A WINTER CHICK IN

In this (late) month’s roundup, we are looking forward to a new year. We will start with a little look at where we came from and where we are. Throw some chickens in the mix and you got a letter!

Rivers and Roads

In the last year I set out to talk about the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals and planetary boundaries and how they might relate to our everyday lives. Of course I was only scratching the very surface, but I want to take a moment and give you a run down if you’d like to check out any previous posts.

The sustainable development goals:

1. No poverty

2. Zero hunger (Dec 27)

3. Good health and well-being (April 17)

4. Quality education (Nov 27)

5. Gender equality

6. Clean water and sanitation (Aug 21) (Jul 24: Ocean Acidification)

7. Affordable and clean energy (Jan 24)

8. Decent work and economic growth (Feb 21)

9. Industry, innovation and infrastructure (May 30)

10. Reduced inequalities (Jan 10)

11. Sustainable cities and communities

12. Responsible consumption and production (Dec 31) (Mar 20: Plastics) (April 3: N&P Flows)

13. Climate action (Dec 13) (Sept 18: Air and Ozone)

14. Life below water (Feb 7) (Aug 8: Climate Change)

15. Life on land (May 1) (Mar 6: Biodiversity) (May 15: Land System Change)

16. Peace, justice, and strong institutions

17. Partnerships for the goals

One might point out that while I hit some topics a couple times, well, I missed some others. These topics are the ones that I would like to lean into this year, which seems particularly topical with the new U.S. administration.

As for now, it has felt like a long cold winter. In a season where being stuffed up indoors contributes to the rise in flu cases, being outside is such a healthy pursuit—even babies do it. But spending time outside is harder in the winter if it is snowy and you are just trying to go for a walk. Communities really prioritize the maintenance of streets after snow fall with no mind to the maintenance of walkways. That responsibility is on the nearby land owner even though sidewalks are public domain. I tried to go on a run just to see the state of the walkways and it was awful. I ended up running in the street because the risk of getting hit by a car seemed less perilous than running where the sidewalk was.

In the Hidden Life of Trees, Peter Wohlleben shares how winter is a vital time of rest for deciduous trees. They would not be able to grow so much come spring if they hadn’t been conserving energy through winter. Maybe I should just make like a tree and rest till it is warmer out.

There is this moment when it first snows and cars are impeded so much that people can take over the streets. It is joyful. Kids go out to play. The snow disguises the roads and the world looks like a giant park. It is refreshing to see such beauty, especially in the midst of winter. All the photos in this letter were taken on various walks this winter, and looking back, those walks were lovely.

Here’s to those little moments.

Things You Didn’t Notice

MISSING THE CHICKENS

Even if you are vegan you might have noticed both a lack of eggs and a dramatic growth in competition for egg alternatives. The bird flu is spreading. Now if you know me, you might know that I have an aversion to eggs that is particularly strong in the morning. But that does not not make me sad to hear how many chickens are being culled due to this flu. In the last few years more than 140 million birds have been killed to slow the spread of H5N1 flu with 15 million+ being culled in the last 40 days.

Potent viruses like this one have a stronger sting to them culturally speaking, after COVID-19. But what is just as fascinating is how differently we, as humans, tackle this virus because it is affecting something people eat and treat as a product in our industrialized food system. In nature, viruses could wipe out populations of organisms that do not have a way to fight it off, but those who survived were then able to pass on those resistant genes to the next generation. If we are preemptively wiping out whole farms full of chickens then we don’t find out what allows some birds to survive. In our industrial agricultural systems, farmers cull their whole flock as soon as one gets infected because the chickens have such a high likelihood of dying anyway. By optimizing our food system we have simultaneously made it more vulnerable. Is there a way to make our food systems better and more resilient?

