The Healthiest Thing You Can Do Today? Get Dirty!

The Healthiest Thing You Can Do Today? Get Dirty!

Americans now spend a stunning 90 percent of their time indoors. Our sedentary, screen-addicted lifestyles have been blamed for a range of ills — including obesity, attention problems, allergies and more.

We know that getting out of the house and into nature confers many benefits for physical and mental health. But there’s an additional benefit you might not know about: contact with the soil — good old dirt — enriches the gut microbiome, the community of microorganisms ...

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Articles, Collaborative Conservation, Family, Community & Place, Food Heritage and History, Redesigning Food Systems

Tensions at the US southern border are putting scientists and their work at risk

Tensions at the US southern border are putting scientists and their work at risk

Scientists working on the US-Mexico border face unique challenges when trying to study borderlands ecosystems, from outright harassment by Border Patrol officers to tight restrictions on travel and what natural materials can cross the border. It’s all gotten worse under the Trump administration.

“In the course of talking to scientists, I found that nearly everyone I spoke to had some story about how the wall and the crackdown on immigration is affecting their ability to do their work,” says Living ...

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Articles, Audiocasts, Food Heritage and History, Redesigning Food Systems, Videos & Audio

The Canary Islands Connection

The Canary Islands Connection

I’m surrounded by date palms. Around them run dry watercourses that look like ones I find not far from my home in Tucson, Arizona. The traditional architecture in town would not be out of place in Tucson, either—or almost anywhere from southern Spain to Mexico and up into the southwest us. The fruit trees and grapevines hark back even further, to traditions of my ancestors from Syria and Lebanon. Perhaps this is what a visit to the ...

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Articles, Collaborative Conservation, Farming Innovations, Food Heritage and History

Bearing Witness: Voices Of Climate Change Part VI: Climate Refugees

Bearing Witness: Voices Of Climate Change Part VI: Climate Refugees

This week, we’re airing a series of interviews called Bearing Witness: Voices of Climate Change. They’re stories told by longtime Arizonans about changes they’ve seen in the familiar landscapes of their lives. While personal experience, in and of itself, is not scientific conclusion, many researchers believe long-term observation is a critical component to understanding how climate change affects humanity and the planet. Today’s interview is with teacher, author and ecologist, Gary Nabhan.

He is the founding director of Northern Arizona University’s Center for ...

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Articles, Audiocasts, Collaborative Conservation, Farming Innovations, Videos & Audio

Tariffs, AZ Dept. of Ag leave farmers barren

Tariffs, AZ Dept. of Ag leave farmers barren

When President Trump initiated his trade tariff wars with China a year ago, economists warned that it could precipitate the second-worst farm crisis in a half century.

Most farmers in Arizona did not get hit as hard as those in Corn Belt states. The tariff wars alone didn’t seem to precipitate a crisis in Arizona. But last month, other danger signs began to register in the Grand Canyon State. The long-standing relationship Arizona has had with its strongest trade partner, Mexico, ...

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Articles, Essays for Hope and Reflection, Farming Innovations, Food Heritage and History, Redesigning Food Systems, Restoration Economy

in the darkest of times where I go

in the darkest of times where I go

in the darkest of times where I go
is to a place somehow hidden
in the midst of pain
a place where microbursts of light

breaks through to reach us

a crack of light like the very one
you may have seen on stormy days
right at dusk when darkness
tried enveloping entire skies

but failed

fails because the sun sent out a call
a grace note so bright
it cut across the horizon
right into our hearts

and sangs to us

“do not give in
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Poetry and Parables, Reflections

Mesquite Manifesto (second edition)

Mesquite Manifesto (second edition)

The recent acrimonious debates about further fortifying barriers all across the 2000 mile US/Mexico boundary line beg larger questions: Just what might make communities more stable, secure and prosperous, while providing more livelihoods as well as wildlife habitat on both sides of the border? What particular natural resources and cultural assets in the region can be utilized to offer better long-term solutions to problems perceived to be border-related?

Within the United States, southern border counties have twice the level of poverty ...

