News Feeds

Improve your storm response with targeted design approaches on the distribution grid.

Storage is no longer about the breakthrough tech, but who can build and deliver a system at scale.

When cleaning crews dug deep into New Orleans’ clogged drains in 2018, they pulled up leaves, mud — and 46 tons of Mardi Gras beads. 

The sheer magnitude of waste accumulated over decades of Carnivals — and its impact on the flood-prone city’s drainage system — shocked many residents and city officials. 

“Once you hear a number like that, there’s no going back,” then-Public Works director Dani Galloway said at the time. “So we’ve got to do better.”

But nearly a decade later, New Orleans is generating more Mardi Gras garbage than ever. During the roughly five weeks of this year’s Carnival season, crews collected 1,363 tons of beaded necklaces, beer cans, plastic cups, and other refuse along the city’s parade routes — a 24 percent increase from the year before and the highest total on record. The trash tonnage is the equivalent of 741 cars. In New Orleans terms, it’s roughly the weight of the Steamboat Natchez or more than 1 million king cakes.  

.nola-mardi-gras-trash { --color-primary: #3c3830; --color-secondary: #777; --color-orange: #F79945; --color-turquoise: #12A07F; --color-fuchsia: #AC00E8; --color-cobalt: #3977F3; --color-earth: #3c3830; --typography-primary: "PolySans", Arial, sans-serif; --typography-secondary: "Basis Grotesque", Arial, sans-serif; --spacing-base: 10px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: var(--typography-secondary); margin: 1.5rem auto; padding: 0; position: relative; width: 100%; } .nola-mardi-gras-trash * { box-sizing: border-box; } .nola-mardi-gras-trash svg text { font-family: var(--typography-secondary); } .nola-mardi-gras-trash__title { font-family: var(--typography-primary); font-size: 24px; margin: var(--spacing-base) 0; text-align: left; } .nola-mardi-gras-trash__subtitle { font-family: var(--typography-secondary); color: var(--color-primary); font-size: 18px; margin: 0 0 var(--spacing-base); text-align: left; } .nola-mardi-gras-trash__axis-label { color: var(--color-primary); font-size: 14px; } .nola-mardi-gras-trash .axis-grid line { stroke: #e0e0e0; stroke-opacity: 0.7; shape-rendering: crispEdges; } .nola-mardi-gras-trash .axis-grid .domain { stroke: none; } .nola-mardi-gras-trash .domain { stroke: #3c3830; } .nola-mardi-gras-trash .bar-label { font-family: var(--typography-secondary); font-size: 12px; fill: var(--color-primary); text-anchor: middle; } .nola-mardi-gras-trash__footer { display: flex; justify-content: space-between; align-items: flex-end; margin-top: 0px; gap: 16px; } .nola-mardi-gras-trash__credits { display: flex; flex-direction: column; } .nola-mardi-gras-trash__note { color: var(--color-secondary); font-size: 12px; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 4px; display: inline-block; font-style: italic; } .nola-mardi-gras-trash__source { color: var(--color-secondary); font-size: 12px; margin-top: 0; display: inline-block; } .nola-mardi-gras-trash__credit { color: var(--color-secondary); font-size: 12px; margin-top: 3px; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; display: inline-block; } .nola-mardi-gras-trash__logo { height: auto; max-width: 62px; min-width: 50px; margin-left: auto; padding-right: 20px; margin-right: 0; margin-bottom: 0; transform: translateY(-2px); } Mardi Gras revelers are leaving behind more trash than ever Tons of trash collected from New Orleans parade routes, 2011–2026 *No Carnival in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Source: City of New Orleans Dennis Dean / Verite / Clayton Aldern / Grist / Alexander Grey / Unsplash (function() { const INIT_KEY = '__grist_nola_mardi_gras_trash_initialized__'; if (window[INIT_KEY]) { return; } window[INIT_KEY] = true; const COLORS = { TEXT: 'var(--color-primary)', BAR: 'var(--color-fuchsia)', BAR_NEGATIVE: '#E57373' }; const BAR_RADIUS = 4; const svg = d3.select('#nola-mardi-gras-trash-bar-chart'); const getSvgHeight = () => parseInt(svg.attr('height')) || 450; const formatCompactWithB = (n) => d3.format('~s')(n).replace('G', 'B').replace('k', 'K'); function calculateYTicks(height, fontSize = 14) { const minSpacing = fontSize * 2; return Math.max(2, Math.floor(height / minSpacing)); } function measureYAxisWidth(svg, scale, chartHeight, formatTick) { const tickCount = calculateYTicks(chartHeight); const TICK_PADDING = 4; const tempGroup = svg.append('g') .attr('class', 'nola-mardi-gras-trash__y-axis-measure') .style('visibility', 'hidden'); const axis = d3.axisLeft(scale) .ticks(tickCount) .tickFormat(formatTick) .tickSize(0) .tickPadding(TICK_PADDING); tempGroup.call(axis); tempGroup.selectAll('text') .style('font-family', 'var(--typography-secondary)') .style('font-size', '14px'); let minX = 0; tempGroup.selectAll('text').each(function() { const bbox = this.getBBox(); if (bbox.x < minX) { minX = bbox.x; } }); tempGroup.remove(); return { width: -minX, tickCount, tickPadding: TICK_PADDING }; } const rawData = [{"Year":"2011","Tons":"930"},{"Year":"2012","Tons":"835"},{"Year":"2013","Tons":"845"},{"Year":"2014","Tons":"895"},{"Year":"2015","Tons":"905"},{"Year":"2016","Tons":"940"},{"Year":"2017","Tons":"1328"},{"Year":"2018","Tons":"1150"},{"Year":"2019","Tons":"1075"},{"Year":"2020","Tons":"1120"},{"Year":"2021","Tons":"0"},{"Year":"2022","Tons":"1145"},{"Year":"2023","Tons":"1165"},{"Year":"2024","Tons":"1065"},{"Year":"2025","Tons":"1100"},{"Year":"2026","Tons":"1364"}]; const categoryColumn = 'Year'; const valueColumn = 'Tons'; const chartData = rawData.map(d => ({ category: d[categoryColumn], value: +String(d[valueColumn]).replace(/,/g, '') })); function wrapSvgText(textSelection, width, lineHeight) { textSelection.each(function() { const text = d3.select(this); const words = text.text().split(/\s+/).reverse(); let word; let line = []; let lineNumber = 0; const y = text.attr('y') || 0; const dy = parseFloat(text.attr('dy')) || 0; let tspan = text.text(null).append('tspan').attr('x', 0).attr('y', y).attr('dy', dy + 'em'); while ((word = words.pop())) { line.push(word); tspan.text(line.join(' ')); if (tspan.node().getComputedTextLength() > width) { line.pop(); tspan.text(line.join(' ')); line = [word]; tspan = text.append('tspan').attr('x', 0).attr('y', y).attr('dy', ++lineNumber * (lineHeight / 14) + dy + 'em').text(word); } } }); } function detectLabelOverlap(labels, bandWidth) { let maxLabelWidth = 0; labels.each(function() { const bbox = this.getBBox ? this.getBBox() : { width: 0 }; maxLabelWidth = Math.max(maxLabelWidth, bbox.width); }); return maxLabelWidth > bandWidth * 0.9; } let rotatedLabels = false; function renderChart() { svg.selectAll('*').remove(); const LEFT_PADDING = 8; let needsRotation = rotatedLabels; const baseBottomMargin = 30; const rotatedBottomMargin = 42; const baseMargin = { top: 12, right: 12, bottom: needsRotation ? rotatedBottomMargin : baseBottomMargin, left: 0 }; const node = svg.node(); const styleWidth = parseInt(svg.style('width')); const attrWidth = parseInt(svg.attr('width')); const bboxWidth = node ? node.getBoundingClientRect().width : 0; const containerWidth = (bboxWidth > 0 ? bboxWidth : 0) || (attrWidth > 0 ? attrWidth : 0) || ((!isNaN(styleWidth) ? (styleWidth > 0 ? styleWidth : 0) : 0) || 600); const svgHeight = getSvgHeight(); const height = svgHeight - baseMargin.top - baseMargin.bottom; if (height <= 0) return; const yMin = d3.min(chartData, d => d.value); const yMax = d3.max(chartData, d => d.value); const yDomainMin = yMin < 0 ? yMin * 1.1 : 0; const yDomainMax = yMax > 0 ? yMax * 1.1 : 0; const y = d3.scaleLinear() .domain([yDomainMin, yDomainMax]) .range([height, 0]); const { width: yLabelWidth, tickCount: yTickCount, tickPadding: yTickPadding } = measureYAxisWidth(svg, y, height, formatCompactWithB); const margin = { ...baseMargin, left: yLabelWidth + LEFT_PADDING }; const width = containerWidth - margin.left - margin.right; if (width <= 0) return; svg.attr('height', svgHeight); const x = d3.scaleBand() .domain(chartData.map(d => d.category)) .range([0, width]) .padding(0.25); svg.append('g') .attr('class', 'axis-grid') .attr('transform', `translate(${margin.left},${margin.top})`) .call(d3.axisLeft(y).ticks(yTickCount).tickSize(-width).tickFormat('')); const xAxis = g => { g.attr('transform', `translate(${margin.left},${height + margin.top})`) .call(d3.axisBottom(x)); const labels = g.selectAll('.tick text') .attr('class', 'nola-mardi-gras-trash__axis-label') .style('fill', COLORS.TEXT) .text(function() { const t = d3.select(this).text(); return t === '2021' ? '2021*' : t; }); if (detectLabelOverlap(labels, x.bandwidth())) { needsRotation = true; } if (needsRotation) { labels .style('text-anchor', 'end') .attr('dx', '-0.5em') .attr('dy', '0.25em') .attr('transform', 'rotate(-45)'); } else { const maxWidth = Math.min(80, Math.max(48, width / chartData.length - 6)); labels .style('text-anchor', 'middle') .call(wrapSvgText, maxWidth, 14); } }; const yAxisGenerator = g => g .attr('transform', `translate(${margin.left},${margin.top})`) .call(d3.axisLeft(y).ticks(yTickCount).tickFormat(d => formatCompactWithB(d)).tickPadding(yTickPadding)) .selectAll('text') .attr('class', 'nola-mardi-gras-trash__axis-label') .style('fill', COLORS.TEXT); svg.append('g').call(xAxis); if (needsRotation ? !rotatedLabels : false) { rotatedLabels = true; return renderChart(); } svg.append('g').call(yAxisGenerator); const chart = svg.append('g').attr('transform', `translate(${margin.left},${margin.top})`); const defs = chart.append('defs'); // Add dashed zero line when data crosses zero if (yMin < 0 ? yMax > 0 : false) { chart.append('line') .attr('class', 'zero-line') .attr('x1', 0) .attr('y1', y(0)) .attr('x2', width) .attr('y2', y(0)) .attr('stroke', '#888') .attr('stroke-width', 1) .attr('stroke-dasharray', '4,4'); } const grayFilter = defs.append('filter').attr('id', 'nola-mardi-gras-trash-greyscale'); grayFilter.append('feColorMatrix').attr('type', 'saturate').attr('values', '0'); const barsMask = defs.append('mask').attr('id', 'nola-mardi-gras-trash-bars-mask'); chartData.forEach(d => { const barY = d.value >= 0 ? y(d.value) : y(0); const barHeight = Math.abs(y(d.value) - y(0)); barsMask.append('rect') .attr('x', x(d.category)) .attr('y', barY) .attr('width', x.bandwidth()) .attr('height', barHeight) .attr('rx', BAR_RADIUS) .attr('ry', BAR_RADIUS) .attr('fill', 'white'); }); chart.append('image') .attr('xlink:href', 'https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/mardi-gras-sequins-alexander-grey.jpg') .attr('x', 0) .attr('y', 0) .attr('width', width) .attr('height', height) .attr('preserveAspectRatio', 'xMidYMid slice') .attr('mask', 'url(#nola-mardi-gras-trash-bars-mask)') .attr('filter', 'url(#nola-mardi-gras-trash-greyscale)'); chart.selectAll('.bar') .data(chartData) .enter().append('rect') .attr('class', 'bar') .attr('x', d => x(d.category)) .attr('y', d => d.value >= 0 ? y(d.value) : y(0)) .attr('width', x.bandwidth()) .attr('height', d => Math.abs(y(d.value) - y(0))) .attr('rx', BAR_RADIUS) .attr('ry', BAR_RADIUS) .style('fill', COLORS.BAR) .style('opacity', 0.65); const labelYears = ['2017', '2026']; chart.selectAll('.bar-label') .data(chartData.filter(d => labelYears.includes(d.category))) .enter().append('text') .attr('class', 'bar-label') .attr('x', d => x(d.category) + x.bandwidth() / 2) .attr('y', d => y(d.value) - 5) .text(d => d3.format(',')(d.value)) .style('fill', COLORS.TEXT); } if (document.readyState === 'loading') { document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', renderChart); } else { renderChart(); } window.addEventListener('resize', renderChart); })();

