Quintina Ayvar de la Cruz is the living embodiment of the environment that has been her home for 97 years. She has a brightness that matches the green mangroves near her house in Juluchuca, Mexico and she sparkles like the salt that has been the focus of her life’s work—and a great source of her life’s joy, too.  “I started from a young age, when I...

In the wake of the Northern hemisphere’s hottest summer on record, Cruz Salucio, a longtime farmworker and current educator with the Fair Food Program, recalled the painful effects of heat stress: “I remember the heat of the sun and the intense exhaustion during my first years in the tomato and watermelon fields,” he recalls. Over more than a decade,...

También hemos publicado este artículo en español. Para leerlo en español, haga clic aquí.   It was mid-February, and in Oaxaca City, Mexico, temperatures were just starting to climb into the 80s. Spring is the hot season here, and in addition to weathering the heat, my partner and I were also in the midst of a move from the home we’d rented near...

We’ve also published this article in English. To read it in English, click here.  Era mediados de febrero y, en la Ciudad de Oaxaca, México, las temperaturas comenzaban a subir a los 80 grados Fahrenheit. La primavera es la temporada de calor aquí, y además de soportar el calor, mi pareja y yo estábamos en medio de una mudanza desde la casa que habíamos...

The wild pecan (Carya illionoisnensis) is the only major nut native to North America (depending upon who you talk to, that is. Some say it’s the only native nut, while others cite the eastern American black walnut as an indigenous species). The drought-tolerant trees grow in a belt that extends from northern Mexico to northern Illinois, with the pecans...

In April 2024, the EPA passed its first-ever legally enforceable drinking water standards on a handful of PFAS—a group of man-made chemicals widely used to make non-stick coatings and products that resist heat, oil, water and more. Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances keep food from sticking to packaging or cookware, make clothes and carpets resistant...