s Dirty Dozen and Clean 15. Choose organic members of the Dirty Dozen club, and don’t sweat nonorganic Clean 15 items.

Frozen fruits and vegetables can sometimes be more affordable than fresh ones, and they contain abundant nutrition.

And reducing your consumption of animal products can not only help feed the world’s population because we aren’t cycling our crops through animals (a process that wastes at least 9 out of every 10 calories, depending on the crop and the animal eating it), but it can also lead to reductions in costly greenhouse gas emissions, too. Plus, beans tend to be a lot less costly than beef (to animals, the environment, and your wallet, too).

Food Pricing Is Complex, But Healthy Eating Shouldn’t Be

The recent surge in food prices has highlighted the intricate web of factors influencing the cost of our food. From labor shortages and technology costs to climate change and war, the forces at play are vast and interconnected.

But there are ways to navigate these challenging times. By adopting conscious strategies, we can mitigate the impact of rising food prices on our wallets and well-being. Through awareness and mindful decision-making, we can not only do right for our health, but we can also contribute to a more healthy, sustainable, and equitable food system.

Tell us in the comments:

• What foods that you buy frequently have gone up the most in price recently?
• Have you made any changes or substitutions because of food price inflation?
• Which cost-saving strategies could you try?

Featured Image: iStock.com/Ilija Erceg

Read Next:

• A Guide to Going Plant-Based: What to Eat, Benefits, and How to Succeed
• 7 Healthy Recipes for Eating Plant-Based on a Budget

The post The Price of Food: What’s Making Food So Expensive & What You Can Do About It appeared first on Food Revolution Network.

In the United States, the Animal Welfare Act is intended to protect animals from cruelty. However, it specifically excludes “farm animals used for food, fiber, or production purposes.” Unlike dogs, cats, and hamsters, the law treats farm animals as unprotected commodities. The fact that they are, like all animals (including humans), capable of a broad spectrum of emotions, including affection for other beings, is considered essentially irrelevant.

But just outside Los Angeles, there exists an oasis of compassion and hope for farm animals. Founded by Ellie Laks in 1999, The Gentle Barn stands as a resolute response to the way society tends to treat animals in the modern industrialized food system.

The Gentle Barn is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the rescue and rehabilitation of abused and neglected animals, especially farm animals. The organization is based in Santa Clarita, California, and they have two additional locations in Nashville, Tennessee, and St. Louis, Missouri.

In addition to giving animals a safe and loving home, The Gentle Barn offers educational programs and therapy to help children and adults heal from trauma. Individuals can participate in cow therapy, horse therapy, or barnyard therapy (with pigs, sheep, and other smaller farm animals). And The Gentle Barn also offers private tours for groups of up to 30 people, as well as field trips for schools.

Open to the public every Sunday, The Gentle Barn welcomes nearly 750,000 visitors per year.

We sat down with founder Ellie Laks to find out what makes The Gentle Barn such a draw for so many, and how they’re working towards a more healthy, ethical, and sustainable world for all (farm animals included!).

How The Gentle Barn Got Started

FRN: Could you tell me a little bit about how The Gentle Barn got started and what kind of work you do here?

Ellie Laks: The Gentle Barn was a dream of mine since I was seven. I loved animals and noticed that the people around me didn’t see them the same way that I did. And so I kept saying, “When I grow up, I’m going to have a big place full of animals, and I’m going to show the world how beautiful they are. And all the hurting people of the world can come and heal with us.”

So I procrastinated for a really long time because I had no idea how to do it. And then, 25 years ago, I lived in a little house with a half-acre backyard, and I discovered a petting zoo I’d never seen before. And to make a long story short, the animals were suffering terribly. I tried to leave, and blocking the exit was a very old goat who looked me in the eyes, stopped me in my tracks, and asked me for help.

So they wouldn’t let me have her. I stayed there for 12 days. Finally, they let me have her; and I brought her home, fixed her, and realized how rewarding that was. I went back for more animals. And then, one day, I looked out my little picture window to a backyard that was full of animals and said, “Holy crap. I just started my dream.”

We’re now home to horses, cows, pigs, sheep, goats, chickens, turkeys, peacocks, llamas, emus, and dogs. And we’ve specifically taken animals that have nowhere else to go because they’re too old, too sick, too lame, or too scared. They’re just not adoptable. We bring them in and take them through a very extensive recovery program.

And then once they’re happy and healthy, if we can find them a home and family of their own, we do. If not, then they stay here for the rest of their lives. And then, when they’re ready, we partner with them to heal people with the same stories of trauma, and connect to the love and magic of animals.

Rescuing Animals from the Jaws of Death

FRN: Do you rescue specifically from factory farms? What kind of state are they in when you get them?

Ellie Laks: Yeah, absolutely. So one of the brilliant things that my partner and cofounder of The Gentle Barn, Jay, does, is he strikes up really good relationships with owners of slaughterhouses, stockyards, and auction houses. And so when they have a downed animal that they can’t produce into a profit, or when they have an animal born on the kill floor, instead of doing away with it, they call us and give us an opportunity to save them.

So Jay has gone around the country going into the darkest places on this earth, pulling animals out of the jaws of death, bringing them home to me to heal. He’s rescued cows from veal crates, every kind of animal from the slaughterhouse, gone into auction houses and been able to prevent the slaughter trucks from buying those animals.

When they come in, they’re all very sick, and they’re all very scared — that’s a given. They’ve seen the worst of humanity. They know what was about to happen to them, and they’re in shock. And so we have to go to great lengths to really show them that people can be kind and the world can be good.

Sometimes we can prove that to them in a few months. Sometimes it takes years. And still other times, the only time I touch or embrace these animals is on their deathbeds. And I can finally show them love. We’ve rescued so many animals in that way.

John Lewis the Cow

Ellie Laks: My favorite story is about the cow I got to raise in my house. He was born inside the slaughterhouse. And we have an arrangement with the owner of the slaughterhouse that when someone’s born there, he’ll allow us to have the baby and the mom because the chance of a baby’s survival without the mom is very bleak.

But in this scenario, there was a logistical reason and a health reason why they wouldn’t let us have the mom. And even though she was on death’s door, they processed her anyway, which really should tell people who they’re eating.

There is no difference between any of the species other than our perspective of them.

Ellie Laks, Founder of The Gentle Barn

So he was left orphaned and extremely sick with pneumonia at a week old. And we brought him into The Gentle Barn and brought him into our healing center, where we started the recovery process with great vet care, medication — the whole nine yards.

And we realized that it was so hot outside that we couldn’t lower his temperature in order to save his life. And so Jay and I looked at each other and said, “We got to bring him in the house into the air conditioning.”

So we brought him into the house. I was with him 24/7 for the first six months until he was finally cleared to start interacting with the other cows and having playdates with them.

And then, at nine months old, I came to pick him up after a playdate, and he said, “No, I don’t want to go. I want to stay with the cows.” So he moved in with the cows, and I cried all the way back up to the house.

I think the reason this is my favorite story is, number one, I had a cow in my house. I’m the luckiest person in the world.

Number two, it’s really easy to go, “Oh, well, but it’s a cow; it’s not a dog.” Or, “It’s a pig, not a cat.” And there are all these boxes that people like to put animals in: These are animals worthy of love, affection, and protection. These are animals that we eat; these are animals that we wear. These are wild animals that we don’t understand and that are dangerous. We have all these boxes, and it’s just not true.

And so what I love about the time I got to spend with John Lewis [the cow] in our house is it really once and for all proved there is no difference between any of the species other than our perspective of them. We’re judging them as different, so they show up differently.

But the minute you see a cow like a dog, he’s a dog. John Lewis, to this day… He’s now three years old. I still give him a bottle of warm water and some chlorella algae superfood in the morning to boost his immune system. And I sing him his morning songs. And I kiss him all over, and we spend time together.

But he comes to me when I call his name. He walks on a leash like a dog. We’ve even taken him to hiking trails. He slept on a dog bed. He had toys. It really broke those barriers once and for all. And so I love sharing John Lewis and his story with people — because if we could just erase those lines and just accept that we’re all the same, we just look different, what a world this could be.

