Awesome Stories 270 – Earthday Edition

/ April 23, 2016

This week Awesome Stories brings you seeds of love, reducing food waste, yard farms and healing with nature.

In honor of Earth Day, all the stories this week are focused on how we can live more in harmony with nature. I know it was yesterday, but decided to stay with the regular publishing schedule. 🙂

Seeds of Lovesvalbard seed trust, Awesome Stories

Norway has an amazing collection of seeds to help protect humanity. The Global Seed Vault lies buried in a mountain in the Svalbard islands halfway between Norway and the North Pole. Norway built, stores and maintains the seeds all on their own as a humanitarian effort to protect our world’s food production capability. There are many seed banks around the world, yet most are at risk due to manmade or natural disaster. Norway decided to build and fund a disaster proof vault of seeds from around the world. The vault already holds the largest variety of seeds in the world with 864,309 samples and the capacity to store 4.5 million seeds.

Yard Farms

Yardfarming is a fun variation on the urban farming movement that is spreading across the country. Yardfarmers is an upcoming reality TV show that will track young Americans who are growing crops in yards. The premise is that what we do with our 40 million acres of lawns might be the key to a resilient America. Many people are realizing that local regional food production is more sustainable and resilient. I’m not normally a fan of TV or reality shows, but I like that the show is based on a desire to help America be more sustainable and created in partnership with WorldWatch Institute, an organization working to create a more sustainable world through research and innovative solutions.

Europe Moves to Reduce Food Waste

Italy is the second European country to enact legislation to help reduce food waste. Similar to the US, Europe has massive food waste with an estimated 100 million tonnes of food wasted each year. In Italy alone, that translates to about €12bn in financial loss, millions of people going hungry and too much food thrown away. The idea is to make it easier for companies to donate food and feed more people. Last month, France passed legislation to outlaw supermarkets throwing away food. Denmark has the first European market selling food donated from growers and other stores. As I’ve written about before, various groups in the US are working to address the food waste problem too. I volunteer at a food pantry that collects food from various supermarkets, farmers and groups that donate food to help feed the hungry.

Healing with Nature

People who are exposed to natural scenes aren’t just happier or more comfortable; the very building blocks of their physiological well-being also respond positively.

garden, joy, flowers, healing

my garden, spring 2015

Most of us have experienced the peace and good feelings that come from time spent in nature. Medical researchers are finding that even having a view of nature can greatly help a patient’s health and wellbeing. This Atlantic article called How Nature Resets our Minds and Bodies explores the growing body of evidence that nature does indeed heal. The researchers were surprised by how much simply having a view of nature helped in healing as compared to almost any other kind of medical intervention. I know my garden view brought me countless hours of joy and healing. Maybe doctors of the future will prescribe daily doses of sunshine and gardens!  🙂

May we appreciate, preserve and celebrate our beautiful planet every day!

 

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24 thoughts on “Awesome Stories 270 – Earthday Edition”

  3. Loved this Post dear Brad.. and loved the Yard farming idea.. If more people realised that self sufficiency went along way to help our environment and it tastes so much better 🙂 Loved the video 🙂
    Hope you have a good week Brad… off on Hols soon so my posts with be scheduled as from tomorrow….
    Love and Blessings
    Sue <3.. Hope your move goes well too xxx 🙂

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  7. I love the food-waste part about countries stepping up their game to curb that. I want so badly for the US to be a leader in solar, hydro, wind, and renewable energy – we could rock those industries! And food? Of course! I want so badly for us to adopt legislation that makes sense for everyone: ESPECIALLY those that are going hungry while so much food gets thrown away.
    On another note, I just got back from a day-long field trip with my after school students. We went hiking, horseback riding, played foosball, air-hockey and ping-pong and had a picnic lunch. The kids got out in nature, had fun on the horses, but I’m not entirely sure they *appreciate* the exquisiteness of nature like I do, lol. I tried to show them cool things – plants, flowers, birds – and maybe one day they’ll see it more as I do – the refuge that I take solace in…but for now, they are still on the “I think this is boring” train. Oh well, haha. Hopefully I can inspire them. 🙂

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    • I’m excited to see more organizations and countries working on better food distribution to reduce waste too. We don’t seem to be the leaders in anything except negative stats these days! Yes, please inspire the kids to appreciate and protect nature. They are our hope and future. Thanks for caring and sharing Cynthia. 🙂

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  8. Yard Farming….I hadn’t thought about this in years, but growing up in the midwest, everyone had large vegetable gardens in their yard and a lot less gras….we have gotten away from it….glad to see it make a come back!!

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