“To see the waste go up that much, it’s just absurd,” said Brett Davis, founder of Grounds Krewe, a nonprofit group trying to make Mardi Gras more sustainable through recycling and waste reduction efforts. 

It’s a century-old tradition for riders on parade floats to shower crowds with beaded necklaces, toys, and other items — collectively known as “throws.” Most are cheap plastic trinkets. The beads are often laden with toxic chemicals, including unsafe levels of lead. Many throws are dropped moments after they’re caught, then crushed under feet and eventually swept up and hauled to landfills. 

City officials initially blamed the rise in rubbish on the popularity of this year’s festivities, which ran from January 6 to February 17 and included more than 30 float parades. An estimated 2.2 million people visited downtown New Orleans during the Carnival season, about 10 percent more than in 2025, according to the Downtown Development District, which drew on data from location analytics company Placer.ai.

“The increase from last year was directly associated with the larger crowds,” Matt Torri, the city’s sanitation director, told the City Council in March. “Anybody who was out at this year’s parades definitely took note that there seemed to be more people enjoying the Carnival season, which is great for the city.”

But a Verite News analysis of annual attendance and city cleanup records shows no clear relationship between crowds and trash levels. Overall, Mardi Gras waste tonnage has trended upward over the past decade, regardless of the year-to-year changes in attendance. The Mardi Gras season in 2020, for instance, drew more people — about 2.4 million — but produced roughly 241 fewer tons of garbage than in 2026.

In the early 2010s, trash tonnage hovered around 880 tons. It spiked in 2017, surpassing 1,320 tons, and has not fallen below 1,000 tons since. The only exception was 2021, when no trash was recorded because the city canceled parades and most Carnival festivities due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