The Recovery Process at The Gentle Barn

FRN: Wow. So what do some of the recovery processes look like? Is it the same for every animal?

Ellie Laks: More or less. The general protocol is that animals come in and do a 30-day quarantine with us, during which time we’re making sure that they’re not sick, so they don’t bring in a disease to our existing family. But we’re also reading to them, meditating with them, singing to them, playing musical instruments for them, coming and going so that they can get used to us and start to trust us.

At the same time, we’re collecting fecal samples, making sure they don’t have parasites, and putting nutritional supplements in their water to boost their immune systems.

And most of the time, for the first time in their lives, they have a soft bed; they have shelter; they have fresh food, clean water, kind humans; and they start recovering physically and emotionally — slowly.

When their quarantine is over in 30 days, the next step is to introduce them to other animals of their kind. And with some animals like horses, pigs, chickens, and goats, the process is very slow because the animals’ first instinct is to reject newcomers. But slowly they get used to each other, and they become family.

With cows, that process is very quick. Because we can put a new cow in anywhere, anytime, at any of our locations, and the other cows are like, “Oh, hi. Come on in.”

But once they’re acclimated to other animals of their kind, then we need to see what is left over. So they might still be sick or lame or old. They might still have trust issues with people. And so we continue their recovery, their rehabilitation, and their treatments until they don’t need it anymore. Some animals that come in need ongoing care for the rest of their lives.

Adopting Out Animals

FRN: So the ones that are adopted out, where do they go? Do they go to other sanctuaries or individual people, or what does that look like?

Ellie Laks: Yeah. Every once in a while there’ll be somebody who has a ranch or a farm or a giant backyard, and they’ll invite a farm animal to live with them. And we’ve adopted out turkeys, chickens, goats, sheep, horses, and dogs. The only animal that we’ve never adopted out is a cow. I’ve never had a person say, “Can I please have a cow?” Which is weird because I think everyone should have a cow. They’re the most misunderstood and the most magical animal.

[The animals] all have healing for us. They all have life lessons for us. Like practicing confidence and leadership skills with a horse is unparalleled. Practicing empathy and compassion with smaller animals that we’re cradling in our arms is unparalleled.

But I think, as a tribe, cows are everything that we’re supposed to be. They’re matriarchal; they’re vegan. They meditate every single day. Family and connection is the most important thing. So they really lift each other up and support each other. They celebrate life. They celebrate death. They face their challenges head-on, and they’re 100% inclusive.

They’re a beautiful community, and they’re very, very gentle on Mother Earth. They harm no one. They’re that feminine, beautiful, nurturing energy. They’re everything that we will be one day. I have to hope.

Saving Buddha the Cow

FRN: Yeah. How did you discover that the cows were able to give that to you, and how did the cow therapy evolve?

Ellie Laks: So when I started The Gentle Barn, I found out that there was a miniature cow breeding program up in Washington State. I called the guy, and he explained, “Oh, miniature cows are easy to raise and easy to kill, and you can have household food for a year or take their milk.”

So half of me was sorry I asked. But then he started talking about how gentle and kind they are. And he had a beautiful cow, and his grandkids raised her, and she was so sweet. But, unfortunately, she couldn’t get pregnant and earn her keep, so she was going to slaughter.

By the time I had hung up with him, I knew that this cow was coming home to me. So I asked him, “Can I have her?” He was like, “Well, you’re going to have to pay what I would get for her.” And I was like, “Hold off on her slaughter. Give me time.”

And this was very early on at The Gentle Barn, where I really didn’t know how to raise money. So I literally put my son on my hip, my year-old son, and I went door-to-door to my neighbors. And I told them what was happening and how I wanted to save her, and asked if they would chip in. And I thought for sure they were going to slam the door in my face, but they didn’t. And they wrote checks. And I raised the money to save her.

FRN: That’s amazing.

Ellie Laks: I know. It’s crazy. And I knew she [Buddha] was special right off the bat; because that very first open-to-the-public Sunday, she immersed herself right into the center of a big crowd of people, lay down, and invited them to hug her, brush her, and pet her. And I watched with my jaw dropped.

The Evolution of Cow Hug Therapy

Ellie Laks: So then my ritual, then and still now, is every single night before I go to bed, I go out to the barnyard. I make sure all the chickens and turkeys are safely on their roosts. I tuck the pigs in with blankets. I give treats to the goats, sheep, horses, and cows. And I make sure everyone’s safe and feeling good before I go to bed.

So on this particular night, I think it was the day after that Sunday, I went out to do my barnyard check. And I said goodnight to everybody. And everybody was in the barn, all roosted and stuff. And I was walking back through the yard, back to the house. She was lying down in the yard, the last animal that I went to say goodnight to. And I was going to pat her on the head and tell her that I love her, but something made me stop. There was something about the way she shifted her body. She was like, “Sit with me.”

So I sat down at her shoulder; I leaned against her body because she’s giant and cuddly and fuzzy. And the next thing she did changed my life. She wrapped her neck around me and held me, and she didn’t let go.

And I was so astounded by her love of me, by her nurturing of me, by that gesture of kindness and connection, that I started weeping into her shoulder. It’s one of those things where you don’t know you’re stressed out, but then all of a sudden you realize how stressed out you are.

And so those nightly hugs became a must, and she would help me wash away the day. She would help me have strength and hope for the next day. She would help me get out of my head and my to-do list and be more centered and grounded.

And early on in those hugs, I remember thinking, “I have got to find a way to give the world these hugs.” So part of the original design was that we would rescue animals and then partner with them when they’re ready to heal hurting people.

So I opened the phone book, and I started calling probation camps, drug and alcohol rehab centers, domestic violence shelters, foster agencies, homeless shelters, war veteran centers, and said, “Look, I know that you have people who are hurting. I know that some of those people are not responding to traditional therapy. Bring them to me.” And they did.

And we would always start with Buddha by putting their faces down on her side and closing their eyes and just breathing in and out and feeling her energy — and she would crack them wide open.

They came cold, defensive, and hardened by life, and she melted them into little kids. And she helped them become vulnerable. And it’s only in vulnerability that you can heal. And then they would go back to their therapy sessions; and all of a sudden they’re talking, and they’re relating, and they’re healing. And during her lifetime, Buddha gave out 300,000 hugs.

She taught me everything I know. She taught me to meditate. She taught me to be grounded and centered. She taught me what these animals are capable of — the healing that they’re capable of. She showed me how to connect these hurting humans with these hurting animals, and I owe her everything.

And so she is the creator of Cow Hug Therapy, and she’s the reason why we do Cow Hug Therapy for people now.

Becoming Vegan

FRN: Wow. So our site mostly deals with plant-based eating, nutrition, and health. So I was just curious — because plant-based eating is becoming more popular and more mainstream — have you seen any change in the support of what you do or the number of visitors because people are more interested in where their food comes from, or the impact of factory farming on animals, or just plant-based eating in general?

Ellie Laks: Yes. I have a lot to say about that.

I became a vegetarian when I was 11. I met a chicken. I realized that was chicken and rice. And I was done.

Volunteers were coming to check The Gentle Barn out, and somebody said, “Are you vegan?” And I said, “No, I’m American.” And he said, “No, I mean, do you eat animals?” And I was like, “Oh, no. I went vegetarian when I was 11.” He said, “Yeah, but what about dairy and eggs?” And I said, “Well, it doesn’t hurt anybody.” He told me the truth. I went vegan on the spot. That was 24 years ago. I’ve been vegan ever since.

I became a vegetarian when I was 11. I met a chicken. I realized that was chicken and rice. And I was done.

Ellie Laks, Founder of The Gentle Barn

But it’s funny because, in the beginning of The Gentle Barn, I didn’t really know the word vegan, which is so silly to think of now. The word vegan was not mainstream, and the word vegan was almost a dirty word. And so we grappled with how we present it. How do we talk about it? How do we make sure that we’re not threatening to people? Because The Gentle Barn is not just gentle to animals. It’s gentle to people.