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Articles, Collaborative Conservation, Essays for Hope and Reflection, Restoration Economy

Earth Day as a Sacred Rite

Earth Day as a Sacred Rite

What if getting our relationship right with the Earth and all its creatures is not just some scenic backdrop to a circus sideshow or diorama in a natural history museum? What if it is as crucial to our lives as getting our relations right with our Creator, our family and our neighbors before we die?

What if all of Creation is the most palpable expression of our Creator’s generosity, sense of wonder, and commitment to diversity? What happens when we begin ...

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Reflections

Guest opinion: Heritage area can unite us

Guest opinion: Heritage area can unite us

Arizonans were caught off guard when they heard that the Santa Cruz National Heritage Area had recently been designated by Congress and signed into law at the White House on March 12, 2019.

Suddenly, we found ourselves living in a 3,300-square-mile landscape that was nationally recognized for its distinctive natural and multi-cultural heritage.

Hadn’t a decade passed since all the communities in the upper Santa Cruz watershed pledged their support for such a designation?

By the time Tucson became the first “City of ...

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Articles, Collaborative Conservation, Essays for Hope and Reflection, Family, Community & Place, Food Heritage and History, Redesigning Food Systems

How the Santa Cruz Valley National Heritage Area Can Bring Us Together to Envision a Common Future

How the Santa Cruz Valley National Heritage Area Can Bring Us Together to Envision a Common Future

Were you among the many citizens of southern Arizona who were caught off guard upon hearing that a designation for the Santa Cruz National Heritage Area sailed through Congress in late February and was signed into law at the White House on March 12, 2019?

Were you surprised to find yourself living in a 3300 square mile landscape that was nationally-recognized for its distinctive natural, historical and multi-cultural heritage?

Hadn’t it been over a decade since most non-profits as well as all ...

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Articles, Collaborative Conservation, Essays for Hope and Reflection, Restoration Economy

The spice trade: Selling the scents of luxury

The spice trade: Selling the scents of luxury

The trade in spices goes back to ancient times: from the Frankincense trails that originated in the Dhofar Highlands in present day Yemen to the Queen of Sheba who travelled to Jerusalem with camels laden with spices. For centuries, spices have captured our imagination far more than any other commodities, and spice traders, from the Arab merchants to the European trading companies of the Age of Discovery, capitalized on the mystique of these luxurious aromatics to create a value chain ...

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Articles, Audiocasts, Collaborative Conservation, Farming Innovations, Food Heritage and History, Redesigning Food Systems, Restoration Economy, Videos & Audio

Long-desired heritage area designation signed into law

Long-desired heritage area designation signed into law

A sweeping public lands bill signed into law by President Trump this week includes the designation of a Santa Cruz Valley National Heritage Area in Santa Cruz and Pima counties, bringing to fruition an effort begun well more than a decade ago to boost cultural preservation, economic development and tourism in the area.

U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Tucson), who represents all of Santa Cruz and parts of Pima county, had sought legislative approval for the NHA designation since 2007. In a ...

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Articles, Collaborative Conservation, Family, Community & Place, Food Heritage and History, Restoration Economy

Talk Nerdy. Episode 246. Gary Paul Nabhan.

Talk Nerdy. Episode 246. Gary Paul Nabhan.

In this episode of Talk Nerdy, Cara speaks with Dr. Gary Paul Nabhan, founder of the Center for Regional Food Studies at the University of Arizona. They talk about sustainability, conservation, indigenous agriculture, and his newest of several books, “Mesquite: An Arboreal Love Affair.”

Mesquite is a book that will delight mystics and foresters, naturalists and foodies. It combines cutting-edge science with a generous sprinkling of humor and folk wisdom, even including traditional recipes for cooking with ...

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Articles, Audiocasts, Essays for Hope and Reflection, Farming Innovations, Food Heritage and History, Redesigning Food Systems, Restoration Economy, Videos & Audio

How an appetite for local food fueled Tucson’s economic recovery

How an appetite for local food fueled Tucson’s economic recovery

Could it be that Tucson is eating its way out of poverty and food insecurity?

Or to ask such a big hairy question in another manner: “How have Tucson’s citizens and businesses fared since the Great Recession devastated our community a decade ago?”