.nola-mardi-gras-attendance-trash { --color-primary: #3c3830; --color-secondary: #777; --color-orange: #F79945; --color-turquoise: #12A07F; --color-fuchsia: #AC00E8; --color-cobalt: #3977F3; --color-earth: #3c3830; --typography-primary: "PolySans", Arial, sans-serif; --typography-secondary: "Basis Grotesque", Arial, sans-serif; --spacing-base: 10px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: var(--typography-secondary); margin: 1.5rem auto; padding: 0; position: relative; width: 100%; } .nola-mardi-gras-attendance-trash * { box-sizing: border-box; } .nola-mardi-gras-attendance-trash svg text { font-family: var(--typography-secondary); } .nola-mardi-gras-attendance-trash__title { font-family: var(--typography-primary); font-size: 24px; margin: var(--spacing-base) 0; } .nola-mardi-gras-attendance-trash__subtitle { font-family: var(--typography-secondary); color: var(--color-primary); font-size: 18px; margin: 0 0 var(--spacing-base); } .nola-mardi-gras-attendance-trash__axis-label { color: var(--color-primary); font-size: 14px; } .nola-mardi-gras-attendance-trash .axis-grid line { stroke: #e0e0e0; stroke-opacity: 0.7; shape-rendering: crispEdges; } .nola-mardi-gras-attendance-trash .axis-grid .domain { stroke: none; } .nola-mardi-gras-attendance-trash .domain { stroke: #3c3830; } .nola-mardi-gras-attendance-trash .line { fill: none; stroke-width: 4px; stroke-linecap: round; stroke-linejoin: round; } .nola-mardi-gras-attendance-trash .line--projected { stroke-dasharray: 6 4; } .nola-mardi-gras-attendance-trash .pulsing-dot { stroke: white; stroke-width: 1.7px; } .nola-mardi-gras-attendance-trash .data-label { font-family: var(--typography-secondary); font-size: 11px; fill: var(--color-primary); paint-order: stroke fill; stroke: white; stroke-width: 3px; stroke-linejoin: round; stroke-linecap: round; } .nola-mardi-gras-attendance-trash__legend { display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; gap: 6px 16px; margin-bottom: 8px; } .nola-mardi-gras-attendance-trash__legend-item { display: flex; align-items: center; gap: 6px; font-size: 13px; color: var(--color-primary); } .nola-mardi-gras-attendance-trash__legend-color { width: 16px; height: 3px; border-radius: 2px; flex-shrink: 0; } .nola-mardi-gras-attendance-trash__footer { display: flex; justify-content: space-between; align-items: flex-end; margin-top: 8px; gap: 16px; } .nola-mardi-gras-attendance-trash__credits { display: flex; flex-direction: column; } .nola-mardi-gras-attendance-trash__source { color: var(--color-secondary); font-size: 12px; margin-top: 0; display: inline-block; } .nola-mardi-gras-attendance-trash__credit { color: var(--color-secondary); font-size: 12px; margin-top: 3px; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; display: inline-block; } .nola-mardi-gras-attendance-trash__logo { height: auto; max-width: 62px; min-width: 50px; margin-left: auto; padding-right: 20px; margin-right: 0; margin-bottom: 0; transform: translateY(-2px); } Carnival trash hit a record even as attendance lagged behind 2020 levels Downtown attendance vs. city-wide trash collection during Mardi Gras, 2020–2026 Attendance (downtown) Trash (city-wide, tons) Source: Placer.ai / New Orleans Downtown Development District / City of New Orleans Dennis Dean / Verite / Clayton Aldern / Grist (function() { const INIT_KEY = '__grist_nola_mardi_gras_attendance_trash_initialized__'; if (window[INIT_KEY]) { return; } window[INIT_KEY] = true; const COLORS = { TEXT: 'var(--color-primary)', SERIES: ['var(--color-orange)', 'var(--color-fuchsia)', 'var(--color-turquoise)', 'var(--color-cobalt)', 'var(--color-earth)'] }; const svg = d3.select('#nola-mardi-gras-attendance-trash-line-chart'); const getSvgHeight = () => parseInt(svg.attr('height')) || 400; // Format for line-end labels: 2 decimal places (e.g., 1.64M, 2.26M) const formatCompactWithB = (n) => { // For small values (< 1000), avoid SI prefix notation (which shows "m" for milli) if (Math.abs(n) < 1000 ? Math.abs(n) > 0 : false) { // Use up to 2 decimal places, trim trailing zeros return d3.format('.2~f')(n); } // Use .3s for 3 significant figures, giving 2 decimal places (e.g., 1.64M, 2.26M) return d3.format('.3s')(n).replace('G', 'B').replace('k', 'K'); }; // Format for y-axis ticks: clean round numbers (0, 500K, 1M, 1.5M, 2M) const formatAxisTick = (n) => { if (n === 0) return '0'; const absN = Math.abs(n); if (absN >= 1e9) { const val = n / 1e9; return (val % 1 === 0 ? val.toFixed(0) : val.toFixed(1)) + 'B'; } if (absN >= 1e6) { const val = n / 1e6; return (val % 1 === 0 ? val.toFixed(0) : val.toFixed(1)) + 'M'; } if (absN >= 1e3) { const val = n / 1e3; return (val % 1 === 0 ? val.toFixed(0) : val.toFixed(1)) + 'K'; } return n.toString(); }; function calculateYTicks(height, fontSize = 14) { // Limit to 4-5 ticks for cleaner appearance const minSpacing = fontSize * 4; return Math.min(5, Math.max(2, Math.floor(height / minSpacing))); } function measureYAxisWidth(svg, scale, chartHeight, formatTick) { const tickCount = calculateYTicks(chartHeight); const TICK_PADDING = 4; const tempGroup = svg.append('g') .attr('class', 'nola-mardi-gras-attendance-trash__y-axis-measure') .style('visibility', 'hidden'); const axis = d3.axisLeft(scale) .ticks(tickCount) .tickFormat(formatTick) .tickSize(0) .tickPadding(TICK_PADDING); tempGroup.call(axis); tempGroup.selectAll('text') .style('font-family', 'var(--typography-secondary)') .style('font-size', '14px'); let minX = 0; tempGroup.selectAll('text').each(function() { const bbox = this.getBBox(); if (bbox.x < minX) { minX = bbox.x; } }); tempGroup.remove(); return { width: -minX, tickCount, tickPadding: TICK_PADDING }; } const rawData = [{"Year":"2020","Attendance":"2400000","Trash":"1123"},{"Year":"2022","Attendance":"1900000","Trash":"1155"},{"Year":"2023","Attendance":"2100000","Trash":"1185"},{"Year":"2024","Attendance":"2000000","Trash":"1050"},{"Year":"2025","Attendance":"2000000","Trash":"1100"},{"Year":"2026","Attendance":"2200000","Trash":"1364"}]; const xColumn = 'Year'; // Dual-axis: Attendance on left, Trash on right const attendanceData = rawData.map(d => ({ x: new Date(d[xColumn]), y: +d.Attendance })); const trashData = rawData.map(d => ({ x: new Date(d[xColumn]), y: +d.Trash })); const seriesData = [ { key: 'Attendance', label: 'Attendance', color: COLORS.SERIES[0], values: attendanceData, axis: 'left' }, { key: 'Trash', label: 'Trash', color: COLORS.SERIES[1], values: trashData, axis: 'right' } ]; function renderChart() { svg.selectAll('*').remove(); const node = svg.node(); const styleWidth = parseInt(svg.style('width')); const attrWidth = parseInt(svg.attr('width')); const bboxWidth = node ? node.getBoundingClientRect().width : 0; const containerWidth = (bboxWidth > 0 ? bboxWidth : 0) || (attrWidth > 0 ? attrWidth : 0) || ((!isNaN(styleWidth) ? (styleWidth > 0 ? styleWidth : 0) : 0) || 600); const svgHeight = getSvgHeight(); const baseMargins = { top: 20, right: 20, bottom: 36 }; const height = svgHeight - baseMargins.top - baseMargins.bottom; if (height <= 0) return; const x = d3.scaleTime(); const yLeft = d3.scaleLinear().range([height, 0]); const yRight = d3.scaleLinear().range([height, 0]); // Attendance domain (left axis) — range from ~1.8M to ~2.4M like the original const [attMin, attMax] = d3.extent(attendanceData, d => d.y); const attPadding = (attMax - attMin) * 0.15; yLeft.domain([attMin - attPadding, attMax + attPadding]); // Trash domain (right axis) — range from ~1000 to ~1400 like the original const [trashMin, trashMax] = d3.extent(trashData, d => d.y); const trashPadding = (trashMax - trashMin) * 0.15; yRight.domain([trashMin - trashPadding, trashMax + trashPadding]); x.domain(d3.extent(attendanceData, d => d.x)); // Measure both y-axis widths const leftMeasure = measureYAxisWidth(svg, yLeft, height, d => formatAxisTick(d)); const rightMeasure = measureYAxisWidth(svg, yRight, height, d => formatAxisTick(d)); const LEFT_PADDING = 8; const RIGHT_PADDING = 8; const margin = { top: baseMargins.top, right: rightMeasure.width + RIGHT_PADDING + 8, bottom: baseMargins.bottom, left: leftMeasure.width + LEFT_PADDING }; const width = containerWidth - margin.left - margin.right; if (width <= 0) return; x.range([0, width]); // Each series uses its own y-scale const yScaleFor = (series) => series.axis === 'left' ? yLeft : yRight; svg.attr('height', svgHeight); const firstSeries = seriesData[0].values; const startYear = firstSeries[0].x.getFullYear(); const endYear = firstSeries[firstSeries.length - 1].x.getFullYear(); const totalYears = endYear - startYear; const minLabelSpacingPx = 60; const maxTicks = Math.max(2, Math.floor(width / minLabelSpacingPx)); const approxYearsPerTick = Math.max(1, Math.ceil(totalYears / maxTicks)); const niceSteps = [1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 25, 50, 100]; const stepYears = niceSteps.find(s => s >= approxYearsPerTick) || niceSteps[niceSteps.length - 1]; const xTickInterval = d3.timeYear.every(stepYears); // Grid lines based on left axis svg.append('g') .attr('class', 'axis-grid') .attr('transform', `translate(${margin.left},${height + margin.top})`) .call(d3.axisBottom(x).ticks(xTickInterval).tickSize(-height).tickFormat('')); svg.append('g') .attr('class', 'axis-grid') .attr('transform', `translate(${margin.left},${margin.top})`) .call(d3.axisLeft(yLeft).ticks(leftMeasure.tickCount).tickSize(-width).tickFormat('')); // X axis const xAxis = g => g .attr('transform', `translate(${margin.left},${height + margin.top})`) .call(d3.axisBottom(x).ticks(xTickInterval).tickFormat(d3.timeFormat('%Y'))) .selectAll('text') .attr('class', 'nola-mardi-gras-attendance-trash__axis-label') .style('fill', COLORS.TEXT) .style('text-anchor', 'middle'); // Left y-axis (Attendance) const yLeftAxisGen = d3.axisLeft(yLeft) .ticks(leftMeasure.tickCount) .tickFormat(d => formatAxisTick(d)) .tickPadding(leftMeasure.tickPadding); const yLeftAxis = g => g .attr('transform', `translate(${margin.left},${margin.top})`) .call(yLeftAxisGen) .selectAll('text') .attr('class', 'nola-mardi-gras-attendance-trash__axis-label') .style('fill', COLORS.SERIES[0]); // Right y-axis (Trash) const yRightAxisGen = d3.axisRight(yRight) .ticks(rightMeasure.tickCount) .tickFormat(d => formatAxisTick(d)) .tickPadding(rightMeasure.tickPadding); const yRightAxis = g => g .attr('transform', `translate(${margin.left + width},${margin.top})`) .call(yRightAxisGen) .call(g => g.select('.domain').attr('stroke', '#3c3830')) .selectAll('text') .attr('class', 'nola-mardi-gras-attendance-trash__axis-label') .style('fill', COLORS.SERIES[1]); svg.append('g').call(xAxis); svg.append('g').call(yLeftAxis); svg.append('g').call(yRightAxis); const chart = svg.append('g').attr('transform', `translate(${margin.left},${margin.top})`); const defs = chart.append('defs'); const isDarkMode = (() => { const container = document.querySelector('.nola-mardi-gras-attendance-trash'); if (!container) return false; const bg = window.getComputedStyle(container.closest('body') || document.body).backgroundColor; const match = bg.match(/rgb\((\d+),\s*(\d+),\s*(\d+)\)/); if (!match) return false; const luminance = (0.299 * +match[1] + 0.587 * +match[2] + 0.114 * +match[3]) / 255; return luminance < 0.5; })(); if (isDarkMode) { const glowFilter = defs.append('filter') .attr('id', 'nola-mardi-gras-attendance-trash-glow') .attr('x', '-50%') .attr('y', '-50%') .attr('width', '200%') .attr('height', '200%'); glowFilter.append('feGaussianBlur') .attr('stdDeviation', '3') .attr('result', 'blur'); glowFilter.append('feMerge') .selectAll('feMergeNode') .data(['blur', 'SourceGraphic']) .enter() .append('feMergeNode') .attr('in', d => d); } const pulsingCircles = []; const labelInfos = []; seriesData.forEach((series, idx) => { const yScale = yScaleFor(series); const seriesLine = d3.line() .x(d => x(d.x)) .y(d => yScale(d.y)); if (!isDarkMode) { chart.append('path') .datum(series.values) .attr('class', 'line') .attr('d', seriesLine) .style('stroke', 'white') .style('stroke-width', 6) .style('stroke-linecap', 'round') .style('stroke-linejoin', 'round'); } const linePath = chart.append('path') .datum(series.values) .attr('class', 'line') .attr('d', seriesLine) .style('stroke', series.color) .style('stroke-linecap', 'round') .style('stroke-linejoin', 'round'); if (isDarkMode) { linePath.style('filter', 'url(#nola-mardi-gras-attendance-trash-glow)'); } const last = series.values[series.values.length - 1]; const dotRadius = 5; const circle = chart.append('circle') .attr('class', 'pulsing-dot') .attr('cx', x(last.x)) .attr('cy', yScale(last.y)) .attr('r', dotRadius) .style('fill', series.color); pulsingCircles.push(circle); labelInfos.push({ series, dotX: x(last.x), dotY: yScale(last.y), dotRadius, labelText: formatCompactWithB(last.y) }); }); const LABEL_V_PADDING = 4; const MAX_VERTICAL_OFFSET = 40; const SIDE_GAP = 8; const EXTRA_HORIZONTAL_OFFSET = 12; const LINE_CLEARANCE_FACTOR = 1.5; const MIN_LABEL_HEIGHT = 14; labelInfos.forEach(info => { const temp = chart.append('text') .attr('class', 'data-label') .attr('x', -9999) .attr('y', -9999) .text(info.labelText); const bbox = temp.node().getBBox(); info.width = bbox.width; info.height = Math.max(bbox.height || MIN_LABEL_HEIGHT, MIN_LABEL_HEIGHT); info.textEl = temp; }); function resolveCollisions(labels, chartWidth, chartHeight) { labels.forEach(lbl => { const rightStartX = lbl.dotX + lbl.dotRadius + SIDE_GAP; const rightEndX = rightStartX + lbl.width; if (rightEndX <= chartWidth) { lbl.side = 'right'; lbl.anchor = 'start'; } else { lbl.side = 'left'; lbl.anchor = 'end'; } lbl.baseY = lbl.dotY + lbl.height * 0.4; lbl.y = lbl.baseY; }); function layoutSide(side) { const group = labels .filter(l => l.side === side) .sort((a, b) => a.baseY - b.baseY); if (!group.length) return; group.forEach(l => { const minY = l.height; const maxY = chartHeight - LABEL_V_PADDING; l.y = Math.max(minY, Math.min(maxY, l.baseY)); }); for (let i = 1; i < group.length; i++) { const prev = group[i - 1]; const cur = group[i]; const minY = prev.y + prev.height + LABEL_V_PADDING; if (cur.y < minY) { cur.y = minY; } } for (let i = group.length - 2; i >= 0; i--) { const next = group[i + 1]; const cur = group[i]; const maxY = next.y - cur.height - LABEL_V_PADDING; if (cur.y > maxY) { cur.y = maxY; } } } layoutSide('right'); layoutSide('left'); labels.forEach(lbl => { const dy = Math.abs(lbl.y - lbl.baseY); if (dy > MAX_VERTICAL_OFFSET) { const newSide = lbl.side === 'right' ? 'left' : 'right'; const candidateStartX = newSide === 'right' ? lbl.dotX + lbl.dotRadius + SIDE_GAP + EXTRA_HORIZONTAL_OFFSET : lbl.dotX - lbl.dotRadius - SIDE_GAP - EXTRA_HORIZONTAL_OFFSET - lbl.width; const fitsHorizontally = candidateStartX >= 0 ? (candidateStartX + lbl.width) <= chartWidth : false; if (fitsHorizontally) { lbl.side = newSide; lbl.anchor = newSide === 'right' ? 'start' : 'end'; lbl.y = lbl.baseY; } } }); layoutSide('right'); layoutSide('left'); labels.forEach(lbl => { if (lbl.side === 'left') { const lineClearance = lbl.dotRadius * LINE_CLEARANCE_FACTOR + 4; const labelCenterY = lbl.y - lbl.height / 2; const distToDot = Math.abs(labelCenterY - lbl.dotY); if (distToDot < lineClearance) { if (labelCenterY < lbl.dotY) { lbl.y = lbl.dotY - lineClearance; } else { lbl.y = lbl.dotY + lineClearance + lbl.height; } } } }); layoutSide('left'); labels.forEach(lbl => { const gap = SIDE_GAP + (Math.abs(lbl.y - lbl.baseY) > MAX_VERTICAL_OFFSET ? EXTRA_HORIZONTAL_OFFSET : 0); if (lbl.side === 'right') { lbl.x = lbl.dotX + lbl.dotRadius + gap; } else { lbl.x = lbl.dotX - lbl.dotRadius - gap; } }); return labels; } resolveCollisions(labelInfos, width, height); const strokeColor = isDarkMode ? 'rgba(26,26,26,0.9)' : 'white'; labelInfos.forEach(info => { // Position the actual label text with text stroke for readability info.textEl .attr('x', info.x) .attr('y', info.y) .attr('text-anchor', info.anchor) .style('fill', info.series.color) .style('stroke', strokeColor); }); function animatePulse() { pulsingCircles.forEach(circle => { circle.transition().duration(750).attr('r', 5 * 1.2) .transition().duration(750).attr('r', 5).on('end', animatePulse); }); } if (pulsingCircles.length > 0) animatePulse(); } if (document.readyState === 'loading') { document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', renderChart); } else { renderChart(); } window.addEventListener('resize', renderChart); })();

Since 2020, when the Downtown Development District began tracking visits in the Central Business and Warehouse districts, annual attendance has stayed within a relatively tight range, between 1.9 million and 2.4 million. Still, the trash tally has swung wildly, indicating that other factors are at play. The development district doesn’t track citywide visits, but its annual downtown tally is considered the most accurate indication of Carnival attendance. 