So we wanted people to come in and look these animals in the eyes, hug them, hold them, cuddle with them, hear their stories of resilience, and realize that we’re just basically all the same. But we didn’t want to offend anybody. We want it to be a gentle experience. So we were like, “God, can we even say the word vegan without upsetting people?”

Now, 24 years later, vegan is mainstream. Do you even realize how many vegan options there are at Disneyland? All stores, all major chains, most fast-food restaurants… You can go anywhere. Nowadays, small town, big town, it doesn’t matter. You literally can go anywhere and say, “What’s vegan on your menu?” And the waiter will have some modicum of awareness of how to guide you. It’s incredible.

Plus, 24 years ago, when I opened The Gentle Barn, plant-based eaters were 0.5% of the population. We are now at 7%. Huge progress.

Facing Grief as an Animal Sanctuary

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A post shared by The Gentle Barn (@thegentlebarn)

FRN: Have you faced any challenges or obstacles with your rescue efforts?

Ellie Laks: Huge. Nobody does anything good unless you have a lot of challenges. So I started The Gentle Barn, like I told you, in my little half-acre backyard using my first husband’s paychecks. My first husband was not amused and soon left.

In came Jay as a volunteer, and later we fell in love and joined forces. But during those early years, moving from that half-acre to where we are now and growing into a national organization, there were a lot of financial challenges.

The other challenge for a sanctuary is dealing with the level of loss. Obviously, humans tend to have a longer lifespan than animals. So those of us who love animals tend to have to say goodbye at some point. At The Gentle Barn, with 200 animals — and over the last 24 years, we’ve rescued thousands — we have loved so many, and we have said goodbye more times than I could possibly calculate.

And so there was a time early on in The Gentle Barn when I was so brought down to the ground with my grief that I said, “I made a mistake. I can’t do this. I’m not strong enough. This is going to destroy me.” And I had to figure out how to stay with it and how to survive and have me not go down with the ship.

And so I had to really examine compassion fatigue, grief, and loss. And that’s a very large part of what I talk about in my [next] book, Cow Hug Therapy, about what the animals taught me about death, how they grieve, and how life and love are eternal.

And so that process from grief to gratitude, I had to work out.

How You Can Support The Gentle Barn

FRN: I think when I first heard about you guys, you were doing a fundraiser. I am just curious: Besides the visits and the fundraising, how else can people support you?

Ellie Laks: There is so much more that goes into taking care of farm animals other than hay, water, and shelter. There’s preparing for fire season every year and having the trailers and the trucks be able to evacuate. In this changing climate, we’re much hotter than we used to be: How do we keep them cool? We’re much colder than we used to be: How do we keep them warm?

I think the first thing that I would say in answer to your question is there are so many people who love animals, but very few of us can open our own sanctuaries. We need people to partner with us. We need people to fund our endeavors and to become our partners so that we’re rescuing animals together. Because they can’t do it without us, but we can’t do it without them.

The other thing that I would invite people to do is to follow us on social media. We’re on all social media platforms: The Gentle Barn on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, and Twitter/X. See these beautiful videos and stories of the animals and their recovery and what they teach us, and learn about being connected to animals. It’s beautiful.

And if you live close enough, find a Gentle Barn either in St. Louis, Nashville, or Los Angeles; and come and visit and hug a cow, hold a chicken, cuddle a turkey, and give a pig a tummy rub. And look in the eyes of these magical animals, and realize that we’re here to protect them, defend them, love them, and listen to them.

And then the last thing that I want to mention is the biggest way you can help is by adopting a plant-based diet.

Every single person who goes plant-based saves 200 animals a year. So in effect, by going vegan, they are opening a sanctuary; because they’re saving 200 animals just with their knife and fork. Modeling that for others, being part of the solution, being part of gentleness and nonviolence.

—–

Ellie Laks is the founder of The Gentle Barn Foundation, a national organization that rescues and rehabilitates unwanted animals and heals people with the same stories of abuse and neglect. She invented her own “Gentle Healing” method that allows old, sick, injured, and terrified animals to fully recover. She is the creator of Cow Hug Therapy and has hosted hundreds of thousands of people who have come to The Gentle Barn seeking healing and hope.

Ellie is a powerful speaker, celebrated animal welfare advocate, humane educator, animal communicator, and the author of My Gentle Barn: Creating a Sanctuary Where Animals Heal and Children Learn to Hope and the upcoming Cow Hug Therapy: How the Animals at The Gentle Barn Taught Me about Life, Death, and Everything in Between.

Tell us in the comments:

• Has an animal ever taught you something about life or yourself?
• Were you aware of The Gentle Barn before reading this interview?
• What other animal sanctuaries or animal welfare organizations should we know about?

Read Next:

• Unhealthy Conditions for Farm Animals are — No Surprise — Bad for Humans, Too
• What You Eat Can Impact Climate Change! See 9 Foods That Harm the Planet and 11 Foods That Can Help Save It

The post Changing Lives Through Compassion: The Gentle Barn’s Extraordinary Mission for Animals and Humans appeared first on Food Revolution Network.

Think of a tree losing its leaves, which end up on the ground. Little critters (that’s a fancy scientific term, which I like to imagine translates as Tinius Buggiums in binomial nomenclature) use them to stay warm, munch them down, and then poop out rich soil. When the critters die, they get digested by other organisms, and their nutrients get absorbed into the tree roots. Or if they get eaten by birds, they get converted into bird poop, which also feeds the soil under the sycamore the bird was perching on.

When humans rake up and bag the leaves, or for that matter, mow a lawn and remove the grass clippings, they’ve broken the cycle. So to keep the trees and lawns alive, they may in turn replace the missing nutrients with synthetic fertilizer. And they need to find a place to store all the plastic bags full of yard waste.

Similarly, when we don’t return food scraps to gardens and farms, we create two problems that don’t exist in nature: where to put ever-growing heaps of trash, and how to grow food in increasingly depleted soil.

That’s where composting comes in — that is, putting the scraps in a place where nature can do its thing.

But what if you have little to no outdoor space, or live in an apartment? What can you do with your kitchen scraps then?

The good news is that there are many ways you can keep food scraps out of your waste stream even if all you have is a little space in a basement, garage, spare room, or even just on your kitchen counter.

So how can you start composting in your own kitchen? What are your options? What tools do you need? And how can you ensure you don’t end up with a kitchen that smells like the bottom of a restaurant dumpster?

Why Save Your Food Scraps?

As planet-friendly as a diet may be, if it’s generating a lot of food waste, it can still be a real burden on the planet.

When food scraps rot, they release methane, a greenhouse gas that traps 84 times more heat than carbon dioxide. Many of our landfills turn into huge steaming piles of methane-emitting organic waste, which seriously compromises any plans of reversing our ever-intensifying global climate chaos.

Some of our garbage is burned, and here, too, organic waste is a problem. When moist food scraps end up in incinerators, they require a lot of extra energy to keep the burner temperatures high enough to fully incinerate all the trash. The higher temperatures also contribute to the release of more toxins into the air. This can cause serious health problems for nearby communities (which are disproportionately low-income and communities of color).

We definitely don’t want that. So what do we do with all those food scraps? Wait for NASA to figure out how to tow them to Venus?

Here’s the thing: Kitchen scraps are actually a hugely valuable resource, one that’s mostly wasted in our broken food system. In fact, food waste wasn’t even accepted in municipal waste programs until the mid-20th century. Instead, they were often fed to backyard or farm animals, or were kept in a separate underground receptacle called a subterranean receiver.

Other creative ways to reuse food scraps and keep them out of the garbage stream include making art with them, creating skin care products, or even using them in new recipes. Depending on the scrap, you might even be able to coax it to grow into more food.

(For some more ideas, you can read our article on How to Use Food Scraps to Reduce Kitchen Waste.)

But if you aren’t ready to turn your cucumber peels into a facial mask or decorate a dress with pumpkin seeds, you may want to try composting instead. That is, letting nature take its course with your food scraps, turning rotting peels, skins, seeds, pits, and ends back into rich soil that’s ready to grow the next generation of crops.

Saving Food Scraps in the Kitchen for Compost

Food scraps are organic materials, which means they can break down and benefit the soil in the form of compost.

