Brooklyn-based App Seeks to Help Create A Solution For Food Waste in Retail Food Spaces 

Photo Credit: Edible Brooklyn

1.3 Billion tons of food is wasted each year. Though household food waste is a problem, restaurant and retail market’s waste makes up a larger part of the problem. There are several ways we as consumers can make a change in our food waste habits, buying less at one time, being ok with “ugly produce”, and buying from local purveyors. This new food app, YourLocal, is bridging the gap between consumers and sellers to help with the food waste problem. It connects markets, cafes, bakeries, and restaurants directly with consumers. At the end of the day, if a retailer has excess food that they may not be able to sell, they can post it on the app and offer it for a lower price to app users. This allows everyone in the process to benefit. Consumers can get good food, for a fraction of the price, and retailers can reduce their end of day waste. Right now, it is limited to Brooklyn only, but the more people that get involved, the more it will expand. Do you think something like this could work in other places? Solutions like this one are just the beginning. We need more innovative ideas like this to get people thinking about food waste, and how to enlist the community to help make a change. Here is a list of other NYC based companies that are doing work to help reduce food waste. 

To read the full article from Edible Brooklyn here: 

https://www.ediblebrooklyn.com/2018/yourlocal-food-waste/

A Trump Immigration Policy Could Cause Immigrant Families to Have to Choose Between Feeding Their Families or Permanent Residency in the US

Photo Credit: John Moore/ Getty Images – Business Insider

Immigrant families are scrambling as the Trump administration has proposed a new regulation that would deny immigrant families green cards if they have received federal food aid, or participated in any federal aid program. The proposed regulations are an attempt by White House aide, Steven Miller, to hinder all immigration to the US, both legal and illegal. Politico states that the programs it would be targeting are the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (food stamps), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (welfare), Medicaid, Medicare Part D (prescription drug subsidies) and Section 8 (housing vouchers). The rule would hurt low income legal immigrants the most, because illegal immigrants usually cannot apply for these benefits.

It would also force families to choose between being able to feed their children right now, or being able to have citizenship in the future. The leaked documents do show that it will not take the Woman, Infants and Children program into consideration as previously thought, which is positive, as this program helps sustain thousands of low-income mothers and children. The idea behind the rule, is to ensure that immigrants aren’t “draining tax payer resources,” but these legal immigrants are a part of our workforce, and are paying taxes through their employers. The only way now to oppose rules like this are to make your voice heard at the polls in November. Vote for representatives that support human rights, because this is definitely a human rights issue. 

Read the full article here: https://www.politico.com/story/2018/09/22/poor-immigrants-green-cards-trump-836456

Honey Bee’s are Dying from Glyphosate in our Plants!

Scientists Have Linked it to the Chemical Glyphosate Found in the Pesticide Round Up 

Photo Credit: Vivian Abagiu/College of Natural Sciences at University of Texas in Austin – NPR

A study done by scientists at the University of Texas, Austin, and published in the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences has shown that the chemical Glyphosate, causes harm and even death in bees. Glyphosate the chemical found in Monsanto’s well known weed-killer RoundUp, that has been in the news for being proven to be carcinogenic in humans, now has proof that it is detrimental to other living beings as well. The study shows that the chemical destroys specialized gut bacteria in bees, leaving them susceptible to disease, and death. 

According to USA Today: 

“Bees that came in contact with the herbicide glyphosate in the study had lower levels of healthy gut bacteria that helps digest food and ward off sickness and were more likely to die from pathogens. About half of the healthy bees survived the introduced pathogen Serratia marcescens. Only a tenth of bees affected by glyphosate survived. 

“We need better guidelines for glyphosate use, especially regarding bee exposure, because right now the guidelines assume bees are not harmed by the herbicide,” Erick Motta, a graduate student who led the research, said in a statement. “Our study shows that’s not true.”

Bee’s are a key part of earth’s ecosystem, as they are the pollinators for all flowering plants. In recent years, bee populations have mysteriously been dropping. With this research linking the decline to pesticides, we have yet another reason to demand strong regulations on big agrochemical companies and a return to natural, organic practices in agriculture. 

A New UN Report from the IPCC Urges Us To Do More To Stop Climate Change

A subset of the UN, The Intergovermental Panel on Climate Change, issued a landmark report on Monday, October 7th, urging the world to do more than originally thought, to curb Climate Change. The report was created by a group of scientists brought together by the UN to help world leaders with the issue of climate change. 

The New York Times Reports: 

“The authors found that if greenhouse gas emissions continue at the current rate, the atmosphere will warm up by as much as 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5 degrees Celsius) above pre-industrial levels by 2040, inundating coastlines and intensifying droughts and poverty. Previous work had focused on estimating the damage if average temperatures were to rise by a larger number, 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius), because that was the threshold scientists previously considered for the most severe effects of climate change. The new report, however, shows that many of those effects will come much sooner, at the 2.7-degree mark.” 

The findings are much more dire, and shocking than anyone imagined, but they are important in informing the world just how important it is for us to make changes now. 

The Atlantic gives a good article on how to decipher the report, and what the findings really mean for us. 

Vox gave four straight forward take aways from the report. 

1. 2°C of warming is worse than 1.5°C, and 1.5°C is much worse than the 1°C we’re experiencing now.

2. We need every trick in the book to fight climate change, and we need to get much better at removing carbon from the atmosphere.

3. Policies and economics weren’t addressed in the IPCC report, but they’re impossible to ignore.

4. We can still fight climate change, but we’re locked into a difficult scenario.

Basically, if we continue on the path we are on right now, there will be consequences to our environment that will effect everyone on this planet. If we work hard to reduce and stop carbon emissions, we can curb the negative effects, so there is still hope. We must work together with the entire world, all nations, governments and peoples to help enact this change, however with the current POTUS, we are doomed.  Let’s get him out!!

To read more on the topic here is a great article from NPR, and another article from The New York Times.