The office of Mayor Helena Moreno and the city’s sanitation department did not respond to requests for comment. 

Parade trash remains a problem for the city’s drainage system. After the infamous bead blockage of 2018, the city began installing temporary filter contraptions, known as “gutter buddies,” at catch basins along parade routes, but conservation groups say the outfalls still spew more litter into canals and Lake Pontchartrain during the Carnival season.

The upswing in trash is occurring alongside a seemingly contradictory trend of waste reduction. In recent years, many parade organizations, called krewes, have cut back on plastic beads and other “junk” throws. They’ve opted for higher-value items like socks, baseball caps, wooden cooking spoons, and metal drinking cups. 

Grounds Krewe and other groups have also expanded their recycling efforts. They set set up stations to collect bottles, cans, and reusable throws, and some volunteers even pick through the parade debris for recyclable items. This year, the groups diverted about 28 tons from landfills. That’s despite the city pulling back its support for recycling this year because of budget concerns. Even if the city government spent the $200,000 it initially earmarked for recycling, “it’s not going to reverse the 24 percent gain” in waste, Davis said.  

There was some hope that the volume of throws would be curbed by rising prices for beads and other trinkets, a result of higher inflation and President Donald Trump’s steep tariffs on imports from China, where most beads are made. Some parade-goers said they noticed the change, taking to social media to complain about stingier krewes.

“We are really perplexed,” Davis said. “All that is happening, with people throwing fewer beads and a lot of krewes switching to higher-quality throws, but waste is still going upward.” 

The swelling tonnage may have less to do with the throwers and more with the catchers. Davis and some city leaders say parade-goers are setting up earlier, staying longer, and bringing even more of the comforts of home: folding chairs, canopy tents, coolers, grills, and wagonloads of food. They’re also chaining together walls of ladders, erecting scaffolding, installing portable toilets, and plunking down generators and old sofas. As the season ends, many of these items are broken, dirty, or too much of a hassle to haul home. 

These abandoned items, which can range in weight from 5 pounds for a folding chair to 300 pounds for a couch, are an increasingly heavy lift for cleanup crews, City Council President JP Morrell said.

“The reality is that they get their use out of this stuff, and then it becomes a tremendous amount of debris that our workers have to deal with because these people had no intention of ever picking this stuff up,” he said. “It goes towards a sense of abject entitlement — that our entire city exists to serve other people’s whims.”

Discarded Mardi Gras beads and trash cover a street after 2014 Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans, Louisiana. Gerald Herbert / AP Photo

Many of these gear-laden revelers are territorial, roping off patches of sidewalk or spreading tarps across grassy street medians, known locally as neutral grounds. These public-space appropriators have come to be known as the “Krewe of Chad,” after the name, spraypainted across a large patch of grass, went viral in 2013. 

These “Chadders,” as Morrell calls them, appear emboldened by the recent ebb in the enforcement of the city’s parade rules. Officially, early birds aren’t supposed to set up until four hours before a parade starts, but this rule is regularly flouted. In 2024, the list of banned items grew to include many of the things that have become commonplace — tents, tarps, and viewing platforms among them. A crackdown that year, which included the seizure of truckloads of encampment gear, appeared to briefly change behavior, Davis said. 

But last year, the city announced it would scale back enforcement and prioritize security after a terror attack on New Year’s Day killed 14 people on Bourbon Street. 

Enforcement was further scaled back by the city’s current budget crisis. Amid layoffs and other cutbacks aimed at reducing a $220 million deficit, Morrell admitted that efforts to clear Carnival encampments would be “spotty.”

“How are they going to enforce it? Well, to be honest, we’re hard up for cash,” Morrell said on an Instagram post in early February. He stressed that police and other city departments would “do their best,” but enforcement wouldn’t be as “robust as it could be.”

Torri, the sanitation director, said the city had the capacity to clear large items on just one day before the final cleanup on Fat Tuesday. “Mardi Gras Day was a major undertaking,” he told the council in March. Crews started working at 8 a.m. and didn’t finish until 1 a.m. “It’s a full day of cleaning because of everything that people have brought. Tarps, ladders, tents, coolers, grills are left because they’re disposable things that were only intended to last the weeks of Mardi Gras.”

Davis predicted the trend toward fewer but better throws will continue, and his organization will keep pushing for more reuse and recycling. But, he added, the policies meant to curb parade encampments — and the waste they leave behind — are only as effective as their enforcement.

“Having the krewes throw less is great, but what’s really heavy is a couch and all the stuff people brought out in wheelbarrows,” Davis said. “Unless we have police out there and the trucks to haul it away, this kind of behavior creeps back. And that’s what we’re seeing now.” 

toolTips('.classtoolTips11','A scarce blue metal that helps battery cathodes store large amounts of energy without overheating or collapsing. It is a key component of lithium-ion batteries. ');

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline New Orleans wants to fix its Mardi Gras mess. So why is the trash pile still growing? on May 11, 2026.

Modern corporations are legally and financially structured to prioritize profit over ecological stability. The result is a system that normalizes environmental destruction while diffusing responsibility across institutions and individuals.

Efforts to save coral reefs from climate‑driven heatwaves focus on conserving and breeding heat‑resistant corals and harnessing resilient algae and bacteria, offering a test case for conservation in a warming world.

Nate Hagens steps away from analysis and reflects on a call that reframed his thinking. He shares a recent conversation with a close friend living in Lebanon, who, amid ongoing daily violence and loss, has been hosting displaced families and leading meditation practices in her community.

In a Q&A with Climate Home News, the head of sustainability at global lighting company Signify explains how the firm is doubling down on its efforts to protect the climate and strengthen resilience.

In March, Signify launched its latest corporate sustainability programme, “Brighter Lives, Better World 2030”.

The programme is the third iteration of a project that started in 2016, aimed at shifting how the company – and its customers – can reduce their environmental impact. 

It centres on enhanced targets to improve energy efficiency, cut greenhouse gas emissions and promote the circular economy. In addition, Signify has set itself a challenging goal to source 41% of its revenue from solutions “that support benefits beyond illumination” by the end of 2030, up from 31% in 2024. Those benefits include efficient food production and increased access to solar lighting.

Signify is aiming to save 60 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity for its customers; achieve a 35% reduction in the CO2 emissions intensity of its portfolio; and grow its circular product business from 10% to 27.5% of revenue.

Climate Home News spoke with the company’s global head of sustainability, Maurice Loosschilder, to find out how the Netherlands-based multinational plans to reach its targets despite a tough political landscape for green action.

Q: How does Signify’s new sustainability programme build on lessons learned from previous versions?

A: If we look back a little bit, it is a natural next step. Signify [formerly Philips Lighting] became a standalone company roughly 10 years ago and in 2016 we launched our first “Brighter Lives, Better World 2020” programme at the same time.

The first programme mirrored developments in the lighting industry and was very much based on our own operations: reaching 100% renewable electricity, zero waste to landfill in our manufacturing facilities, increasing the energy efficiency in our own portfolio.

Since then, we’ve moved on to think about our entire value chain and the wider social contributions we want our work to be making. But we still want to be thinking about how to improve our own business. Our continued target to double the amount of women in leadership positions is an example of that.

Does the future of green manufacturing lie in 3D printing?

Q: Looking at the political climate, both in the US and Europe, there isn’t the same concern for environmental issues as there was a few years ago. Many corporates are perceived to be rolling back on their environmental commitments. How are you as a company navigating some of these challenges?

A: This is not something new. If we look back on the last five to 10 years, we’ve seen a lot of disruption and change in the market. We’ve had a global pandemic, supply chain disruptions, energy insecurity. At the same time we’ve seen the increased impacts of climate change and all of that is changing the dynamics of doing business right now. 

I think these changes have really tested resilience – the resilience of companies, the resilience of people, the resilience of societies. We really believe that resilience is becoming more and more important to businesses right now. And if you look at what a resilient company is, it is one that decarbonises faster, invests in people, invests in circular solutions and makes its business model more circular. And that’s exactly what we have focused on. It’s about making sure we can cope, and help our customers cope, with changing market circumstances and the geopolitical tensions we see in the world.

Q: Turning to your own commitments, do you feel you have set the right balance between ambitious and achievable?

A: Yes, we strongly believe this programme is the right one for us and our customers, and has been informed by a thorough double-materiality assessment. It is built on three pillars: benefits beyond illumination, energy efficiency and resource efficiency. These are supported by new initiatives, such as Signify Circle, which will support professional customers with their circular economy ambitions.

If we just look at the first pillar, it’s about the positive impact that lighting brings, in terms of productivity, in terms of safety, in terms of food availability, health and well-being, and now we have added solar in there. This is what we mean by “benefits beyond illumination”.

A nurse is pictured in a private health clinic lit by solar power from a micro-grid in a rural village in Nigeria’s Nasarawa state, September 2022 (Photo: Megan Rowling) A nurse is pictured in a private health clinic lit by solar power from a micro-grid in a rural village in Nigeria’s Nasarawa state, September 2022 (Photo: Megan Rowling)

Q: If we take one of your targets to save 60 TWh of electricity for your customers, that seems quite hard to work out. Do you find data availability to be an issue?

A: Data is a challenge in sustainability, but we have been measuring our avoided emissions for years, so we know the data requirements behind it. We’ve done all our homework and with that we have set this target. 

The 60 TWh figure is about the annual electricity usage of Switzerland so it is a substantial amount. But it also reflects the role that lighting plays in general. If you look at a typical city, street lighting alone accounts for about 40% of electricity use. So the potential is enormous.

The International Energy Agency reports that about 8% of global electricity use comes from lighting, and this translates into 2% of global greenhouse gas emissions. That’s really significant and why the opportunity here is so big.

Is electrification a no-brainer in the race to net-zero?

Q: How has the new programme been informed by the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)?

A: Our strategic compass is the Sustainable Development Goals. We committed to six SDGs in the previous programme. The new one has been expanded to cover eight and we conducted a mapping exercise for each of the commitments. I’m hoping that, by the end of this programme, we will see a new version of the SDGs to replace the current goals when they expire in 2030. We remain committed to making our contribution to the SDGs.

Q: Are you seeing higher demand for circular products? What is it that attracts businesses to that option?

A: Yes, we do see an increased demand. For example, we see greater interest in “remanufacturing”, which is a circular business model where we take down the lighting, send it back to our manufacturing site, and upgrade it to the latest technology, but keep the majority of the hardware intact.

I think customers are becoming more and more aware of the fact that regulation is pushing resource efficiency on businesses. And in some countries we see incentives to use circular products, and penalties around sending certain material to landfill. More businesses are becoming aware of this and we strongly believe there is a market for circular products.

How off-grid solar is beating the odds to transform lives in rural Africa

Q: Do you have customers that are facing real resource pressures, in terms of scarcity, increased costs or supply chain constraints that are making them think more about circular issues?

A: The whole market is currently impacted by geopolitical tensions and the disruptions that come as a result. Light as a Service, for example, could be a way for businesses to de-risk because there is no capital expenditure involved. Customers see real value in only having to pay to keep it running. 

