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food farming

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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

Photos from the fall harvest at the White House garden are here and they're super sweet.

This week, first lady Michelle Obama hosted students from four schools at the White House.

But this was not your average tour of the executive branch. These students got unrestricted access to one of the first lady's favorite spots: the White House Kitchen Garden.

Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images.

The garden is the first built on the White House grounds since Eleanor Roosevelt's famous Victory Garden during World War II. The garden quickly became a passion project for Mrs. Obama and inspired her Let's Move campaign to teach kids about staying active and eating fresh fruits and veggies.

With help from the first lady, students pulled peppers, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, and even peanuts from the garden.

Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images.

Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images.

Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images.

And, this year, for the first time ever, the harvest went high tech.

As part of their new Expeditions Pioneer Program, a team from Google attended to shoot a virtual tour of the White House Kitchen Garden. Which means that, soon, kids from coast to coast can learn more about backyard agriculture and the importance of eating fresh fruits and vegetables thanks to the handy power of the Internet.

A camera captures a 360-view of the garden. Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images.

Mrs. Obama gives students the grand tour. Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images.

Of course, it wasn't all work. The students also had time to enjoy the fruits (and vegetables) of their labor.

After a busy harvest, the students sat down to lunch with the first lady. Together, they made a kitchen garden vegetable salad bowl with zesty chicken, quinoa, and farro (it's a mouthful to say and to eat!) from some of the greens and veggies pulled from the garden.

Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images.

I wish I were as excited for anything as Mrs. Obama is for salads. Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images.

Students have always played a big role in the White House Kitchen Garden.

The first lady broke ground and planted the garden with students in the spring of 2009, just months after taking up residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.


The first lady and White House chef Sam Kass at the garden planting in 2009. Photo by The White House.

The White House Kitchen Garden has since expanded to include a wide array of deliciousness, including herbs, lettuce, collard greens, carrots, peas, flowers, and a beehive. Every summer and fall, students lend a hand.

Chefs in the White House frequently prepare meals using crops from the garden and even brew beer with honey from the hive. The Obamas also donate fruits and veggies to Miriam's Kitchen, which serves people experiencing homelessness in Washington, D.C.

Want to see the garden for yourself? You can!

If you just can't wait for Google's virtual walk-through, make plans to see the real thing.

Why should these adorable kids have all the fun? Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images.

Tours of the White House Kitchen Garden are free and available to school and community groups with an interest in gardening or cooking with fruits and vegetables. Groups need to sign up in advance, and due to the number of requests, not every group can be accommodated.

But if you want to see how the first family eats, there's no better way.

Heroes

These remarkable floating farms could help feed hungry people around the world.

Food. It's easy to love.

Breakfast, lunch, dinner. Brunch. Linner. I'll take them all.

GIF from "Malcolm in the Middle."

But the harsh reality across the globe is that many people don't have access to the food they need.

Approximately 795 million people in the world don't have enough food to lead a healthy, active lifestyle, according to an estimate by the World Food Programme. And the global population could go from 7.2 billion to 9.6 billion by 2050.

The growth in population could mean less space to farm, too. BASF Crop Protection, one of the world's largest producers of farming-related chemicals, estimates that between 2005 and 2030, the amount of arable land available per capita will shrink by almost 20%.

Not enough space to grow on land? Here's another idea: Plant food in seas, lakes, and rivers.

Forward Thinking Architecture, a firm in Spain, is one of the companies working to build farms directly in bodies of water through a project they call "Smart Floating Farms."

Here are three ways these hydroponic farms could reshape the future of farming:

1. They could open up a lot of space for farming

In places like Singapore, land is hard to come by. Roughly 5.5 million people live in the island city.

Considering Singapore measures approximately 277 square miles, that means about 20,000 people inhabit the city for every square mile of available space. That doesn't leave much room for farming.

The good news is that this cutting-edge smart floating farm technology is scalable and replicable, which means that as the world's needs grow, so too can production levels.

A three-level floating farm, complete with inflated cylinders in front that protect against waves. Photo via Smart Floating Farms, used with permission.

According to the firm, 25 of the world's 35 largest cities (New York being one of them) have nearby access to bodies of water, so these farms could theoretically be built to serve metro areas around the world.

2. They are self-regulating

These water-based farms don't need soil to grow plants. They would use water that is already infused with vitamins and minerals, a process known as hydroponics. Of course, the plants couldn't survive on saltwater — freshwater would be pumped into the grow facility and then sprayed evenly on plants through a mechanical system.

According to the plan, the entire farming system would be built in three levels on huge barge-like containers, with the first level housing a solar-powered energy facility and the second level using that energy to grow crops (no soil required). On the third level, you could raise fish, which would survive on the waste products from the farm.

The solar panels on the top level of a floating farm. Photo via Smart Floating Farms, used with permission.