Those households (~10 million or 8% of the U.S.) who have backyard chickens, are often able to give these birds much better lives than those stuffed away in industrial warehouses and bread solely to grow quickly. Are those backyard chicken less affected? In short, no. The flu is just as harmful to those chickens as others. But because they are spaced out, if a bird gets the flu on one block, that does not mean that birds on a different block must be killed. And precautions have been sent out to households to encourage separating their chickens from interaction with wild migrant birds such as geese (who may carry the disease but are resistant themselves). To protect humans, we must be mindful to “not kiss the chickens” and practice good hygiene to discourage the virus jumping from fowl to humans. In general, the spatial separation those backyard birds have, means in places where the grocery shelves are all empty of eggs, your neighbor [Peggy with the chickens] might be the only one eating omelettes.

Backyard chickens are not only good for eggs and diversifying our food systems, they are a great way to cut down on garbage sent to the landfill. Chickens are excellent composters and some cities even have policies that encourage raising chickens for just that purpose. By rotating your chickens you can pre-fertilize your garden as well, permaculture style! There are many different breeds of chickens, each with different traits.

Biogenetic diversity is what gives species a chance to pass on genes that have stronger ability to survive pathogens like H5N1. In the U.S. there are about 1.5 billion chickens (over 40 times more than cows) and a growing number of them are given antibiotics to combat with our demand and the dire consequences of contagious illness in such dense living quarters. All of the chickens raised in factory farms are from a small number of species bred to grow larger, faster. We have to remember that all living things are stronger, more resilient, when they have more diversity in the group. The likelihood of overcoming an issue or hurdle is higher when not everyone is the same, and has the same weaknesses and strengths. Its funny. I feel like these chickens can teach us a little about the importance of DEI.

Optimizing systems helps us grow, but diversifying systems makes us stronger.

…I hear mung beans are solid egg alternative.

Hot Topic

IN A DEMOCRAZY

Who can say where our road goes? Are things going to get better, worse, or just stay the same? The beauty of a democracy is that we can participate in our outcome and strive to get better every day. But to participate, it helps to understand how it works and at what scale we can have impact, now.

First of all, what exactly is an executive order? I had to take a trip back to U.S. History Class because this vehicle for a deluge of political action coming from Trump’s right hand has never been seen before to this magnitude. Was it something I should be alarmed by or is it all a show to pull my attention away from other things done in the shadows.

So it is basically a boss telling his employees what to do, simply under the pretense that they are in charge. Those employees can take collective action to force a different outcome, but because of the power dynamic, it takes coordination, and time. Here are what some of the executive orders given by Trump mean. There are so many of them that the public and the “employees” (people who are affiliated with the federal government) have a hard time organizing on all the different fronts. It is a tactic that if you grew up with a parent who would ambush you with a myriad of different orders all at the same time can relate to. You are bound to let something slip by. There is great uncertainty how much trouble this can get you in. Even more when that “parent” is the oldest man to be sworn in as president and likes to get who ever he deems is his enemy in trouble.

After a friends recommendation, I re-read “Animal Farm” by George Orwell, a strikingly topical book despite it being written initially as an allegory for the Russian Revolution. In it, Orwell demonstrates the danger of being ignorant compared to the ruling party and the power of misinformation paired with persuasion. With a very Trump like character in Napoleon, “Animal Farm” is a cautionary tale that shows how an individual can manipulate a cultural revolution and desire for change to gain power and end up imposing greater oppression. So it is certainly not in our best interest to press mute and ignore what our ruling parties are doing in the government.

For now, it’s our duty to stay focused on what matters to us. And that can look different for different people. As Cory Booker states, “Stay like a laser focused on [people] and the fight to make every [person] safer, stronger, and more prosperous. And let that be your battle line—not who you are fighting against, but who you are fighting for.” To accomplish this, we need people working together on different fronts. That could be trying to curb the falling reading comprehension rates, using business and local government to promote climate activism where the federal government fails, rethinking immigration as a way to help people rather than an excuse to treat people like pests, battling inequality so that people at the top and the bottom become more unified and more people can promote the general welfare and live wholesome lives…the list goes on. I’m rooting for each of us to keep doing good work. And don’t let hate get you down.