Some US cities are actually mandating composting, requiring that you place your food waste in a separate container from regular trash or recycling. If you live in one of those municipalities, you probably have a green bin that’s earmarked for food waste. If you’re not sure if your county or city offers municipal composting, you can check one of the maps on the environmental nonprofit GreenBlue’s website.

But even if you don’t live in a city with a composting program, there are other ways to utilize your food scraps for compost.

There are apps like ShareWaste or MakeSoil that are basically compost brokers, connecting neighbors who produce compost with neighbors who want it. It’s kind of like Tinder, but you don’t have to resort to ring lights, beauty filters, or duck face.

There are also other community composting options via local farms, community gardens, recycling centers, or private composting companies.

If you have a garden or other outdoor space, you might have room to nurture a traditional compost pile or tumbler. And if so, you might benefit from checking our guide to home composting.

And for any of these methods, you can easily collect food scraps in a small compost collection bin in the kitchen before either throwing them in a larger bin, donating them to a community program, or emptying them into an outdoor compost pile.

What Can You Compost?

While all organic materials are theoretically compostable, some will take so long to break down that for all practical purposes, they’re not appropriate for kitchen composting. Some municipal compost programs also don’t accept certain types of food scraps, such as animal products or even citrus rinds. And some accept disposable utensils and containers made of bioplastics, while others don’t. Check with your local program administrator for a full list of approved items.

For a general list of what you can compost, here’s a handy (and possibly even dandy) infographic.

Tips for Controlling Food Scrap or Compost Odors

The smellephant in the room when it comes to composting is the fact that composting is kind of an elegant name for rotting. And rotting smells. As singer-songwriter Tom Chapin puts it in his composting anthem “Good Garbage”:

“Good garbage breaks down as it goes
That’s why it smells bad to your nose
Bad garbage grows and grows and grows
Garbage is s’posed to decompose.”

So here are some suggestions for a largely odor-free compost collection experience.

Use a bin with a lid. This will not only trap odors but also help prevent pests like fruit flies. (As Groucho Marx sagely observed, “Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.” I had to think about that for a bit before it made sense.)

Empty your compost container regularly. This is definitely not a “set it and forget it” hobby. You’ll figure out the right schedule for you, which will depend on the amount of kitchen scraps you generate, the type of bin you use, the ambient temperature and humidity, and whether you sing to it or not (OK, I made that last one up because I wanted a longer list). Some folks empty their bins weekly; others find that daily is more appropriate.

Keep your home reasonably cool, especially in the summertime. Nothing says “strong pong” like produce rotting in a sauna-like environment.

If you can’t get rid of your scraps in a timely fashion (say, you’re going away for a few days and don’t want to return to a “Silence of the Yams” horror-scape), you can freeze them in an airtight plastic or glass container. This will halt the process of decomposition so you won’t end up with nasty aromas.

Finally, clean your container after each emptying. Check whether it’s dishwasher safe; some should be washed only by hand. Even if you’re using a compostable plastic bag, you may find that some slime has made it into the interior of your container, so a good scrubbing with a brush and soapy water can go a long way to keeping your kitchen smelling like the room in the house where food goes before it’s eaten, as opposed to after.

Compost Collection Bins

There are a range of compost bins on the market, varying in look, price, convenience, size, and capacity. You can go high-end (well, not that high-end; as of this writing, there are no Gucci or Prada composting bins) or simple, small or large, minimalist or packed with features. You can also DIY compost bins out of just about any container you have lying around.

In the end, though, their ultimate purpose is to collect and contain your food scraps so they don’t go to waste and end up in the landfill (or sit around and attract flies and perfume the air with eau de sewage).

DIY Compost Bins

Henry David Thoreau warned, “Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes.” Similarly, you don’t need to invest in a fancy compost bin to collect your food scraps. You can repurpose almost any type of container, although you’ll definitely want a lid to keep the odors in and not floating around your kitchen.

Some examples of DIY compost containers include plastic or glass storage bins, buckets, bowls, flowerpots, and empty food containers like coffee cans.

Countertop Compost Bins

If the idea of a grungy orange five-gallon bucket from Home Depot sitting between your toaster and blender doesn’t fill you with joy, you can also purchase a simple compost container made specifically for that purpose. They come in various materials, including plastic, stainless steel, bamboo, and ceramic.

Some bins can be used with compostable bags, which may make it easier to clean the inside of the container. If you’re part of a municipal composting program, check with the administrator to find out if they actually accept compostable bags, as not all do.

Some commercially available containers also come with filters made of activated charcoal or carbon to capture odors before they can escape and assault your nose (or entice it, if you happen to have the nose of a fruit fly).

Countertop Composting

While the containers we’ve looked at so far are just receptacles for holding kitchen scraps, there are also ways to create compost right on your countertop. This type of composting is especially well suited for single people or couples without children, who generally generate less waste than larger families.

Countertop composting can also be very convenient since you don’t need to venture outside to deal with the scraps; you can gather up the peels and seeds right next to where you process the food. And it’s a great option to make a dent in food waste if you live in an apartment, don’t have outdoor space, or don’t have access to a curbside composting program.

There are three main ways to perform kitchen composting: One is powered by worms, another by fermentation, and the third by electricity.

Worm Composting

Worm composting bins take advantage of the fact that many worm varieties can eat up to half their body weight each day. And they’re diligent about rapidly converting that food into worm poop, which is a lot less gross than it sounds and is actually really nutrient-rich soil.

The fancy name for worm composting is vermicomposting (if you’re raising the worms, you’re engaged in vermiculture). It’s a pretty straightforward process: Feed worms food scraps, keep them sufficiently aerated and hydrated, maintain a liveable temperature, harvest the castings on a regular basis, and keep them contained so they don’t start casing your kitchen looking for food.

You’ll need a waterproof container with air holes (which you can either make yourself or put together from a purchased kit), moist bedding material, and worms (which you can order online, much to the delight of your mail carrier).

If seeing the worms in your kitchen makes you squeamish, it might be better to keep it out of sight under the sink or in another room, at least on those nights when you’re serving linguine or (etymology alert) vermicelli.

(If you’re a dedicated vegan, you may or may not determine that vermicomposting aligns with your ethical sensibilities. Personally, I think that building a world with less waste — and more compost! — contributes to the cause of compassion. But of course, as in all things, do what makes sense to you.)

Bokashi Composting

“Bokashi” means “fermented organic matter” in Japanese. And the Bokashi method of composting speeds up the process by introducing microorganisms into the mix, the same wee beasties that occur naturally in garden soil. Bokashi is usually done in a bucket with a tight-fitting lid and a spigot at the bottom (like one of those big glass beverage dispensers people use at cookouts, except instead of iced tea, you get Bokashi tea).

All you do is throw in your kitchen scraps, cover with a layer of bran inoculated with the microorganisms, and leave it alone. As the food waste pickles, it produces a dark, nutrient-rich liquid that you can access through the spigot, which, mixed with lots of water, your house plants will simply adore. Also, drawing off the liquid keeps the fermenting compost from smelling like an open sewer once you open it.

After somewhere between 10 and 21 days, you can open the bucket and behold what can charitably be called “pre-compost.” It’s not crumbly soil, but the food waste is fermented enough that it can either get mixed directly into a garden bed or finished in a compost pile or compost tumbler. Most Bokashi systems use two buckets in rotation, so you can feed scraps to one bucket while the other one is “locked” in fermentation.

You can buy Bokashi buckets and inoculated bran online or from a local garden store. YouTube searches will also show you how to make your own buckets and DIY vegan inoculated bran. Or to check out a starter kit that comes complete with bucket, spigot, and inoculant, click here.

Electric Composters

Electric composters bring the ancient art of rotting food into the modern age. They don’t just collect food scraps, but actually break them down into usable soil in a matter of hours. They do this by heating, grinding, and drying the scraps. Some include microbial pods that render the compost into garden-ready fertilizer. And they include filters, so you shouldn’t have a problem with odors.

