The recent recall of hundreds of thousands of eggs and the illness of over a thousand people due to salmonella contamination is a wake-up call to the dangers of factory farming. And it’s bound to encourage more people to buy organic eggs from local farmers, or to keep their own backyard chickens.
Over one-third of all known plants face extinction. Humans are the main cause of extinction and the principle threat to species at risk. Habitat loss is the leading threat, along with introduction of alien species (this can happen deliberately in the search for pretty plants for our gardens, or unintentionally by organisms “hitch-hiking” in containers, ships, cars, or soil), over-exploitation, pollution and disease, and human-induced climate change (which has many effects, from altering migratory species patterns to causing coral bleaching). A variety of organizations are working to reverse this trend, including BGCI, an international organization of botanic gardens.
Summertime can be simple and fun without exploiting Nature, damaging the environment, worrying about your family’s health and stressing you out. Here are some articles from Natural Life Magazine’s archives to help.
Gardeners and farmers like to move plants to new locations for cultivation as crops or as ornamentals (or transport them by accident). And some of those plants may become what we call invasive species, damaging the local ecology by choking out native plants and interrupting the balance of Nature.
Yardsharing is a way for people with garden space but no time to garden to share it with gardeners who have no space. Both share in the produce, while building community and contributing to the security of their local food supply.