Dawn Allen is a freelance writer and editor who is passionate about sustainability, political economy, gardening, traditional craftwork, and simple living. She and her husband are currently renovating a rural homestead in southeastern Michigan.
An international team of researchers recently released a meta-analysis of over 1600 studies from around the world which suggests that urbanization is affecting the way many plants and animals evolve. For example, plants growing in the city may release larger, heavier seeds than their rural cousins. Heavier seeds that drop closer to the parent are
In 1961, the United States was more than shoulder-deep in the Vietnam war. Forests, dark and thick, sheltered the enemy. Something had to be done to clear the way. The military recruited Agent Orange, a dioxin-based herbicide, spraying down the foliage to reveal the hidden positions of the Viet Cong. The poison helped during the
A new passel of labor laws enacted in France made news for one controversial, pro-labor provision. As of January, French companies with more than 50 employees must insure ensure the ability to disconnect after work. For at least 11 contiguous hours, workers must be able to unwind as they choose, free from job-related interruptions. Studies
We live in a mightily individualistic society, don’t we? Our capitalist culture values self-made people who pull themselves up by their own bootstraps, needing no one. Our fear of scarcity makes us afraid that someone else will run off with our hard-earned stuff. Go into any coffee bar and you’ll see that every man is an
The city of Flint, Michigan made news after finding high levels of lead in the drinking water. However, Flint is far from the only municipality dealing with water contamination. Bad water is turning up all over the place as citizens have started paying extra attention. Let’s look back at a number of incidents from last
The election of Donald Trump has emboldened the white nationalists, neo-Nazis, and everyday jerks among us. Who knew so many folks would hear Trump’s repetitive, simplified, small-word vocabulary and exclaim, “He says what we’re thinking”? Many of us were sure, as Martin Luther King Jr. said, that the arc of the moral universe had been
How many times have you heard political conservatives say that the best government is small government? That the closer a government is to the governed, the more responsive and responsible it will be, and the likelier it is to both serve the needs and protect the rights of people like you and me? Local ordinances
In yesterday’s post, I discussed how the economic concept of supply and demand works in terms of actual prices of commodities like oil, and how it can also be applied to other “markets” where people are metaphorically buying and selling other commodities, such as marriage. Today, I’d like to extend that idea a little further. Market
The concept of supply and demand is fundamental to the study of economics, but it’s also a useful tool for understanding many other things that go on in the world. Everybody’s selling something, and everybody’s buying something else. It doesn’t have to be goods or services. It can be ideas, for example, or affection. Supply
The dairy industry has been having a rough time of late. Milk prices have dropped 40% since 2014, causing a bit of a panic among dairy farmers. Meanwhile, sales of dairy alternatives such as soymilk have been soaring. As a result, there’s a bipartisan effort to address the definition of the word “milk,” as if