Electric composters can come with some downsides. To accommodate their high-tech features, they’re typically bulkier than their manual cousins, and take up more counter space. They can also be expensive, both their original purchase price and their total cost of ownership, including supplies and electricity. However, some can be quite energy efficient, and the value they provide in terms of home garden fertilizer can make them more than worth the expense.

Don’t Let Your Food Scraps Go to Waste

Whether you just use compost collection bins to save your food scraps for curbside pickup or try your hand at one of the countertop composting methods, kitchen composting is a great way to reduce food waste and contribute to a healthier planet.

Best of all, you don’t need a backyard or a lot of space to put your food scraps to use. From kitchen counters to basements, there are creative ways to transform your food scraps into rich, nourishing soil.

By embracing composting, you not only divert waste from landfills but also help enrich soil, foster plant growth, and mitigate the challenges of depleted farmlands. Remember, every step you take to reduce waste and to turn trash into treasure is a step towards a more healthy, ethical, and sustainable future.

Tell us in the comments:

• What do you do with your kitchen scraps right now?

• Do you live in a place with a municipal kitchen scrap recycling program? How easy or hard is it to participate?

• If you don’t yet collect kitchen scraps for compost, what method described in this article seems most appealing to get started with?

Featured Image: iStock.com/JohnnyGreig

Read Next:

• How to Use Food Scraps to Reduce Kitchen Waste
• Decades of Public Messages About Recycling in the US Have Crowded Out More Sustainable Ways to Manage Waste

The post Kitchen Compost: Turning Trash into Treasure appeared first on Food Revolution Network.

The list would almost certainly include persistent droughts in many heavily populated parts of the globe, depleted soils, global hunger, nutritional deficiencies, overuse of pesticides, and climate chaos caused by the carbon footprint of burning fossil fuels.

The bad news is you probably don’t have actual magical powers that allow you to create such a food. (If you do, please apply for a job at Food Revolution Network!)

The good news is, that crop already exists. It’s called fonio (pronounced “fone-yo”), and it’s the oldest known cultivated grain in Africa.

While many Indigenous West Africans revere the grain and incorporate it not only into their diets but also into their healing and spiritual practices, its cultivation was discouraged by decades of agricultural and economic policy that sought to “modernize” the region and grow monocropped grains for food and export.

But fonio is making a comeback, growing in popularity around the world. And for good reason. It’s highly nutritious, exceptionally delicious, and environmentally resilient, making it an important crop for arid regions. Those include its home, West Africa, but also many other places around the world prone to prolonged heat and drought: southern Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, much of the US (including California, Texas, the Midwest, Sunbelt, and Southeast), Southeast Asia, and Australia, among others.

In this article, we’ll explore all things fonio. We’ll look at where and how it grows, its nutritional profile and health benefits, its environmental impacts, and why you might want to add fonio to your diet even if you don’t live in West Africa.

We’ll also cover its versatile culinary uses, and share some fonio-filled recipes.

What Is Fonio?

Fonio, aka Digitaria exilis (Latin for “slender fingers”), has been cultivated in parts of Africa for about 7,000 years. In the Dogon language of Mali, one of the names for the plant means “seed of the universe.” In a narrative strikingly similar to the Big Bang, Dogon mythology describes the Creator bringing the universe into existence by exploding a single fonio grain.

Fonio is a member of the millet family and is related to other grains important in African agriculture, including pearl millet and sorghum. Technically, fonio is a very tiny pseudocereal, like quinoa and buckwheat — which basically means it’s a seed that’s eaten like a grain.

You may have also heard of fonio by one of its other names. These include acha, fundi, findi, iburu, Asian millet, fonio millet, pearl millet, and hungry rice. (That last name is something of a smear, implying that fonio is a lesser food that’s eaten only when there’s not enough rice.)

Fonio is native to West Africa with roughly 70% of the world’s fonio grown in Guinea. Additional production occurs in Nigeria, Mali, Senegal, and several neighboring countries.

Fonio has played a critical role in food security in these countries, especially in rural areas. For reasons that we’ll soon discover, fonio is a reliable staple crop even when other food sources are scarce.

The plant is prized for its resilience, able not just to grow, but to positively thrive in poor soil conditions. As a significant bonus, fonio is also the speed champion of grains. It’s the world’s fastest maturing cereal, going from seed to harvest in as little as 60 days. And it’s drought tolerant. In fact, the less rain the plant receives, the faster it matures.

Types of Fonio

There are two main types of fonio:

• white fonio, called acha (the more common of the two, and quicker cooking)
• black fonio, called iburu (less common, and higher in fiber)

Both types of fonio have a similar taste that’s been described as rich and nutty — similar to couscous (but unlike couscous, fonio is a whole grain, and it’s gluten-free!).

Fonio Nutrition

On a nutrient-by-nutrient basis, fonio appears to be one of the most nutritious of all African cereals, as well as one of the tastiest. A cup of cooked fonio (which requires a quarter cup of dry grain) provides about 170 calories, largely from carbohydrates, and a small amount of protein.

It’s also a rich source of gut-healthy fiber, providing as much as five times as much fiber as a serving of white rice. (I don’t know about you, but I sometimes opt for white rice over brown rice when I’m in a hurry since it cooks much more quickly. Well… fonio cooks even faster yet! So it is a winner by many measures of comparison.)

What about the essential amino acids that make up protein? The acha variety of fonio is particularly rich in sulfur-containing amino acids, like methionine, which is an amino acid that is typically low in legumes. However, similar to whole grains, acha is low in lysine (where legumes excel!). While we love fonio, we don’t recommend that you only eat fonio all day. Variety, including beans and other legumes, is important to ensure you’re receiving a variety of nutrients, including plenty of all the different essential amino acids.

Fonio is also a solid source of several minerals, including calcium, iron, zinc, magnesium, and copper. Since fonio is gluten-free, it can substitute for gluten-containing grains such as wheat, barley, and rye for people with Celiac disease and gluten sensitivity.

Fonio Health Benefits

Just as fonio has been systematically neglected and marginalized by industrialized agriculture, it’s also largely ignored by nutrition researchers. While its powerful nutrient profile is well-documented by modern science, the same is not true of its potential for supporting human health.

To give you a sense of the gap, when I did a search for “fonio nutrition” in the database of the US National Institutes of Health National Library of Medicine, I got 17 hits (only one of which even looked at the relationship between fonio and human health). By comparison, “corn nutrition” generated over 12,000 articles, and “sorghum nutrition” almost 1,200.

So in order to make useful statements about how fonio might help you prevent and heal from disease, we have to consider both its nutritional properties and Indigenous healing practices.

In West Africa, fonio is considered to have medicinal properties for several health conditions. In Senegal, fonio has been traditionally used to alleviate conditions such as meteorism (or bloating and abdominal distension caused by an accumulation of gas in the digestive system), constipation, and as a diuretic. Also, the Senegalese use fonio to treat blood clots, diarrhea, loss of appetite, dysentery, stomachache, chicken pox, and asthma.

In Burkina Faso, fonio is known for its slimming properties. Roasted, it’s used for wound healing. And fonio dough is given for relief of symptoms in people with type 2 diabetes.

Based on its nutritional profile and similarity to other pseudocereals, it’s probable that fonio may reduce the risk of developing both type 2 diabetes and some cancers. And with a low glycemic index (in the low 40s, to be imprecise) and favorable amounts of both resistant and nonresistant starch, fonio may help improve blood glucose management in diabetic and prediabetic patients.

Challenges Facing Fonio

We’ve seen that, in many respects, fonio is a near-perfect crop to address hunger on a planet that’s growing increasingly hot and dry. But now it’s time to address the one drawback to fonio: It takes a huge amount of hard human labor to produce.

Labor

In West Africa, where fonio is still a staple food for millions of people, all stages of its growth cycle are very labor-intensive.

Men harvest the grain by uprooting the plant or cutting off the grain head with a homemade knife or sickle. Threshing the grain — separating the edible from inedible parts of the plant — is just as labor-intensive. It’s done by either beating or trampling over the dry straw.

In West African countries, women perform the lion’s share of the work. Women typically do the weeding, collecting seed heads, dehusking the grain, cleaning, drying, and processing as well as selling the fonio. On average, a woman must pound fonio for an hour to dehusk just two pounds of the grain.

