Want to Improve Your Diet? Plant a Fruit Tree.

Want to Improve Your Diet? Plant a Fruit Tree.

One of the simplest ways to improve your family’s diet? Plant a fruit tree. Or plant several. The last time I was fortunate enough to have a yard, I planted four of them. Unfortunately, I broke up with my then-boyfriend and moved out right about the time all...
How to Be a Merry Environmentalist

How to Be a Merry Environmentalist

Here’s something to consider this holiday season: Stop sending greeting cards. I know this sounds like a tip from the Grinch, but this well-meaning tradition causes very real environmental consequences. Americans mail over 1.6 billion holiday cards to each other...
A Free Fruit-for-All

A Free Fruit-for-All

I got back from the airport just in time for the last half hour of Cider Fest, one of the Bloomington Community Orchard’s large public events. This publicly owned and volunteer-run organic orchard occupies a single acre. Entering its fifth year, it has become an...
DuPont’s Herbicide Goes Rogue

DuPont’s Herbicide Goes Rogue

In the corporate world’s tortured language, workers are no longer fired. They just experience an “employment adjustment.” But the most twisted euphemism I’ve heard in a long time comes from DuPont: “We are investigating the reports of...