News for Now Update: Week ending June 4, 2022

Decolonizing and Diversifying Food Production for Improved Nutrition
War-induced disruption of wheat exports from Russia and Ukraine represent a dire threat to food security and the potential for rebellions worldwide. Hardest hit are countries in the Global South, long coerced to export cash crops and import food. This New Frame article calls for global decolonization and diversification of food production to restore the possibility of adequate and sustainable nutrition everywhere. Read more at New Frame.

Adventurous Play Reduces Anxiety and Depression in Children
A University of Exeter Medical School study found that adventurous, or “thrilling and exciting,” outdoor play, including climbing trees, riding bikes, and jumping from high surfaces, reduced children’s anxiety and depression during the pandemic. With rising concern for children’s mental health, these effects, although small, reinforce the value of natural, instinctive play in which children can face and navigate challenges and risks. Read more at Neuroscience News.

National I Love My Dentist Day: Learn About Umar Ahmed’s Planet-Friendly Toothbrushes
Umar Ahmed, a Somali immigrant to the US, developed exceptionally healthy teeth by brushing them only with miswak twigs from the “toothbrush tree.” Seeing that plastic toothbrushes were both less effective and harmful to the environment, he created his own compostable bamboo toothbrush line. Today, celebrate National I Love My Dentist Day by checking out his inspiring story. Read more at the Sahan Journal.

The Argument for Including Fungi in Conservation Goals
Amid conservation efforts for plants and animals, fungi, who also suffer threats from climate change and human impacts, have gone largely uncounted. Their essential roles in ecological networks and their contributions to food and medicine, sometimes overshadowed by their associations with disease, are critical to our planet. Mycologists like those on the IUCN Fungal Conservation Committee want benchmarks for conserving life on earth to include these vital organisms. Read more at The Conversation US.

National Learn About Composting Day: How Domingo Morales’s “Compost Power” Is Changing Lives in New York
May 29 was National Learn About Composting Day. We invite those of you who may have missed it to revisit one of our recent stories highlighting Domingo Morales, founder of Compost Power, who overcame a disadvantaged youth and is now “Making Composting Cool” for New York public housing tenants. As we shared last week, Mr. Morales and his crew have produced 30 tons of compost by hand, minimizing fossil fuel use while getting exercise, being outdoors, and learning about soil. This experience of seeing recycling from start to finish, growing their own food, and supporting local farms is changing the lives of many. Read more in The New York Times.

Pioneer Archives Post: Weston A. Price, DDS’s Reflections on His Groundbreaking Field Studies
Read Dr. Weston A. Price’s reflections on his groundbreaking series of Field Studies—conducted in communities ranging from the far north of Canada to New Zealand, from Switzerland to the Hawaiian Islands—in this article published in 1937. As he notes, the modern departure from ancestral wisdom is a predominant cause of progressive physical degeneration (with lowered efficiency of nutrition, partly due to progressive soil depletion, being a contributing factor). Inside, he discusses the benefits of ancestral diets, the deleterious impact of modern foods on the health of isolated communities he visited (including dental cavities, deformed dental arches, and tuberculosis), and other aspects of his extensive research. Read more in our Pioneer Archives Post.