Although this unfairly puts a large burden on women to process the fonio and get it ready for market, from a climate perspective, the hard work does pay off. Its impact in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, as well as soil and water contamination, is minimal to nonexistent. There’s also no need for fuel to run giant harvesters and other agricultural machines, or to power running water for irrigation.

And in a region with chronically high rates of unemployment, some would argue that providing more jobs for people (as opposed to having the work done by machines produced overseas) makes good economic sense, too. Plus, there’s the fact that farmers don’t have to spend money on fertilizers or pesticides since fonio thrives in poor soil and has few natural enemies.

But in terms of growing enough fonio to feed the world, the fact that the crop hasn’t, at least so far, been able to benefit from economies of scale has been a very real stumbling block.

In the 1990s, a Senegalese mechanical engineer named Sanoussi Diakite invented a fonio husking machine that could process eleven pounds of grain in just eight minutes. However, there are very few machines in use, even today, because the $3,000 price tag renders them too expensive for the vast majority of West African farmers.

Low Demand and Rural Depopulation

Capitalizing on fonio’s status as a highly nutritious and easy-to-grow whole grain is a serious challenge facing West African farmers. In addition to the difficulties of production and postharvest processing, there are two other stumbling blocks: low market demand and rural depopulation.

Because demand from the wealthier nations is low (at least before this article was published!), farmers fear not receiving a return on their investments of money and effort. It’s more secure to grow maize, which has a predictable market, or some of the higher-margin cash crops like coffee, bananas, cashews, or cacao, which can be exported to wealthier countries.

Another obstacle is a lack of younger farmers willing to do the work of fonio farming. Many move away from rural areas to seek employment in the cities, sparking a depopulation crisis that continues to spiral as more and more people view farm life as an economic dead end.

Garnering Interest in Fonio

Some people are trying to encourage increased fonio production by creating demand for it in the US and Europe. Making fonio more fashionable, somewhat akin to what’s happened to quinoa, can mean higher profits and more stable income for farmers.

For example, Senegalese chef Pierre Thiam has been instrumental in bringing fonio to US markets. He cofounded Yolélé Foods in order to, quoting from their website, “create economic opportunity for smallholder farming communities; to support their biodiverse, regenerative, and climate-resilient farming systems.”

Yolélé Foods is also building processing facilities and collaborating with governments, intergovernmental agencies, and NGOs to train and equip smallholders for increased productivity through conservation farming.

If you’re feeling adventurous and want to try fonio for yourself, check out some of Yolélé’s fonio products online. If they’re out of stock (as seems to happen from time to time), Aduna makes an organic variety, linked here. The cost tends to be a bit higher than rice or quinoa but is lower than wild rice.

How to Cook Fonio

If you do decide to try fonio (and create more demand for it), you’re in luck. Not only is it super delicious (at least in my opinion), but it cooks super fast (just a few minutes!). This speedy quality also makes it a great option when you want to eat a whole grain but don’t have a long time to wait for one to cook fully.

One cup of fonio cooks in two cups of water and yields four cups of grain!

You can use fonio in any recipe that calls for other types of grains. Examples include grain bowls, porridge, side dishes (like couscous or pilaf), stuffed vegetable recipes, and so on.

Fonio flour has been used to make biscuits, bread, and dumplings. Some researchers have experimented with making sourdough bread using fonio. It’s also possible to make delicious cakes, cookies, and other snack foods and desserts from fonio. And you can use whole meal fonio flour to create gluten-free biscuits and other baked goods.

Fonio Recipes

This ancient West African grain deserves to be making some serious culinary waves because it offers a delightful canvas for kitchen creativity. From savory to slightly sweet, get to know this delightful ancient grain that can add wonderful texture and substantial nutritional value to your meals.

1. Savory Turmeric Fonio Porridge

Savory Turmeric Fonio Porridge feels like a warm and comforting hug for your belly. Full of antioxidant- and anti-inflammatory-rich ingredients, it’s a wonderful breakfast to begin your day on a nourishing note. What’s more, thanks to fonio’s nuttiness, the cashews (or your favorite nut or seed of choice) really bring out its flavor, rounding out the taste profile of this hearty breakfast porridge.

2. Fonio, Fennel, and Fruit Salad

Since fonio is a mild grain, you can use it the same way you would quinoa, brown rice, or millet. In this salad, it’s truly a hit! Fonio, Fennel, and Fruit Salad is bursting with juicy and aromatic citrus fruit and berries, lively fennel, and creamy Macadamia Nut Ricotta. The cherry, or should we say the grain on top, is the subtly sweet fonio that ties it all together. If you are new to working with this grain, we highly recommend you give it a try in this refreshing and vibrant salad!

3. Moroccan-Inspired Fonio Pilaf

Fonio is highly versatile. There are so many ways to enjoy its taste, texture, and nutrients — and this Moroccan-inspired Fonio Pilaf will not disappoint! With savory vegetables, cooling mint, nutty pistachios, and healing spices, this is a highly nourishing all-in-one meal that is simple to prepare and a delight to enjoy as a tasty side dish or a delectable main!

The Bottom Line on Fonio

Fonio is a nutritious and versatile whole grain that has a low environmental impact. It also tastes delicious, cooks quickly, and provides many nutrients that are crucial to human health. Plus, it’s gluten-free and so is suitable for those with Celiac disease or gluten sensitivity.

Unfortunately, farmers face many challenges growing fonio because demand is unpredictable, and it’s labor-intensive to harvest and thresh. While some technology is now available to lessen that burden, until demand grows, few farmers will be able to afford to use these machines to increase production.

Increasing awareness of and demand for fonio in industrialized countries can be a win-win. Not only does the crop have the potential to improve the nutritional status of those populations, but increased demand may translate into funding to make harvesting and processing more efficient. If done in an environmentally low-impact way, this could pave the way for greater economic opportunities for farmers in West Africa.

If being a part of that solution sounds good to you, check out the recipes included above and consider making fonio a part of your life.

Tell us in the comments:

• Had you heard of fonio before reading this? If so, where did you first come across it?

• What is the most interesting thing about fonio that you discovered in this article?

• Which fonio recipe will you try?

Featured Image: iStock.com/Karisssa

Read Next:

• Teff: The Tiny but Mighty Grain Worth Knowing About

The post What Is Fonio? Get to Know This Ancient Supergrain from Africa appeared first on Food Revolution Network.

Well, that’s the experience I just had researching this article about figs. I thought I knew a lot about this yummy fruit until I started digging into the topic. Spoiler alert: They’re not even fruits! And when I discovered how they get pollinated — that’s a drama worthy of a Game of Thrones episode!

But aside from their storied pollination method, figs have a lot to offer. In addition to being a delicious food, figs have also traditionally been used for healing and for some very practical purposes. For countless generations, people around the world have made poultices from fresh or dried figs, fig leaves, and fig wines. Fig stems and leaves contain latex. And, of course, fig leaves have served as, well, strategically placed garments since the Garden of Eden (at least according to some Renaissance painters).

You can also find mention of figs in both the Bible and the Quran. Biblical writers often use figs as metaphors for the physical and spiritual health of the people, with phrases like “everyone under their own vine and under their own fig tree” depicting a time of peace and prosperity. The Quran quotes the prophet Muhammad as telling his followers to eat the fig “as it cures various diseases.”

In this article, we’re going to focus on the culinary uses of figs. We’ll explore what figs are, how they taste (and how they differ from dates), the nutritional value of fresh vs dried, and their health benefits and downsides.

We’ll also look at how they get pollinated (so dramatic!), and if that process might render figs unfit for a vegan diet.

What Are Figs?

Fig trees (or Ficus carica) are native to the Mediterranean region and were one of the first plants to be cultivated.

Figs are members of the mulberry family, which, contrary to the nursery rhyme, is mostly populated by trees, not bushes to “go ‘round and ‘round.” (Other family members include the banyan, breadfruit, jackfruit, and Osage orange.)