If we look longer term, then resource and material efficiency is something the whole world should be thinking more about. How can we decouple economic growth from the increased use of natural resources? We believe the circular economy is the answer.

This interview has been shortened and edited for clarity.

Adam Wentworth is a freelance writer based in Brighton, UK.

The post Signify: “We believe resilience is becoming more important to businesses right now” appeared first on Climate Home News.

British climate finance largess in Brazil Channel News brendan 11th May 2026 Teaser Media

The last federal transportation law gave states more than enough money to fix every crumbling highway and bridge in America — but a disturbing share of departments of Transportation sunk that windfall into expanding highways instead, a new report found. And unless Congress learns from its mistakes and finally requires transportation officials to “fix it first,” we will continue to set billions of taxpayer dollars on fire.

A stunning 16.3 percent of U.S. roads that were eligible for federal money were still rated in “poor” condition in 2024, according to a recent Transportation for America analysis — despite Congress providing state DOTs with $56.8 billion in largely unrestricted transportation funds that year alone, and nearly $1.5 trillion over the 30 years prior.

Experts say it would take $43.2 billion per year to maintain all of the country’s existing roads in “acceptable” condition, or roughly 23 percent less than Congress authorized annually under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

And the authors of the report say the waste may be even worse than it seems.

Because increasingly lax reporting standards conceal broken roads from public view, and DOTs routinely mis-categorize expensive expansion projects as simple “maintenance” or lump them into a mysterious “other” category, Transportation for America suspects the national highway network is actually even more drastically overbuilt than it appears on paper.

That means that even a steep increase federal dollars may not be enough to repair our rapidly expanding transportation network — at least without using that money to shift people onto modes other than driving and take pressure off our battered asphalt.

“We’re still adding to the system faster than we’re able to take care of it,” said Mehr Mukhtar, the group’s senior policy associate. “We’re still seeing inconsistencies and a lack of transparency in reporting standards. And all of this just leads us to the conclusion that until we see a meaningful shift in our priorities, and in how we’re tying our spending to our outcomes, the backlog of roads in poor conditions is going to persist — and likely it’s going to worsen.”

Mukhtar traces much of America’s pothole crisis to a long-standing tradition of giving states broad latitude over how they spend their federal “formula” dollars, or grants doled out to DOTs based on a pre-determined government calculation.

In the absence of federal rules to rein them in, many states pick ribbon-cuttings for new and “improved” — i.e., widened — highways over the unsexy work of repaving the lanes they already have, even if those lanes are falling apart.

A whopping 24 states chose to spend less than $2.35 on maintenance for every dollar they spent on expansion — a ratio that Transportation for America says is alarming — despite the fact that those states have a higher share of roads in poor condition than the national average.

Worse, experts say those expansions won’t come close to accomplishing the goals they’re theoretically supposed to achieve. Decades of research has shown that widening roads does nothing to fix traffic jams over the long term, encourages drivers to fill newly added lanes, and saddles communities with compounding long-term maintenance obligations that they can’t keep up with.

It’s a little like adding a ballroom to a house when the roof is so leaky that rain is pouring in — except that ballroom is somehow accelerating a traffic violence crisis that claims nearly 40,000 lives a year, super-charging climate change, and amplifying income inequality by reducing access to jobs, rather than, say, hosting waltzes.

“That’s fiscally irresponsible, and it’s a burden on taxpayer dollars,” Mukhtar added.

Of course, not all states are neglecting their maintenance backlog in favor of climate arson — and some of them are even offsetting the worst offenders.

Communities like North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota and Vermont won applause from the report’s authors for strong repair-to-expansion ratios, which helped bring their average road conditions above the national average — though, to be fair, many of those states have a high share of depopulated rural roads that need less-frequent maintenance than highly trafficked urban arterials. Still, Mukhtar credited those communities with lowering America’s total share of roads and bridges in poor condition by three percentage points between 2018 and 2024.

But she warned that extremely modest progress won’t be enough to outrun America’s looming maintenance obligations. The report says every new lane-mile of highway built will cost future taxpayers $47,300 per year to maintain in good condition — roughly the cost of a year’s out-of-state tuition at a decent public university — and America built 119,257 of them in the six years the researchers analyzed.

Worse, even some of the “good” states are still delaying maintenance until its bridges are on the brink of collapse, driving maintenance costs well above the average. Mukhtar pointed to Michigan, whose maintenance spending, which looks impressive on paper, actually masks the fact that the Wolverine State tends to postpone repaving until roads are so bad that they need to be totally rebuilt.

“With the costs of construction ballooning and inflation rising, even those same dollars don’t get stretched as far now as they would have decades ago, if [states] started prioritizing repair earlier,” she said.

With the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act due to expire on Sept. 30, Mukhtar said Congress has a rare opportunity to restore sanity to the transportation system and finally require states to “fix it first,” rather than adding endless new ballrooms to a falling-down house.

That might look like setting “tangible goals, such as reducing the backlog by half,” requiring federal agencies to collect better data on the actual condition of roads, and establishing enforceable mandates that state DOTs be more transparent about how taxpayer dollars are spent.

And until they actually do, no voter should believe a politician who pledges to “fix America’s crumbling roads and bridges” — because nearly $57 billion a year later, they still haven’t done so.

“Whenever a transportation bill is passed, we hear the same thing come out of Congress time and time again: the same rhetoric about fixing crumbling roads and bridges, and why we need to increase funding,” said Mukhtar. “But I think what we need to see this time around are enforceable requirements, which actually compel states to spend that money on fixing it first.”

• The Guardian asked experts how to fix traffic-choked cities, especially in light of high gas prices. The answers: Expand and improve transit, create more space for pedestrians and cyclists, focus on providing alternatives for commuters traveling into the city core from car-centric suburbs, and address the reasons why people choose to drive, such as service hours and safety concerns.
• Uber is shifting tactics away from fighting with local governments and labor unions as it seeks to roll out robotaxis, according to Axios. Meanwhile, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating Uber partner Avride after at least 16 documented autonomous vehicle crashes (Tech Crunch).
• Urban trees counter half the heat island effect from climate change in cities, but less so in poorer neighborhoods, according to a new study. (Associated Press)
• Seattle’s Sound Transit adopted a two-decade plan to close a $34 billion budget gap in future capital projects. (KOMO)
• The first Vision Zero report from Indianapolis indicates that traffic deaths fell to 85 last year from a high of 120 in 2021, but a number of major roads remain dangerous. (WTHR)
• Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell, whose major accomplishment has been passing the “Choose How You Move” transit expansion referendum, will run for re-election. (News Channel 6)
• San Antonio is considering dropping speed limits on neighborhood streets from 30 miles per hour to 25, but in places where it’s already been done, it hasn’t had an effect on driver behavior. (Report)
• Amtrak is adding cars to its Missouri River Runner route to accommodate additional riders traveling to the World Cup in Kansas City. (Mass Transit)
• Construction on Baltimore’s long-awaited Purple Line is complete, but service won’t begin until late 2027 at the earliest. (Maryland Matters)
• An Omaha traffic reporter is still out of work after having been hit by two different drivers in separate crashes; one as a pedestrian, one while she was behind the wheel. (KETV)
• Cincinnati’s Red Bike bikeshare had a record number of users in 2026. (CityBeat)
• Kansas City opened a new bike and pedestrian bridge on Grand Boulevard. (Fox 4)
• Lime introduced a new type of bikeshare bike in Seattle that looks like a scooter with pedals. (Seattle Bike Blog)
• Pending the governor’s signature, South Carolina recently became the first East Coast state to adopt the “Idaho stop,” allowing cyclists to proceed through a yield sign or red light when it’s safe to do so. (Palmetto Walk Bike)
• A lot of people like to ride the D: The new Metro line in Los Angeles opened last weekend to great fanfare. (Streetsblog LA)

In a triumphal move back toward democratic rule, Hungary's new leader Péter Magyar took his oath of office Saturday in a "regime-change" ceremony rich with symbolism before thousands of jubilant constituents. The sense of a hopeful new political era resonated in Magyar's tribute to a victory for "ordinary, flesh-and-blood people" - and in the gleeful moves and air guitar of unstoppable "dancing machine" and new Health Minister Zsolt Hegedűs. Lookit this guy boogie. Damn, we can't wait.

The day's celebration" marked Magya's stunning defeat last month of authoritarian Viktor Orbán after 16 years in power. A 45-year-old lawyer who founded the center-right Tisza party in 2024, Magyar won a two-thirds majority over Orbán’s nationalist Fidesz party, which will allow him to roll back many of Orbán’s policies. Tisza now controls 141 seats in the 199-seat Parliament, with over a quarter held by women; Fidesz won 52 seats, down from 135, and far-right Mi Hazánk (Our Homeland) took six. Magyar has vowed to restore democratic institutions, clamp down on corruption, repair ties with the EU, where Orbán often vetoed key decisions including support for Ukraine, and unlock about $20 billion of EU funds to help jump-start Hungary's struggling economy,

Magya was sworn in at the sprawling Parliament building as tens of thousands of Hungarians gathered outside in Kossuth Square. Marking the sea change his victory represents, the EU flag flew for the first time since Orbán’ removed it in 2014, and the Beethoven-inspired European anthem Ode to Joy, symbolizing peace and solidarity, rang out. "Today, every freedom-loving person in the world would like to be Hungarian a little," Magya told the crowd in a message aimed at healing the deep divisions of Orbán's rule. "You have taught (the) world that the most ordinary, flesh-and-blood people can defeat the most vicious tyranny...Today is the fulfillment of a long journey made together (to) once again be a common homeland for all Hungarians."

As the party went all day and into the night - when Magyar took on DJ duties - the high point of its joy and fervor may have come after Magyar's speech when Zsolt Hegedűs, unable to restrain himself, broke out into dancing as the singer Jalja began performing The Hanging Tree: "Strange things have happened here." Hungary's new 56-year-old Health Minister and an internationally recognised orthopaedic surgeon who spent 10 years working for the UK's NHS, Hegedűs had already gone viral last month when, on stage after Magyar's landslide victory, he busted out some fiery dance moves and air guitar in his excitement. This time, he said he wasn't planning a repeat performance. Then the music started...And 140 Party members joined in.

"I could see the audience had been waiting for this," he said. "I didn’t want to let down the people.” So off he went, delighting everyone (except, possibly, his kids if he has any) with his slick moves. The next day, he ascribed it all to his "emotional roller-coaster" since Magyar's victory, with his chance to repair Hungary's health care system, take down Orbán's hate-mongering propaganda, urge people to focus on their mental health. "It's not that I'm going to start dancing in Parliament, but I want (to) encourage people to adopt a healthy lifestyle...Go outside, dance, be together," he said. "The weight has begun to lift from people’s shoulders." America, weary, ravaged, hungry for peace, just imagine the miracle of it. And for now enjoy his glee.

- YouTube www.youtube.com

Join us on May 21st at 6:30pm for a panel on Radicals, Realists, and Repression: The State of Activism in the US. The panel will feature Prof. Thomas Zeitzoff, professor…

Zimbabwe’s Fast Track Land Reform Program (FTLRP), launched in 2000, sought to correct colonial-era land inequalities by redistributing land from approximately 4,500 white commercial farmers — who held over 70% of arable land — to millions of landless Black Zimbabweans. While rooted in legitimate grievances, the program’s hasty and often violent implementation triggered severe economic collapse, social disruption, and environmental degradation.