By the beginning of 2009, the Old Pueblo had been hit harder than most other US metro areas by bank and mortgage company scandals. But what, if anything, has helped our community’s economic recovery and changed its course for ...

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Articles, Collaborative Conservation, Family, Community & Place, Farming Innovations, Food Heritage and History, Redesigning Food Systems, Restoration Economy

Build a Border Wall? Here’s an Idea That’s Better for Communities and the Climate

Build a Border Wall? Here’s an Idea That’s Better for Communities and the Climate

President Trump has declared a national emergency to fund a wall along our nation’s southern border. The border wall issue has bitterly divided people across the United States, becoming a vivid symbol of political deadlock.

But for many of us who actually live along the U.S.-Mexico border, the wall is simply beside the point. We know that a wall can’t fix the problems that straddle the boundary between our nations; nor will it build on our shared strengths. So a group ...

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Articles, Collaborative Conservation, Essays for Hope and Reflection, Farming Innovations, Food Heritage and History, Redesigning Food Systems, Restoration Economy

We need to resist the disease that has sickened our societies the last few years.

We need to resist the disease that has sickened our societies the last few years.

While the gridlock in Washington DC & elsewhere in America continues, people of diverse faiths and ideologies who live in the borderlands are coming together voluntarily, congenially and strategically to anchor themselves in collaborations toward common goals and to deal with underlying causes of societal unrest and environmental degradation.

I saw this in Bahia Kino Friday afternoon as Mexican, Comcac, and US youth came together for an open house/ teach-in about the need to care for the creatures, cultures and coastlines ...

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Food from the Radical Center

Healing Our Land and Communities Through the Power of Food

Healing Our Land and Communities Through the Power of Food

As an agricultural biologist, ethnobiologist and author, Gary Paul Nabhan is a renowned pioneer in the local food movement. In his new book, Food from the Radical Center: Healing Our Land and Communities, Prof. Nabhan writes about the power of working the soil with our hands in a collaborative spirit, with disparate groups. Gary Nabhan and host Steve Curwood discuss how restoring the health of our lands can improve the health of our communities.

CURWOOD: It’s Living on Earth, I’m Steve ...

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Articles, Collaborative Conservation, Family, Community & Place, Farming Innovations, Food Heritage and History, Redesigning Food Systems, Videos & Audio

Mesquite Manifesto: A Collaborative Vision for the Borderland

Mesquite Manifesto: A Collaborative Vision for the Borderland

The recent acrimonious debates about further fortifying barriers all across the 2000 mile US/Mexico boundary line beg a larger question: Just what might make communities more stable, secure and prosperous while providing more livelihoods as well as wildlife habitat on both sides of the border? What particular natural resources and cultural assets in the region can be utilized to offer long-term solutions to problems perceived to be border-related?

Within the US, border counties have twice the level of poverty and food ...

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Articles, Collaborative Conservation, Essays for Hope and Reflection, Farming Innovations, Restoration Economy

The Radical Center: Episode 124

The Radical Center: Episode 124

Gary Paul Nabhan, author and father of the local food movement, joins host Jenna Liut to talk about his new book, Food from the Radical Center: Healing our Communities and our Land, which contains a collection of stories that illustrate what good can happen when people organize and work together to restore land in order to produce healthy foods. They discuss just how divided our nation is today, various community-based collaborative restoration strategies, and the unprecedented impacts they have ...

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Articles, Audiocasts, Collaborative Conservation, Family, Community & Place, Farming Innovations, Food Heritage and History, Redesigning Food Systems, Videos & Audio

Author Sees Food Systems as a Way to Unite People

Author Sees Food Systems as a Way to Unite People

We often hear about a divided United States — separated by politics, race, economics and other factors — but Gary Paul Nabhan says there are great examples of partnerships and teamwork that are worth analyzing around the country.

Nabhan is an agricultural ecologist, ethnobotanist, author, and Ecumenical Franciscan brother who traveled the country for his most recent book, “Food From the Radical Center: Healing Our Land and Communities.”

In it, Nabhan provides examples of communities that are working on projects such ...

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Articles, Audiocasts, Family, Community & Place, Farming Innovations, Redesigning Food Systems, Videos & Audio

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