A fig fruit (which, again, is not really a fruit) is known as a syconium. According to the Ecological Society of America, “a fig is not actually a fruit; it is an inflorescence — a cluster of many flowers and seeds contained inside a bulbous stem.” And as we’ll see, it’s that structure that makes its pollination so darn interesting.

Because the fig flower is arranged so unusually, the seeds — which are actually the ovaries of the fig — can’t be pollinated by ordinary flying insects like bees, moths, and butterflies. Instead, it requires a pollinator with the skills of a safecracker who can operate in dark, confined quarters (more on that later).

Types of Figs

There are more than 750 different varieties of fig. Some of the types you’re likely to encounter include Adriatic, Black Mission, Turkish/Brown Turkey, Calimyrna, Kadota, Celeste, and Tiger. Different types have different flavor profiles, and feature in a variety of dishes, from sweet desserts to more savory fare.

The most common dried figs in the US are Black Mission and Golden, both of which are grown in California.

Figs are light green as they grow. They may remain green or change color as they ripen, ranging from yellow to brown to dark purple, depending on the cultivar.

The Differences Between Figs and Dates

Figs and dates are two very different foods that people sometimes get confused with one another, kind of like the actors who play Harry Potter and Frodo. Here are some key differences. Frodo didn’t go to Hogwarts — oops, I mean, here are some key differences between figs and dates.

While figs originated in the Mediterranean region, dates are native to several geographical locations, including North America. Figs grow on trees, while dates are the fruits of palm trees, which are technically grasses and not trees (this is such a genus-bending article!).

Furthermore, figs grow on fig tree branches, while dates grow in clusters on offshoots from the main trunk of the palm tree. Dates contain a single pit, while figs have many small edible seeds.

When it comes to eating the fruits, they’re also quite different. Figs have three times the amount of water as dates, which also makes them much lower in calories (about four times lower, if you’re counting). So dates are a much more concentrated source of carbohydrates, mostly in the form of simple sugars. Dates are also richer sources of some minerals, such as calcium and potassium.

Nutrients in Figs

The good news is figs deliver a lot of essential nutrients. The predominant macronutrient (the one that provides calories) is carbohydrates, but they’re also rich in some vitamins and organic acids. As whole plant foods, they also provide important dietary fiber.

According to the US National Nutrient Database, two medium raw figs contain roughly 3 grams of fiber. Doing the math, this means that if you ate just 8 figs a day and nothing else, you’d still get about half as much fiber as the average US resident consumes in a day. (To be clear, I am NOT recommending the “8 Fig a Day Diet,” although someone could probably write a best-selling diet book with that title.)

However, some researchers have measured much greater amounts of fiber in different fig cultivars. According to the American Botanical Council, two fresh or 4–5 dried figs provide a whopping 12 grams of fiber.

So we have credible authorities telling us that two figs provide 3 grams of fiber, while others say the correct figure is 12 grams of fiber. It reminds me of the old saying, “A person with one watch knows what time it is. A person with two watches… is never quite sure.” So for now, let’s just say that figs are high (potentially very high!) in fiber, and leave it to the good folks at the US National Nutrient Database and the American Botanical Council to duke it out on the details.

Figs are a good source of many bioactive phytonutrients, too, including flavonoids, phenolic acids, carotenoids, and tocopherols.

(Here’s a fun article all about flavonoids, which starts with a weird story about a bunch of soldiers trying to cross a bridge.)

They’re also solid sources of potassium, calcium, sodium, magnesium, and phosphorus. What’s more, figs provide essential trace elements, including iron, manganese, zinc, and copper.

You’ll get the most nutrients if you don’t peel your figs; the highest concentrations of phytonutrients are in their skin. And darker fig varieties contain more polyphenols and antioxidant power than lighter ones.

Figs also lose some phytonutrients when dried. Studies show a loss of 29% to as much as 86% of the polyphenol content when figs are dried.

Health Benefits of Figs

In the Middle East and Mediterranean regions, figs have long been revered for their contributions to human health and longevity. The fruit, leaves, latex, bark, and roots of fig trees have been used to treat gastrointestinal, respiratory, inflammatory, and cardiovascular disorders, as well as ulcerative diseases and cancers. The various parts of the fig tree possess a wide variety of properties; they can help you poop, relax muscle spasms, fight viruses and bacteria, bring down high blood sugar, and even help your body expel parasites.

And modern scientific research has only added to our understanding of the power of figs to promote health.

Figs and Gut Health

When patients with irritable bowel syndrome add figs to their diet, they often experience decreased symptom occurrence and severity. A 2019 study gave IBS patients 90 grams of dried figs per day for four months. Compared to controls who didn’t get anything, the fig-enhanced group had reduced frequency of pain, less intestinal distention, more frequent pooping, and softer stools. Unsurprisingly, they also reported “a significant increase in quality of life.”

In a 2018 animal study, rats with induced ulcerative colitis were fed a liquid extract containing figs. The treatment had a natural laxative effect but did not lead to diarrhea, and it improved their gastrointestinal functioning. (Our view on the use of animals in medical research is here.)

Figs and Diabetes

Figs (and fig leaves) can also be deployed to treat diabetes. A 1998 study found that people with type 1 diabetes who drank tea made from fig leaves were able to lower their blood sugar immediately following meals. And a 2019 study showed that a fig leaf decoction was able to lower blood sugar in people with type 2 diabetes by about half as much as the drug metformin (after two months of treatment).

It’s not just the leaves, though — fig fruits contain a compound called abscisic acid (which should definitely be included in spelling bees) that has been shown to reduce blood sugar levels after meals.

Figs and Cognitive Decline

Studies with experimental animals have shown that figs may help us stay sharp and avoid or delay cognitive decline. One animal study compared the effects of a diet that included figs to a fig-free diet in mice that were genetically engineered to develop Alzheimer’s disease. The mice who ate figs did better on memory tests, displayed fewer anxiety behaviors, learned new things more quickly and fully, and had better motor coordination. Furthermore, the fig-eating mice had lower levels of the toxic amyloid beta proteins that are associated with the development of Alzheimer’s disease.

Are Figs Vegan?

This may seem like an odd question, but remember that Game of Thrones reference from earlier? It turns out, fig tree pollination is a bit controversial.

You see, there are two types of fig trees: wild and cultivated. And wild-growing fig trees require pollination to bear fruit. The critters that have volunteered for the job are fig wasps, a term that describes any of several hundred different, mosquito-like tiny creatures from the Agaonidae family. Each species of fig wasp pollinates only one variety of fig.

Basically, here’s how it works.

A female wasp, loaded with pollen, flies to an unripe fig and burrows into its center to deposit her eggs. While she’s doing this, two things happen. One, she spreads her pollen onto the female flowers. And two, the effort of fighting her way through the flower strips her of her wings.

Now the fig goes to work, building structures called galls over the wasp eggs and producing seeds in the flowers that don’t contain the eggs. Meanwhile, the mama wasp dies, whereupon her exoskeleton is dissolved by figgy enzymes. (Cue the emotional orchestral music.)

The heroic male wasps hatch first, and travel around the syconium fertilizing their sisters who are still pupating in their galls. (This is definitely HBO-worthy stuff!) Then they dig holes through which the fertilized females can escape with their wings intact. Once the females hatch, they fly off to repeat the process, leaving the males to die in the maturing fig.

Pretty intense family drama, huh?

As a result, some vegans do not eat figs because they don’t want to consume dead wasps, and also because animals died as part of the process that produced them. However, there’s good news if you want to adhere to a vegan diet and still enjoy delicious figginess.

First, the wasps are completely dissolved by the plant enzymes, so you are not likely to encounter a dead insect in your fig. And second, almost all figs produced and sold in the US are of the cultivated variety and are self-pollinating. This means they don’t need the sacrificial services of the fig wasps, and are considered vegan-friendly.

Fig Downsides

Aside from the fig wasp controversy, there are some other things about figs to consider. For one, some people may have to avoid them because of allergic reactions, including oral allergy syndrome. The latex in the plant may also be a source of irritation and allergy, especially if you’re harvesting figs.

Also dried (but not fresh) figs are high in compounds called salicylates, which may cause swelling, itching, hives, worsened asthma, and food intolerance symptoms in people who are sensitive to them.