Going into next letter, I am thinking about stability. It takes more work to thrive in unstable environments. This idea applies to our social, economic, and ecological systems. It is part of the reason why we have a government—to help give society a predictable and stable framework within which we can be free to pursue happiness and innovation. In unstable environments, extra energy is expended to adapt to that change, and energy always has a cost.

Refresh

• Health: Since we are sitting at the precipice of surpassing the 1.5º C warming metric, watch this video to gain data driven optimism for the future.

• Household: For those of us with homes, or dreaming of having a home, insurance is vital and also increasingly expensive. Here is a breakdown of how changing risks affects insurance and how government subsidized homeowners insurance can lure people into high risk areas.

• Transportation: How many people would take the train? This study out of Toronto links transportation to the population density needed to support it responsibly. This seems particularly relevant in places like Colorado that have been dancing around rail options for some time, but despite increasing population need the density to support it.

• Mentality: Sometimes we just need a chance to go somewhere else (or daydream about going somewhere else). Here are 25 wonderful places to travel to in 2025.

• Community: It has been terrifying to see the impacts of the Los Angeles fires. We are reminded how vulnerable we are to the forces of nature (do not underestimate her!) and how important it is to support and strengthen our communities, because we are all just people, in this together.

Mouthwatering

HUMMUS AMONG US

In these letters I have shared a variety of chickpea dishes, but it would be a shame if I didn’t share THE chickpea foundation we all know and love.

Buying those little containers of hummus at the grocery store is actually quite frustrating because I could eat a whole container in one sitting. But you can buy a whole bag of chickpeas for a fraction of the price and make better than store bough hummus exactly to your liking. You can experiment with spices and flavoring.

Here are two recipes you can put head to head (to be honest, I eyeball my hummus now-a-days). The first uses canned chickpeas and the second uses dried chickpeas and adds a few more detailed technical cooking tips. I prefer using dried chickpeas because you can overcook them to soften them up more, but the downside is it takes more time.

My personal secret is that I use a couple ice cubes instead of water in the blending process to help create the ultimate creamy texture.

Ingredients:

• 1 can (15 ounces) chickpeas, rinsed and drained, or 1 ½ cups cooked chickpeas

• ½ teaspoon baking soda (if you’re using canned chickpeas)

• ¼ cup lemon juice (from 1 ½ to 2 lemons), more to taste

• 1 medium-to-large clove garlic, roughly chopped

• ½ teaspoon fine sea salt, to taste

• ½ cup tahini

• 2 to 4 tablespoons ice water, or ice cubes

• ½ teaspoon ground cumin

• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

To top it off:

• Any of the following garnishes: drizzle of olive oil or zhoug sauce, sprinkle of ground sumac or paprika, chopped fresh parsley, chopped dill pickles, roasted garlic, chopped sun-dried tomatoes

• My favorite—a balsamic garlic hummus with spicy red pepper flakes

Game Time

USE YOUR IMAGINATION

I have been going through home videos as well as recently spending time with small children. A favorite home video of mine took place when my family was at a cabin in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee and it was bed time. We read a book and my brother, Evan, of recent talking ability, had the giggles. The book was closed and immediately I yell, “Evan, lets play elephant!” …and I go pretend clomping around the bed swinging my head as if there were a trunk extending from my nose. Evan joins in but then falls over and starts laughing. You can hear my mom on camera say, “Ok Elenaaa, its time to calm down and start heading to bed."

I can’t remember the last time I played pretend, unless it was to satisfy a young child. But why did I stop?

The challenge this week is to use your imagination. Go outside and play pretend, or daydream about some other worldly action going on in the space you are in. Imagine being a little bit better than you are now. Put yourself in the shoes of someone or something else. Challenge the status-quo that adults are too old to have imagination.

Here are some fun things to spark inspiration:

• Making fun a reality

• New news on dinosaurs

• An Ode to Play