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Science

100 years ago, people were eating things that most of us will never taste. So what happened?

Um ... where did all the seeds go?


Time travel back to 1905.

Back in 1905, a book called "The Apples of New York" was published by the New York State Department of Agriculture. It featured hundreds of apple varieties of all shapes, colors, and sizes, including Thomas Jefferson's personal favorite, the Esopus Spitzenburg.






That was 110 years ago, when commercial apple orchards were still pretty rare and when even in the biggest of those orchards, everything was done by hand.

1905, image of an apple orchard in Oregon

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But why is that apple book such a big deal? The book is significant because most of the apples listed in it have all but disappeared in the past century. DISAPPEARED. In fact, we used to have thousands of apple varieties, but most of those have largely vanished due to industrial agriculture. Now, many varieties are only found tucked away in agricultural research centers and preservationist orchards.

Fact: Today, the 15 most popular apple varieties account for 90% of all apple sales in the U.S. The most commonly sold apple? Red delicious.

2015 looks so different.

The fate of all those apple varieties is not uncommon. "In the last century, nearly 75% of our agricultural crops have disappeared. They're simply gone. Today, farmers primarily grow 12 crops. And of these, we mainly eat potatoes, rice, corn, and wheat."

So what gives? Why the huge shift? In part, the shift has a lot to do with seed regulation. Back in the day, farmers would save seeds from year to year and share them with friends and neighbors. But nowadays, most seed production is controlled by big companies — and those companies patent their seeds, prohibiting things like seed saving or sharing.

So what do we do now?

Not all hope is lost (yay!). It may be an uphill battle, but there are lots of small farmers working to preserve the freedom to freely share and use seeds. People store thousands of seeds from all around the world in buildings called seed banks, and trade with other farmers at seed swaps.

"They're preserving culture and biodiversity, one seed, one plant, and one person at a time." How 'bout them apples? (No, really, I bet those antique apples they're swappin' are ridiculously tasty.)

To check out the full story from The Lexicon of Sustainability, watch the video below:


This article originally appeared on August 14, 2016

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Heroes

This is who we're feeding with our extra food. And you'll spit out your corn as soon as you know.

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Whole Foods Market

This article originally appeared on 12.17.14


Here's something you may not have known: In 2008, we grew enough food for 11 billion people.

(Reminder: There are just over 7 billion humans here on Earth.)

But half of that food went to feeding animals (you know, so we could eat them). And a great deal also went to fueling cars.

Clearly, we're not hurting when it comes to our ability to grow food. But how we grow that food matters. In the industrial system that feeds much of the globe, it takes 10 calories of fuel to produce one calorie of food.

Which, let's be honest, is not the most efficient process. That's why so many people are keen on growing food organically — by which Wikipedia tells me means:

In other words, organic farming involves growing food more naturally with fewer resources. But here's a good question: Can organic food feed the world?

Allow me to quote noted food expert Michael Pollan:

"In industrial areas, organic [farming] achieves 92% of the yield of industrial [farming]. But you go to the developing world, and it produces 182% of current yield."

Not too shabby, eh? Maybe there's some hope for our food system after all.

For the full talk (don't worry, it's short), check out the clip below.

Nature

Cows go through puberty, and they're full of emotions, according to new study

live.staticflickr.com

Prior studies have shown that cows use different moos to express different feelings. And it turns out, they go through a lot of different feelings when they're going through puberty.

A new study published in the journal Royal Society Open Science sought to improve cattle farming practices by uncovering more information on the personalities of dairy cows at different points in their lives. "Our study identified a period of inconsistency in personality traits over puberty," Nina Von Keyserlingk, a professor of animal welfare at the University of British Columbia in Canada, told the Guardian. Cows experience mood swings from changing hormones, just like human teenagers.

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Researchers corralled cows at the ages of one month, three months, one year, and two-and-a-half years, and observed their behaviors in a test area. Researchers looked at how cows changed their behavior when introduced to new people and things. They found that cows have pretty stable personalities in childhood and adulthood, which is consistent with prior studies. The teenage years are a different story.

At around 12 months, the cows became teenagers and behaved like it. Some days, hormonal cows feel shy and just want to be left alone. On other days, they'll nuzzle up to humans as if they weren't just a hormonal monster. Some cows became attention-seeking, and others grew solitary. Researchers believe that the changes in personality were caused by puberty hormones.

Once the cows started lactating, they chilled out and grew out of whatever phase they were going through.

Prior studies have found how the feelings of cows affect milk production. Stressed cows tend to eat less, grow slower, and produce less milk. They also have weaker immune systems. By learning how the personalities of cows shift in puberty, scientists hope they will have more insight into how to improve animal health and farming practices.

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"Our overall goal is to improve the lives of animals on farms," Heather Neave, who worked on the study, told the Guardian. "Ideally, in the future, management practices would be tailored to the individual rather than the herd, so that all calves and cows have an opportunity to thrive on the farm and reach their full productive potential."

So if you visit a farm and see one cow standing in the corner, writing in its journal and blasting angsty music, just know that it's going through a phase.

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Planet

Scientists discovered a mushroom that eats plastic, and believe it could clean our landfills.

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Fungi Mutarium mushroom eats plasticwww.youtube.com


Plastic waste is one of the biggest environmental issues of our time. And while a straw ban is not the way we're going to solve it — here's why – people everywhere are looking for ways to reduce plastic use and mitigate the effects of waste.

From handing out plastic bags with embarrassing labels to removing the plastic from six-packs to harnessing the power of a plastic-eating mutant (bacteria), more and more of us are working to find solutions to a growing global program.

Add one more strange and awesome plastic-killing discover to the list: A rare mushroom that feasts on plastic the same way you or I would when we go to that $5 buffet at Cici's. (I have been only once and I'm still thinking about it, even though just the thoughts are bad for my blood pressure.)

According to reports, the mushroom's plastic-devouring properties were first discovered in 2011, when a team of Yale undergraduates and their professor traveled to Ecuador for a research trip. They found the mushroom — Pestalotiopsis microspora — in the amazon and were astounded to find that the fungus not only subsists on polyurethane (it's the first plant to sustain itself only on plastic), but could do so without oxygen.

That means it could be planted at the bottom of landfills and happily eat its fill of plastic for eons to come! (Just like us at Cici's pizza!)


IRAQ-SOCIETY-POVERTY AFP/Getty Images


Despite our best efforts at increasing conservation and reducing waste, the U.S. continues to produce more plastic waste each year, while other recent studies suggest that recycling of plastic waste is actually declining.

The amount of plastic waste that we're producing is estimated to rise 3.8% each year, with an estimated 40 million tons of plastic waste expected to be generated in 2019 alone by American companies and consumers. National Geographic says that over the past 60 years, we've created an estimated 8.3 billion metric tons of plastic waste. An astonishing 83.7% of that waste is expected to end up in landfills. Anything we can do to put a dent into the damage we're creating could make a world of difference for us and the planet.


NEPAL-ENVIRONMENT-RECORD AFP/Getty Images


Will these mushrooms be the end to our plastic problems? More research is needed to tell. Until then, we can all help keep landfills cleaner by avoiding single-use plastics in our lives.

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