This case study examines the FTLRP’s historical context, motivations, and wide-ranging impacts, drawing critical lessons for future land reform efforts across Africa and beyond.

Read the case study here

No Kings No Wars.Step Up For Democracy.

Mary Purdy, an integrative and eco-minded Registered Dietary Nutritionist, is the former Managing Director of the Nutrient Density Initiative. Her work integrates personal well-being and ecological health. As a dietary educator, she connects the dots between farming practices, food systems and individual health. Mary is also an adjunct faculty at the Master’s Program in Sustainable Food Systems at The Culinary Institute of America. She is a podcaster and author of “Serving the Broccoli Gods” and “The Microbiome Diet Reset.” This article is an edited transcript of her talk at a recent Bioneers Conference.

The concept of One Health states that humans and our health are inextricably connected to the health of the environment, of our fellow animals, of bees, birds, and are interdependent. The cornerstone of those relationships is the soil. Currently, the industrial way that we are producing food is contributing to greenhouse gases and biodiversity loss. It is using enormous amounts of land, using and contaminating freshwater, contributing to eutrophication which is killing our marine life, eroding our soil, and is a leading cause of soil contamination and air pollution. We’re losing habitats for people and animals. And a lot of this is disproportionately affecting BIPOC and marginalized populations.

Along with all of that collateral damage, the food system is producing, in large proportion, foods that don’t support health and well-being. Half of all Americans are diabetic or prediabetic. About 40% of Americans will be diagnosed with cancer and one third of teenagers are prediabetic.  Needless to say, we have a serious health crisis on our hands.

The majority of calories come from ultra processed foods, which sometimes is the only food accessible or affordable to people. A large chunk of the protein that we consume comes from industrial processed animals. Agriculture uses over one billion pounds of pesticides every single year, and we have increased the use of synthetic fertilizer 800 percent compared to 50 to 75 years ago. If we want to change this system, we should look at corporate farms and large agribusinesses that promote the practices that degrade our environment and make us suffer. 

But I don’t want to blame the farmers. I want to honor and uplift them. Farmers are doing incredible work and getting paid very little money for it. But the question is: “Why have we been farming this way?” The main reason is that yield is emphasized over quality of food. There’s a reliance on government subsidies that incentivize farmers to continue to use industrial practices. There’s security in using agrochemicals which have been in use for a long time. There’s a lack of time, resources, and education.

The current system does not provide the basic minimum nutritional needs of vitamins A, C, E, D, K or minerals. We’re not getting enough fiber. We’re not getting enough omega 3 fatty acids. We’re definitely not getting enough polyphenols to help support our health and well-being.

Why is this? Because food grown in the industrial system is less nutritious, in other words the food is not nutrient dense. The Nutrient Density Initiative defines nutrient-dense foods as foods that are rich in the vitamins, minerals, fiber, healthy fats, and polyphenols that research has shown to be beneficial for human health. And that these foods are also free of ingredients that we know degrade our health – agrochemicals, pesticides, additives, etc. All of these nutritional qualities are absolutely influenced by the way that we grow our food and the agricultural practices that are used.

Nutrients drive every chemical reaction in your body. The production of neurotransmitters in your brain and your gut are driven by nutrients. The creation and function of your immune system is driven by nutrients. The synthesis of your liver that is trying to neutralize all the toxins that regularly come into your body are driven by nutrients. So our brain and our body are functioning in accordance with the nutritional value of that food that we give it.

We are what we eat, kind of. The idea that food is our medicine isn’t always true, although it should be. The USDA has documented a significant decline in the nutritional quality of food over the past 50 years. There are up to 25 to 50 percent less vitamins and minerals, depending on the crop, than there were 5 decades ago. There are lower levels of polyphenols and omega 3 fatty acids in a lot of the foods that should be high in them. The science is really clear about this.

Food and nutrition start in the soil; 95 percent of our food is grown or raised on soil. When the soil is healthy, humans tend to be healthier. Soil health and fertility directly influence the nutritional quality of food. Healthy soils provide those essential nutrients. Soils are the medium in which food is grown and determines the quality and flavor of food. So when nutrition is deficient in the soil, there is less uptake by the plant of those nutrients.

Graphic by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) via Creative Commons

So, what is healthy soil? There are different definitions. I will characterize three. The first one is having a diverse community of a large number of microorganisms in the soil. Second is soil organic matter, which is made up of decomposed plants and animals that provide living plants with nutrition. And lastly, it is a well-developed structure so the soil is able to withstand floods, droughts and erosion by retaining water. Good soil structure also allows plant roots to reach deep into the soil and gather more nutrients.

Soil health is not only one of the strongest pathways to improve the quality of nutrition, but it also increases soil’s capacity to sequester carbon and support healthier ecosystems.  

The plant is not acting alone. Plants depend on soil microbes for their health. There’s a wonderful symbiotic relationship with the plant and soil microorganisms. The plant’s roots only go so far, so plants need help. The microbes provide that help by bringing minerals and other nutrients to the root zone in exchange for carbohydrates that the plants provide to the microbes. Beneficial microbes suppress the pathogenic microbes that we don’t want in the soil. And they are key for helping the plant synthesize the compounds called polyphenols, which have wonderful antioxidant properties and also provide flavor to the plants.

Polyphenols have a really positive influence on human health. When we don’t get enough polyphenols, people become more susceptible to all different kinds of diseases.

Additionally, polyphenols are a prebiotic feeding the beneficial microbes in our gut. Flavonoids are a type of polyphenol and flavones are a class of flavonoids that contribute to aroma and flavor. There is a strong connection between flavor and nutrition.

When we eat a carrot or a piece of spinach that has not been excessively washed or heated, along with it, you are ingesting some of the microorganisms from the plant’s microbiome which helps support our gut microbiome.

But when synthetic fertilizers are used to grow crops, that hinders the formation of the plant’s roots going further down into the ground to take up nutrients. Additionally, when we use synthetic chemical fertilizers year-after-year, there is a depletion of nutrients in the soil. Microbial diversity is reduced. It reduces phytochemical production, as well as things like vitamin C and trace minerals in plants. Chemical fertilizers are also bad for the environment. They run off of the farm into waterways contaminating drinking water.

And then there’s pesticides. Pesticides also reduce the soil microbial diversity. When people get exposed to pesticides, whether that’s direct exposure or from residues, there’s a higher incidence of endocrine disruption issues, cardiovascular, and neurodegenerative diseases. A lot of farmers are struggling with Parkinson’s disease. Birth defects, respiratory illnesses, cancers are also caused by pesticides. Needless to say, farm workers are on the front lines of exposure to toxic chemicals. So there’s a serious environmental injustice issue around pesticides.

Pesticides are having a negative impact on the human gut microbiome and inhibit phytochemical synthesis. A plant under stress normally creates phytochemical compounds as an immune response to protect themselves when it is exposed to things like pests, predators and adverse weather conditions. When we eat the plant, we get the benefit of the phytochemicals which make our immune system strong as well. However, if a pesticide is used to protect the plant, the plant doesn’t have to produce those immune-enhancing compounds.

Phytochemicals, which is the family name for different polyphenols, are associated with better cardiovascular health, better brain health, better blood sugar balance, improved lung function, better immune health, less incidents of cancer, as well as a healthier and diverse gut microbiome.

In contrast to an industrial chemical approach to farming, there are practices – whether we call them regenerative, conservation, organic, common sense, or traditional – that build the health of the soil and, as a result, grow more nutritious crops: reducing the disturbance to the soil by using low or no tillage, having a lot of biodiversity on the farm or garden, keeping the ground covered with cover crops or mulch, using compost, rotating crops, eliminating chemicals, and integrating livestock into the fields. It’s not just about using one or two of these practices, it is the whole suite that increases soil health and grows more nutritious crops.

And the good thing is that they also have planetary benefits. When we garden or farm, whether it is large scale or small scale, we are helping to elevate the ability of the soil to sequester carbon, which is key for the climate crisis. These practices also help provide pollinator habitats and reduce environmental harm in general.

There’s a huge variation between the nutrient density of plants that come from different farming systems, but in general, when we see more of these agroecological practices in play, we see higher levels of vitamins, minerals, beta carotene, etc. and lower levels of heavy metals.

The Nutrient Density Initiative works with Edacious, a nutrition analysis food lab. We had a number of our members, who use these practices, send in samples of their produce and meat products and had Edacious compare them to the conventional versions of the same product.

Peaches tested from Frog Hollow Farm had over 200% higher vitamin C compared to the conventional peaches, much higher iron levels, much higher alpha carotene, and a number of other vitamins and minerals were much higher. While we may not be able to say definitively that we will always get the same results, data like this suggests a link between the positive benefits of soil health and the nutritional density of plants.

The regeneratively grown citrus that we tested had higher amounts of flavones, and higher total value antioxidant levels when compared to conventionally grown samples.

We also looked at dairy. An Alexandre Family Farms dairy product, when compared to a conventional product, had a much more favorable omega 6 to 3 ratio which is very important for inflammation and other immune functions. It also had higher protein and higher levels of certain nutrients such as calcium, B2, and phosphorus.

The Rodale Institute did a side-by-side trial comparing butternut squashes grown conventionally and with regenerative methods and found that regenerative butternut squash had higher total polyphenols, and higher levels of carotenoid levels.

We conducted a pilot protein project. Nutrient Density Initiative members sent in chicken and beef products, and once again compared them to conventionally grown counterparts. We found higher amounts of omega 3s, lower amounts of overall fat including saturated fat, more balanced omega 6 to 3 ratios, more protein per serving, and no heavy metals detected in the products raised with the regenerative practices.

These are small trials, there’s always going to be variation depending on environment, depending on species or varietal of food, etc. I want to make sure that, at this point, I am not making grandiose claims, but that data we have collected so far is clearly demonstrating that when the soil is healthy, we’re going to produce crops with higher nutritional density.

So when and if possible, we can be citizen eaters. Support organic and regenerative farmers who are using the practices that I mentioned, let your grocer know that you want nutritious food, choose minimally processed food, if you can. Let your politicians know food nutrition is an issue you care about. Ask them to support a Farm Bill that actually protects soil health and biodiversity, and rewards the farmers for doing regenerative practices.

The post The Path to Good Health is Made of Soil appeared first on Bioneers.

Dan Kittredge is an organic farmer in Massachusetts following in the footsteps of his parents who are organic farming movement pioneers. As a farmer, he became interested in the flavor and aroma of food, and turned his attention to researching the complexities of food quality and nutrient density. Dan has worked with researchers, NGOs, and farmers in India, Russia, and Central America. In 2010, he founded the Bionutrient Food Association to educate and empower people to make healthy food choices based on research and science. This article is an edited transcript of Dan’s talk at a recent Bioneers Conference.

My parents were back-to-the-land homesteaders starting in the early 1980s. They bought land and built a farm. Their day job was running the Northeast Organic Farming Association, commonly referred to as NOFA. They wrote some of the first organic standards in the country and produced a conference; that was their day job, but their lifestyle was the farm.