The other thing about figs is that it takes a lot of water to grow them. Although they’re not as needy as some other crops like citrus, almonds, alfalfa, and pasture grasses, in places straining under multiyear droughts, such as California and Spain, this can be a problem.

On the other hand, fig trees, like almond trees, are drought tolerant, so they can be a good solution in some cases. While they may not bear fruit during times of drought, they can survive until the rains return. There are several strategies growers can implement, including mulching, thinning fruit to help the remaining fruit develop fully, and protecting trees with shade cloth during the hottest parts of the day.

One other challenge with growing figs, and I say this from personal experience, is that for some reason gophers love their roots. So if you aim to grow a fig tree, it may be wise to place a wire gopher barrier in the planting hole to protect the root ball from those sharp little teeth.

Overall, growing figs appear to be a net positive for the environment. Offsetting their water needs and their moderate carbon footprint, they don’t require heavy use of pesticides. Plus, fig trees sequester carbon in their biomass, keeping it out of the air and not contributing to the climate crisis.

We Dig Figs!

As you’ve probably gathered by now, figs are pretty unique! Their biology is fascinating, and the saga of their pollination is dramatic, to say the least. They also offer a wide range of essential nutrients and health benefits. From their versatile culinary uses to their historical uses as healing agents, figs have proven themselves valuable partners to the humans who have loved, cultivated, and revered them for millennia.

If you’re inspired to add more figgy goodness to your diet, we’ve got you covered: Here’s an article all about different ways of preparing and eating figs.

Tell us in the comments:

• What’s the most surprising fig fact you got from this article?

• Can you find fresh figs where you live? If so, what do you do with them?

• Have you ever planted a fig tree?

Featured Image: iStock.com/SGAPhoto

Read Next:

• Are Dates Good For You, or the Planet?
• Are Grapes Good for You?

The post Figs: Are They Good for You and the Planet? appeared first on Food Revolution Network.

You’ve just finished a cup of coffee at your favorite cafe. Now you’re facing a trash bin, a recycling bin, and a compost bin. What’s the most planet-friendly thing to do with your cup?

Many of us would opt for the recycling bin — but that’s often the wrong choice. In order to hold liquids, most paper coffee cups are made with a thin plastic lining, which makes separating these materials and recycling them difficult.

In fact, the most sustainable option isn’t available at the trash bin. It happens earlier, before you’re handed a disposable cup in the first place.

In our research on waste behavior, sustainability, engineering design, and decision-making, we examine what US residents understand about the efficacy of different waste management strategies and which of those strategies they prefer. In two nationwide surveys in the US that we conducted in October 2019 and March 2022, we found that people overlook waste reduction and reuse in favor of recycling. We call this tendency recycling bias and reduction neglect.

Our results show that a decades-long effort to educate the US public about recycling has succeeded in some ways but failed in others. These efforts have made recycling an option that consumers see as important — but to the detriment of more sustainable options. And it has not made people more effective recyclers.

Caption: Recycling rules vary widely across the US, leaving consumers to figure out what to do.

A Global Waste Crisis

Experts and advocates widely agree that humans are generating waste worldwide at levels that are unmanageable and unsustainable. Microplastics are polluting the earth’s most remote regions and amassing in the bodies of humans and animals.

Producing and disposing of goods is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions and a public health threat, especially for vulnerable communities that receive large quantities of waste. New research suggests that even when plastic does get recycled, it produces staggering amounts of microplastic pollution.

Given the scope and urgency of this problem, in June 2023, the United Nations convened talks with government representatives from around the globe to begin drafting a legally binding pact aimed at stemming harmful plastic waste. Meanwhile, many US cities and states are banning single-use plastic products or restricting their use.

Caption: On March 30, 2023, the UN declared the first International Day of Zero Waste to raise awareness of the importance of zero waste and responsible consumption and production.

Upstream and Downstream Solutions

Experts have long recommended tackling the waste problem by prioritizing source reduction strategies that prevent the creation of waste in the first place, rather than seeking to manage and mitigate its impact later. The US Environmental Protection Agency and other prominent environmental organizations like the UN Environment Programme use a framework called the waste management hierarchy that ranks strategies from most to least environmentally preferred.

The familiar waste management hierarchy urges people to “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” in that order. Creating items that can be recycled is better from a sustainability perspective than burning them in an incinerator or burying them in a landfill, but it still consumes energy and resources. In contrast, reducing waste generation conserves natural resources and avoids other negative environmental impacts throughout a product’s life.

R’s Out of Place

In our surveys, participants completed a series of questions and tasks that elicited their views of different waste strategies. In response to open-ended questions about the most effective way to reduce landfill waste or solve environmental issues associated with waste, participants overwhelmingly cited recycling and other downstream strategies.

We also asked people to rank the four strategies of the Environmental Protection Agency’s waste management hierarchy from most to least environmentally preferred. In that order, they include source reduction and reuse; recycling and composting; energy recovery, such as burning trash to generate energy; and treatment and disposal, typically in a landfill. More than three out of four participants (78%) ordered the strategies incorrectly.

When they were asked to rank the reduce/reuse/recycle options in the same way, participants fared somewhat better, but nearly half (46%) still misordered the popular phrase.

Finally, we asked participants to choose between just two options — waste prevention and recycling. This time, over 80% of participants understood that preventing waste was much better than recycling.

Recycling Badly

While our participants defaulted to recycling as a waste management strategy, they did not execute it very well.

This isn’t surprising, since the current US recycling system puts the onus on consumers to separate recyclable materials and keep contaminants out of the bin. There is a lot of variation in what can be recycled from community to community, and this standard can change frequently as new products are introduced and markets for recycled materials shift.

Our second study asked participants to sort common consumer goods into virtual recycling, compost, and trash bins and then say how confident they were in their choices. Many people placed common recycling contaminants, including plastic bags (58%), disposable coffee cups (46%), and light bulbs (26%), erroneously — and often confidently — in the virtual recycling bins. For a few materials, such as cardboard and aluminum foil, the correct answer can vary depending on the capacities of local waste management systems.

This is known as wishcycling — placing non-recyclable items in the recycling stream in the hope or belief that they will be recycled. Wishcycling creates additional costs and problems for recyclers, who have to sort the materials, and sometimes results in otherwise recyclable materials being landfilled or incinerated instead.

Although our participants were strongly biased toward recycling, they weren’t confident that it would work. Participants in our first survey were asked to estimate what fraction of plastic has been recycled since plastic production began. According to a widely cited estimate, the answer is just 9%. Our respondents thought that 25% of plastic had been recycled — more than expert estimates but still a low amount. And they correctly reasoned that a majority of it has ended up in landfills and the environment.

Empowering Consumers to Cut Waste

Postconsumer waste is the result of a long supply chain with environmental impacts at every stage. However, US policy and corporate discourse focus on consumers as the main source of waste, as implied by the term “post-consumer waste.”

Other approaches put more responsibility on producers by requiring them to take back their products for disposal, cover recycling costs, and design and produce goods that are easy to recycle effectively. These approaches are used in some sectors in the US, including lead-acid car batteries and consumer electronics, but they are largely voluntary or mandated at the state and local levels.

When we asked participants in our second study where change could have the most impact and where they felt they could have the most impact as individuals, they correctly focused on upstream interventions. But they felt they could only affect the system through what they chose to purchase and how they subsequently disposed of it — in other words, acting as consumers, not as citizens.

As waste-related pollution accumulates worldwide, corporations continue to shame and blame consumers rather than reduce the amount of disposable products they create. In our view, recycling is not a get-out-of-jail-free card for overproducing and consuming goods, and it is time that the US stopped treating it as such.

Tell us in the comments:

• How do you reduce your consumption on a regular basis?

• Were you aware of the issues with recycling?

• How else can companies and institutions become more sustainable?

Featured Image: iStock.com/Portra

Read Next:

• Recycling: Guidelines, Challenges, & Resources
• Zero Waste Kitchen Tips for the Modern World

The post Decades of Public Messages About Recycling in the US Have Crowded Out More Sustainable Ways to Manage Waste appeared first on Food Revolution Network.