This top to bottom system allows the sun to be used for energy, crops to grow without being harmed by saltwater, and fish to be fed and farmed. Genius!

3. They are cost effective and greener

If these farms were built near major cities, it would cost less to transport food to grocery stores. A self-sustaining ecosystem could also mean less maintenance and lower manufacturing costs, too.

And even though these techniques would be used in bodies of water, they can be applied in the air, too. Singapore-based company Sky Greens builds skyscrapers filled with plants that rotate up and down between water and sunlight, allowing vegetation to be grown 10 times more effectively than traditional forms of agriculture would allow. As a result, food is cheaper, more accessible, and more abundant.

It's a produce party in the sky. Photo via iStock.

There's hope for the future.

These types of innovations have the potential to help regions around the world cope with the need for more food, even if they have less space.

Here's a video from Forward Thinking Architecture explaining the concept of floating farms:

This bit of ingenuity and creative thinking could help ensure that people around the world have plentiful, sustainable food sources.

Heroes

There's a big beehive at O'Hare Airport. It's keeping people out of jail.

Sweet Beginnings helps the environment and provides jobs. What a win-win.

The Chicago O'Hare Airport ground crew is used to dealing with nature. They de-ice planes in the winter and roll over steaming hot runways in the summer.

As hearty Chicagoans, they felt ready for anything nature might send their way — that is, until a swarm of honeybees decided to perch near a flight gate one sunny afternoon.

That looks like a bundle of joy. Photo via iStock.

The crew mulled over a few ideas for dealing with the buzzing mass of bees, including spraying them with a hose or dousing them with pesticides. But before any of these ideas could be put into action, the Sweet Beginnings team arrived, scooping up the swarm and its queen bee and whisking it away to be installed in a new hive.

The Sweet Beginnings team maintains 75 beehives in a remote field on the O'Hare property.

The program was initially created as job training for individuals returning from incarceration or with other barriers to employment.

The Sweet Beginnings team unveils hives on the grounds of O'Hare Airport, the largest airport apiary in the U.S. Photo provided by Sweet Beginnings, used with permission.

Aided by a local beekeeper and several environmental and social organizations, the North Lawndale Employment Network (NLEN) launched Sweet Beginnings in 2004. Their clientele began learning how to care for honeybees, extract and package honey, and infuse the honey into soaps and lotions.

By 2014, the enterprise had 131 hives throughout Chicago.

Better yet, the program had trained 383 people in beekeeping, honey production, packaging, distribution logistics, and marketing.

Sweet Beginnings trainees learn everything from beekeeping to packaging, food safety to ecological awareness. Photo provided by Sweet Beginnings, used with permission.

In 2014 alone, Sweet Beginnings added 50 new hives, harvested over 1,600 pounds of honey, and employed 19 individuals (all of whom avoided reincarceration). That last measure, called the recidivism rate (or a relapse into criminal behavior) is a key performance indicator for Sweet Beginnings.

NLEN tracks recidivism meticulously and has shown that former Sweet Beginnings employees have a recidivism rate of below 10%. Compare that to the U.S. recidivism rate of 40% and the 55% rate in Illinois!

It's difficult to find work in the United States if you've been incarcerated or have a criminal background.

The formerly incarcerated often fall back on selling drugs or other illegal means of making money. Plus, the law enforcement and criminal justice systems tend to disproportionally target people of color and low-income communities.

So while recent books like "The New Jim Crow" are raising awareness of this issue, NLEN and Sweet Beginnings are the boots on the ground, putting forth a positive tale of empowerment, and actively breaking through criminal background stereotypes.

The Sweet Beginnings program challenges other stereotypes as well.

“I'm an African-American woman," says Brenda Palms-Barber, the director of Sweet Beginnings. “You wouldn't look at us and think we're beekeepers. But we're out there checking hives, diagnosing problems, and extracting honey!"

Palms-Barber also points out that environmental work and urban agriculture are often seen as luxury activities. “I don't have time for that. I need a job," she often hears. Sweet Beginnings bypasses this attitude by teaching economic opportunity and job skills, letting ecological awareness sink in throughout the process.

A Sweet Beginnings employee transfers a bee colony to a new hive. Photo provided by Sweet Beginnings, used with permission.

It doesn't take long for Sweet Beginnings employees to take note of their bees' dependence on green areas and habitats undisturbed by pesticides, either. Trainees even learn about honeybee biology, the importance of pollinators, and the negative health effects of refined sugar and unnatural skin care products.

Palms-Barber sums up the success of Sweet Beginnings and its alumni with a fitting metaphor:

“You know, bees don't distinguish between 'weeds' and 'flowers.' They're after the nectar inside."

NLEN and Sweet Beginnings follow the very same principle with the populations they serve, focusing on people's potential to blossom in the workplace. As Chicago's honeybee population expands, so too does an ecological and health-conscious workforce, offering not just sweet beginnings but a bright future as well.

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