After working on their farm through my teens and 20s, I got married and realized I needed to make a living. Like a lot of farmers, I wasn’t able to because the farm suffered with pest pressure and disease pressure. So I started studying beyond the organic rubric because organic was not providing me the success I was looking for. I looked to nature and saw plants flourishing, but didn’t see plants flourishing in my fields.

I did a lot of research and shifted my farming practices, still staying within an organic framework. I got to a point where pests were dissipating, diseases were dissipating, yields were going up, flavor was going up, shelf life was going up, cost of production was going down, and I was making a living farming, working 20 hours a week. At that point, I felt obliged to start talking about what I was learning. I knew the permaculture, biodynamic and agroecology communities, but none of them were focusing on the nutritional caliber of food, so in 2010, I founded an organization called the Bionutrient Food Association, focusing on the nutritional quality of food as the objective.

By quality, I’m talking about flavor, aroma, and nutrient value, not aesthetics and uniformity, which is how a lot of food is defined by the industry today. Our initial work for a number of years focused on education: conferences, courses, workshops, etc. We found a lot of success in educating people about how nature evolved things to grow, as opposed to a narrow focus on NPK fertilizers and soil pH, which are the things that people are taught in universities about agronomy. We decided to teach people how nature has been growing plants for hundreds of millions of years, and as we did that, we found success across multiple ecosystems, with various scales, and with different crops, and tried to figure out a way to bring that to scale.

Economics is a powerful force in today’s age. Our goal was to figure out how to align economic incentives with ecological benefits and human health benefits. If we could provide a dynamic where people buying food could differentiate between a higher and lower nutritional content of, for example, carrots, our supposition is that people will choose the higher and leave the lower quality on the shelf. The work we’ve been doing for the last eight years from a research standpoint is characterizing that variation, identifying what causes it, and developing ways to assess it.

Dan Kittredge

From a foundational standpoint, our vision is to go beyond labels and certifications. It’s not about if you are organic or not, if you are regenerative or not, if you are local or not. We want to give people the ability to actually measure the nutrient levels of the food in real time, and the science with which you would do that is called spectroscopy. That’s how the Hubble space telescope works. It’s how the James Webb telescope works. We can read the atmosphere of a planet 10,000 light years away and determine that it has methane in it. If we can do that, we should be able to tell what a carrot a few millimeters away is made up of.

We built our first handheld meter in 2017 and our first lab a year later. We had people send in carrots and spinach from across the U.S., from grocery stores, farmers’ markets and farms, organic, and non-organic. We wanted to survey the supply chain, to find out how much nutrient variation there is. In 2019, we set up our second lab in California at Chico State University. That year in both of our labs in Michigan and Chico State, we had farmers send in crops from the field in triplicate. They would harvest the crops, they would pull samples of the soil, and they would answer management data questions: What was the variety? When did you plant it? How did you prepare the soil? What’s your fertility program? So we could overlay nutrient variations in food against managing practices and causal factors against soil metrics to see what patterns we could find.

In 2020 we set up our third lab in Europe. Farmers sent in crops from their fields for testing and citizen scientists sent in crops from grocery stores and farmers’ markets. We tested samples for four years – 10,000 crop samples, 25 different crops, hundreds of farms, from four continents – to understand the nature of the supply chain and what causes nutritional variation in foods. All the data is available on the Bionutrient Food Association website and is in the public commons.

As an example, let’s look at sulfur, which is an element or nutrient the body needs to function. In carrots, the lowest level we found was 8.41mg per 100g. The highest level was 33.19. That’s a 4x variation. If we assign 100 to the highest level, the vast majority of the samples were between 20 and 40 out of 100. Most carrots have relatively low levels of sulfur in relation to what they could have.

Phosphorous in carrots, we found an 8x variation. Most carrots tested in the 27th percentile. The vast majority of the sample sets were below the 50th percentile. Most crops have relatively low levels of nutrients in them in relation to what they could have. There is a presumption that all food is uniform. We have found that that is absolutely not the case.

What about antioxidants? Antioxidants are known to protect cells against free radical damage and help prevent disease. Antioxidants are measured in FRAP (Ferric Reducing Antioxidant Power) units. In carrots, 4.92 FRAP units per 100 grams is the lowest we found, 195 is the highest we found. That’s a 40 to 1 variation.

In the old days, before they invented pharmaceuticals, medical practitioners talked about medicinal plants, which have intense flavor and aroma that are associated with compounds such as polyphenols, terpenoids, and alkaloids which promote good health.

Humans have evolved with a capacity to discern relative nutrient levels in food through flavor; a whole bunch of our DNA is associated with discerning nutrient levels with our noses and our tongues. It’s the high flavonoid compounds that are understood to be anti-cancer, anti-diabetes, and protect against heart disease, etc.

Our testing showed a 20x variation in flavonoids. Most samples were in the 7th percentile. The vast majority of the samples were below the 20th percentile. Almost everything out there in the supply chain is relatively poor in relation to what’s possible.

What causes that variation? Some people say genetics. We tested different carrot varieties–Napoli, Bolero, Nantes, Mokum. We found a wide range in nutrient levels in the same crop variety, and have not found any connection between genetics and nutrient levels.

Then we tested soil type and have not seen any connection between soil type, bioregion, or climate zone, and nutrient levels.

Some people say point of purchase: we tested crops from farm stands, CSAs, farmers markets, home gardens, and stores and saw quality variation in all categories. We see variation everywhere. None of these dynamics is sufficient to predict quality.

Based on our testing, regenerative, organic, biodynamic, and permaculture also do not seem to, from a scientific standpoint, connect to increased nutrition. None of these various individual factors seem to correlate with increased nutrient levels.

The first question we started with was: What is the spectrum of nutrient variation? We found that the spectrum of nutrient variation was large. Second question: What causes it? What seems to cause it is functionality of the biological system, not individual practices or certifications. Third question: Can you build a handheld, consumer priced, flash-of-light nutrient meter at a consumer price point?  

We published the answer to that question in a peer-reviewed journal called Nature: Scientific Communications. The Bionutrient Food Association developed a handheld spectrometer, which is open source technology, to prove the concept. You can flash a light in the store on a vegetable or fruit and get a reading of its nutrient density and discern relative quality. Because nutrient density is associated with flavor, that may be helpful in encouraging your children to eat more fruits and vegetables.

From our research we now know that nutrient variation exists. And we can go beyond labels, certifications, and claims to measure it on a continuum of 1 to 100. That way consumers can make choices based on the nutritional quality of the food.

The challenge is to arrive at an accepted definition of nutrient density for different foods. We focused on beef first because it has a larger ecological footprint than any other food on the planet. More acres of land are used to produce beef than anything else. The hypothesis is if cows eat what they have evolved to eat rather than an unnatural diet of grains, they will be healthier, the land will be healthier, and the people who eat them will be healthier.

Agriculture has a significant effect on climate and ecosystem function, and if we can inspire a shift in the way the land is managed to improve its function that will have beneficial impacts for everyone. In researching beef, we looked at a number of different metrics: in the soil, management practices, feed stocks, and assessments of the microbiome of the animals. Our thesis is that there’s going to be patterns between soil function, ecosystem function, animal welfare, and human health. We are using a scientific method to look for the patterns of nature.

Finally we did human trials. Feed humans this meat and see what happens to them. Take the data from the meat, and the microbes, and the management, and the human health trials, give it to statisticians, and see what patterns they can find.

This is where we’re at right now. It looks like there are eight biomarkers that predict overall system function. Those eight biomarkers are measured and scored 1-100 and that information becomes public. Our understanding is that sensors to measure nutrient density can be built into phones; the cameras in your phone could be a spectrometer. Chinese phone companies have already built spectrometers into the backs of phones. Consumers will be able to test the food at point of purchase. Food can be tested by the grower or in the supply chain. We can have a completely open dataset sharing and learning, where the market can be incentivized to focus on nutrition as opposed to volume and aesthetic.

We feel that this project is important enough that one small NGO should not be doing it solely. A broad coalition of allies should be working on this globally. We’ve proposed a treaty on the definition of nutrient density. We engaged in a listening tour on six continents, and met with nutritionists, agronomists, chefs, corporations, government people, farmers, and eaters and asked them to tell us what you think about our plan. This is a process we think could potentially have a massive impact on the planet, and we welcome peoples’ engagement.

The feedback I’m getting from some of the biggest global food corporations is they want help to transform their supply chain before the public knows about this. They want to get ahead of this before they are threatened by it. We’ve done our market research, we understand that consumers want flavor, nutrition, and are concerned about the well-being of their children. So this is an economic advantage for any food company that is a first mover in the space.

Working in harmony with nature seems to be the best way forward to accomplish the goal of optimizing nutrient density in food. The question is how do we align economics with that, and how do we empower the transition. Most people have been trained in a reductionist paradigm, but they need to be supported in that transition to a holistic perspective. Some of the simplistic talking points such as if you cover crop, all will be well, is detrimental. It is incomplete and it is reductionist. You have to optimize soil health, which is all the levels of life in the soil. There are many tools in the toolbox, cover cropping is one, minimal tillage is one, biochemistry is one. Farmers must be empowered with a full toolbox, without dogmas and empiricism to support them in the process.

We are in the process of collecting the metadata to share and learn together in a mycelial fashion.

Our organization has been educating farmers for 18 years about how to work with nature. We’ve got hundreds of hours of content on our YouTube page, freely available. Now we teach courses. It takes a shift of consciousness required to understand that you are serving nature, you are in right relationship with nature, not that you’re applying practices. If you think that you can go out and do one practice and that’s all it takes, you’re missing the point. The biggest issue is understanding your role in the process.

It’s a shift in paradigm from recommending practices to humble, gentle listening and service. It’s a shift of perspective from a colonized approach to a more Indigenous perspective. The colonized perspective is thou shalt grow a cover crop; thou shalt use compost. In contrast, the Indigenous perspective is: I’m in service to the land, what does it need now? And only when we can get into that place of humility should we expect to be proper stewards.

The post Not All Food is Created Equal appeared first on Bioneers.

This article Mothers are the most underestimated force for change was originally published by Waging Nonviolence.

When Trump won the first time in 2016, I drank shots of tequila in front of my computer and then passed out in anguish. When Trump won in 2024, I couldn’t do that. This time around, I was a mom. 

By afternoon on election day, the red shifts on the map became overpowering — and yet I still had to pick up my son from childcare. I had to get him dinner, sing songs in the bathtub and make up stories for his stuffed animals. I still had to create a world that was joyous, delicious and full of love even though I was horrified by the political present.  

This is a very particular muscle I have had to build since becoming a mother. It’s different than building a practice of hope. It’s beyond feelings and all about the tangible needs of life. It’s being able to turn hope into something physical even when deeply worn down. Moms, aunties, grandmothers and other caretakers — we have to pull ourselves off the couch and make the sandwiches and brush the hair. 

Every day, in the face of whatever the greater world holds, we build our own pockets where injustices are righted, love is given and joy is present. We calm down tantrums with love and humor. We teach lessons on sharing and taking turns. This complicated dynamic mothers must hold, of nurturing children while social injustice rages, is something I’ve seen resonate across social media recently, with many women commenting on the realities of keeping children loved and happy while the world burns. 

