Tag: The Organic Center

Environment, well-being, What is Organic

Five ways to Generate Hope in The Age of Climate Chaos

Melody Meyer
hope is on the horizon
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

The Climate report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) wasn’t a huge surprise. Stable weather patterns we’ve enjoyed for generations have now grown turbulent. Drought and heat, floods and fire are bound to become more frequent.

The report sites: “Since the pre-industrial period, the land surface air temperature has risen nearly twice as much as the global average temperature.” Our changing climate will increase in the frequency and intensity of these extreme events.

Is there any hope to be had?

 Yes! Rather than moping around glum or feeling doomed, I’ve decided there are things I can do to lower my footprint.   

Here are 5 simple things I’ve embraced to generate hope and cut my environmental impact. 

Continue reading “Five ways to Generate Hope in The Age of Climate Chaos” →
Environment, Organic Policy and Regulations, What is Organic

Our Food Is Entwined with Climate Change and Health

Melody Meyer
Photo by Louis Hansel @shotsoflouis on

It’s with a certain foreboding that I witness the stream of climate events ravage the planet. My German friend whose river community has washed away. The Turkish hamlet where I once bought olives now torched to Aegean shores. The farmers who lost their cherries in the Oregon heatwave.

And the COVID-19 virus isn’t done with us yet, as the Delta variant comes marching through.

Our health and vitality depend on the food we eat. As fires, floods, and heat decimate the land and the food we grow upon it, I take pause to reflect.

How can we maintain vibrant health amid climate chaos?

Continue reading “Our Food Is Entwined with Climate Change and Health” →
Environment, well-being, What is Organic

It’s Time to Rethink the Way We Feed Our Planet – Grab Some Low Hanging Fruit!

Melody Meyer
bunches of grapes hanging from vines
Photo by Elle Hughes on Pexels.com

Last week an article dropped into my inbox like a hot potato – one not so easy to drop. According to a report from the World Food and Ag Association (FAO), we have come to a place of reckoning like no other.

At no other time in our history have we been inundated with so many unprecedented climate threats. The perils of megafires, extreme weather events, large swarms of locusts, and biological threats like the COVID-19 pandemic dominate.  

According to the report, the annual occurrence of disasters is now more than three times that of the 1970s and 1980s. And Agriculture absorbs the bulk (63%) of the financial losses and damages wrought by these disasters. 

These hazards take lives and devastate agricultural livelihoods inflicting negative economic and nutritional consequences in our communities throughout the entire world.

In a nutshell, there are a few things you and I can do right now to help heal the planet and our food systems.

Continue reading “It’s Time to Rethink the Way We Feed Our Planet – Grab Some Low Hanging Fruit!” →
Environment, well-being, What is Organic

Spring – Time to Clean & Appreciate What We Have and What Shall be Given Up

Melody Meyer
You know its Spring When the Sap is flowing!
Photo by Gabriel Garcia Marengo on Unsplash

Spring – A Time to Clean, Appreciate What We Have and What shall be Given Up

It’s been a long cold winter, and if you’re like me, you’ve been sheltering in place warm and safe yet going a little stir crazy. This stirring applies not only to cocktails but stirring and rooting around in “drawers of doom” and crammed closets. A life of artifacts and photos, books and clothes, treasures once held dear are now unearthed.

If you could see my office right now, you would think a “relic bomb” had gone off, strewing precious clutter everywhere. 

Spring is now upon us, and this muddle of things looks me straight in the face and begs me to clean and consider what I’ve found and what I need to give up. 

Continue reading “Spring – Time to Clean & Appreciate What We Have and What Shall be Given Up” →
Environment, well-being, What is Organic

Restoring the Balance of the Our Planet Begins at Home

Melody Meyer

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

I have taken on a project interviewing neighbors for an oral history of our wooded stretch of heaven. The elders remember when throaty tree frogs were plentiful, and the summers were so dripped with fog that farmers didn’t have to irrigate. The winter rains came plentifully, and mushrooms carpeted the ground. They never worried about wildfires, sudden oak death, or sweltering summers.

Our wanton exploitation of the planet is showing up in our backyards. So, we must begin at home. Here are few things you can do right now to help heal the planet.

Continue reading “Restoring the Balance of the Our Planet Begins at Home” →