Welcome back to our weekly behind-the-scenes glimpse at what’s getting our team talking. Let us know what you think at [email protected].
Emergency eats
When natural disasters disrupt food systems, people in the impact zone struggle to find fresh, healthy food. At the same time, farmers can’t get their crops to market and are forced to watch them rot. Executive Editor Will Doig shares a story from Civil Eats about a new partnership in Northern California helping to solve both problems at once, by creating a pipeline that sends locally grown food into nearby disaster areas.
Will says:
A lot of the time, eating local sounds like a “nice to have,” but this group is making it clear that local food can be part of a food security strategy.
Good bones
Why tear down a building when you could reuse it? Contributing Editor Geetanjali Krishna shares a story from NPR about how the construction industry is dismantling buildings and repurposing the components rather than sending it all to the landfill.
Geetanjali says:
I’m in the midst of home renovation at the moment, and fighting a somewhat uphill battle to recycle and reuse as much as possible. My construction crew says it is so much easier to build afresh than to undertake finicky remodels! Perhaps that’s why I found this NPR story about the practice of “deconstruction” — salvaging all reusable material from old buildings for new construction — so compelling. The practice is slowly catching on in the United States, aided by laws passed by a handful of local governments.
What else we’re reading
🍃 California approves unprecedented plan to protect Joshua trees from climate change threats — shared by Becca Worby from the Los Angeles Times (subscription required)
🛍️ Why Shop? In Maine, the Library of Things Has It All (Almost) — shared by David Byrne from the New York Times
🏠 A ‘Third Way’ Between Buying and Renting? Swiss Co-ops Say They’ve Found It — shared by David Byrne from the New York Times
In other news…
We’re working on a new layout for this column, and in the process, thinking about how it could be improved. What would you like to see change about our “What We’re Reading” column? Let us know at [email protected]