#newsletter-block_db5d6e13576654b814731e9e87d0b022 { background: #ECECEC; color: #000000; } #newsletter-block_db5d6e13576654b814731e9e87d0b022 #mc_embed_signup_front input#mce-EMAIL { border-color:#000000 !important; color: #000000 !important; } Sign Up for our Newsletter

We’ll send you a weekly email with the latest articles.

Mothers are the everyday weavers of utopia. Philosophers, journalists, tech experts, Hollywood writers and pundits may throw up their hands and proclaim that our species is doomed, and yet in millions of homes around the world, mothers and caregivers are ensuring that on the contrary, we do live in a world of joy where resources are shared. The past few years of being a new mom have taught me we need to do more than survive; the real magic comes with what we co-create with our children — the evidence that a better world is possible. 

One of the unique aspects of motherhood is that, even while you’re dealing with the immediacy of food, shelter, joy, love, raising a human also means having one foot in the future. The writer and healer Prentis Hemphill said in a recent podcast episode, “Children as Sacred,” that “our culture actually seems to be anti-children and to me therefore anti the future. … What a child compels you to do is create, what a child compels you to do is nurture, to plant a seed, to think about what will grow beyond your life.”

This is no small feat, and might be one of the most underexamined sources of social change out there. Mothers are inherent futurists, just as gardeners are. Even when our children are in the womb, we have to be mindful of every chemical we come in contact with and what it could do to their development down the line. When our kids are growing up, we are constantly aware of how much of their future self is molded from the compendium of all the lessons we teach them. 

“Almost all of parenting is digging really deep for reserves when you are out of it,” said Jenny Zimmer, the co-executive director of the group Mothers Out Front. “Like you’re out of energy, you’re out of time, you’re out of patience, you’re exhausted, and you’re still finding the reserves to set [your kids] up for success.” 

It is this deep commitment to not just hoping for a better future, but knowing that it is formed through the actions we choose today, that directly links what we do now to what will become.

A better future is being built by the everyday work of caretakers to instruct the next generation that love and goodness can exist.

There’s nothing quite like the early years of motherhood for forcing people to realize they can’t do it all on their own. If you try to do all the things yourself, you will quickly break. It is with the village, the community that life gets a bit easier. “Mothers can do more because we know how to work together,” Zimmer noted. 

My formative activist years were working with the Burmese pro-democracy movement, and I remember witnessing women’s meetings where heavy discussions were held on moving aid to refugee camps, or monitoring elections — all while someone’s baby was being passed around from woman to woman. A group of women would chop up fruit to share, and others would help clean up. Communal care was the fundamental driver that allowed more women to step into leadership and peace-building. 

In Minneapolis and other cities besieged by ICE recently, it’s regularly mothers who are organizing food to deliver to those in need, raising money for affected families, forming safety patrols at kids’ schools and participating in ICE watches. Ashley Fairbanks helped start the group Stand with Minnesota, which is a center point of a lot of the mutual aid. In a recent interview with The Guardian, she said “We’re building a helper reflex where, instead of encountering a problem and saying that we can’t do anything, we’re just trying to do it.” 

There is so much to learn from mothers in Minnesota who are showing that the future can be better — by moving their anguished bodies to attend protests, deliver diapers and pick up their neighbors, and showing our children and our communities that we can operate with more humane ways of being. 

America does not have the best track record with positive visions of the future. The vast majority of films set in the future are dystopian, with a stalwart hero making their way through techno-fascism. In fact, when I tried to find films with a positive vision of the future, where humanity was able to come together and create something better — it’s pretty much just the “Star Trek” movies and “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure,” and even in those the vision of the future Earth is limited (“Star Trek” mostly takes place off Earth, and “Bill & Ted” gives us just a  few minutes’ glimpse of the peaceful future). 

What we need are the mother-filled stories of creation. How from small seeds, wondrous things can be born. Constructing a better future won’t come from some miracle technology that propels us forward. It comes from the everyday work of caretakers to instruct the next generation that love and goodness can exist.

Two directly opposed worldviews vying with each other in America right now are the much-publicized, hyper-individualized ideology of pseudo-macho tech oligarchs, and the quieter reality of mothers leaning into collective movements for a better world. A patriarchal worldview tells us that social change comes through highly publicized “wins” or technological silver bullets. 

#support-block_6755166bd5a36b22256423e0f2f8fa2a { background: #000000; color: #ffffff; } Support Us

Waging Nonviolence depends on reader support. Make a donation today!

Donate

In my conversation with Zimmer, she spoke about how working with mothers has shifted her understanding of what social progress looks like. “I had to reframe victory in my mind from a big win to basically like a journey. There’s always going to be opposition,” she said. “And so when I think about bringing my kids into organizing spaces with me, it’s less that I want them to see my team win something. And it’s more that I want them to see that a good life is spent in a collective project of trying to make things good for everybody.”

A mother’s commitment is incalculable. Rebecca Solnit wrote to me that the concept of motherhood comes down to the idea that “there is a superpower in being absolutely unshakably committed to something/someone morally and in every other way, to your last breath, and because that commitment wants to see goodness all around, doesn’t it manifest goodness?” The future of this planet is being deeply shaped every day by caretakers moving forward with love and an unfeigned commitment to a better future. Once we recognize this for the superpower it is, we can build more systems that embrace its potential. 

If we start accepting that mothers are a powerful force for good, then we need to support systems that can scale their engagement. Mexico City has built 15 “Utopias,” large community centers aimed to take some of the burden off of low-income caregivers. Bogota, Colombia is experimenting with manzana del cuidado, or care blocks, which support caregivers by clustering services together. Many other countries are enacting policies like extended maternity and paternity leave, subsidized child care and health care benefits that help mothers be more able to engage with public life. 

It would be hugely beneficial to society if instead of isolating and limiting people who have a “helper reflex” superpower, we instead built more ways to expand the utilization of this skillset. Mothers are a crucial force for change, not only in our homes and communities, but on a much wider scale — if they have the support they need to unleash their superpowers.

This article Mothers are the most underestimated force for change was originally published by Waging Nonviolence.

For over a decade, the biomass industry has sold a lie. They’ve been lying to Southern communities and decision-makers. This is especially true of the UK company Drax. They’ve violated […]

The post Communities Across the South Unite Against Drax first appeared on Dogwood Alliance.

Emails obtained by Public Domain and Fieldnotes show the Interior department worked closely with Continental Resources to secure drilling permits in Converse County, Wyoming, despite a court injunction restricting new drilling on public land there. Continental Resources supplied the Bureau of Land Management with a playbook to bypass environmental restrictions meant to protect the county’s groundwater, and the BLM has since rushed to issue over 70 permits to Continental using the loophole.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum received $250,000 in campaign donations from Continental Resources, which is controlled by billionaire oil tycoon Harold Hamm, when he ran for president in 2023. Burgum has also received around $50,000 in oil royalties from land he leased to Hamm’s company.

“This reminds me of the days of the Bush-Cheney administration’s massive push to drill the West, when it was obvious that the oil industry was calling the shots when it came to public land management,” Erik Molvar, executive director of Western Watersheds Project, told Public Domain. “But we never had such direct and obvious proof that oil corporations were giving the orders, and BLM officials at the highest levels were obediently carrying them out.”

CWP says goodbye to executive director

In the latest episode of the Center for Western Priorities’ podcast, The Landscape, we say goodbye to former Executive Director Jennifer Rokala. In a conversation with the entire CWP team, Jen reflects on the highs and lows of leading CWP for 11 years, what she’s most proud of, and what gives her hope for the future of America’s public lands. Listen now wherever you get podcasts or watch on YouTube.

Quick hits How many federal public lands jobs did the Mountain West lose?

KUNC

Congressman seeks probe of $11 million no-bid contract for Park Service fountain revamp

E&E News

Opinion: Pikes Peak region’s outdoors future depends on LWCF funding

Colorado Sun

Navajo Nation residents push back on possible copper mine

KNAU

How controlled burns can help save taxpayers billions

Grist

This fight unfolding in southern Utah could have implications for states trying to take over federal lands

Bloomberg

Shared ground: Coalition forms to promote affordable housing on public lands

Deseret News

Wildfire is an increasing threat to the West’s recreation economy, according to new research

The Conversation

Quote of the day

Proposed budget cuts and growing bureaucratic obstacles are threatening to slow or stop LWCF-funded projects across the country… Whatever your politics, that should concern you. LWCF has never been a partisan program. It was built on a bipartisan foundation and has delivered results under presidents and Congresses of both parties for 60 years.”

—David Leinweber, founder of Pikes Peak Outdoor Recreation Alliance, Colorado Sun

Picture This

@Interior

Big Stone National Wildlife Refuge offers a chance to unplug from the stresses of daily life and reconnect with Minnesota’s tallgrass prairie.

Photos by Mike Budd / USFWS

Feature image: Interior Secretary Doug Burgum (left) and oil tycoon Harold Hamm (right); Source: Burgum photo by Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia, Hamm photo by david_shankbone via Flickr

The post Interior bypasses court injunction at behest of oil donor appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

1. Background and Context

Secure land tenure, agroecology, and ecological restoration are deeply interconnected pillars of sustainable development in Africa. Evidence from AFSA’s work across the continent demonstrates that when communities, particularly smallholder farmers, pastoralists, women, youth, and Indigenous Peoples, have recognized and protected rights to land, they are more likely to invest in long-term practices that regenerate soils, conserve biodiversity, and build resilience to climate shocks.

Agroecology provides a proven framework for such practices by combining traditional knowledge with ecological principles to restore degraded landscapes while advancing food sovereignty. Ecological restoration, in turn, thrives where tenure security empowers communities to steward their territories.

It is against this backdrop that AFSA is commissioning this consultancy to develop a campaign strategy that bridges grassroots struggles with continental and global policy spaces, while amplifying community voices and driving systemic change.

The Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) is inviting consultants to submit a technical and financial proposal for a consultancy to design and develop a comprehensive campaign strategy for the Protect Our Land, Restore Our Soil Campaign, which AFSA plans to roll out in mid-2026 over a three-year period.

AFSA is seeking an experienced consultant (or team) with a strong background in land governance, agroecology, food sovereignty, ecological restoration, food system advocacy, and movement-building in Africa, and we believe your expertise aligns well with the scope and ambition of this assignment.

2. Objective of the Assignment

Develop and design a campaign strategy to build a continental campaign and movement that places secure land tenure and ecological restoration at the centre of Africa’s transformation.

3. Scope of Work

The consultancy will entail the following components:

a) Background Paper Development

• Synthesize evidence on the interconnections between secure land tenure, agroecology, food sovereignty, and ecological restoration.
• Review AFSA documentation, relevant continental and national policy frameworks, and community testimonies.

b) Campaign Strategy Design

• Develop a robust campaign strategy aimed at:
  • Shifting public and political narratives
  • Mobilizing diverse constituencies
  • Influencing policy processes
  • Building sustained public pressure for land governance reforms.
• The strategy should prioritize:
  • Protection of communal land rights
  • Prevention of land grabbing
  • Promotion of agroecology as a pathway to healthy soils, climate resilience, and food sovereignty.

4. Expected Deliverables

The consultant will be expected to deliver the following outputs:

1. Inception Report
   • Detailed work plan, methodology, and stakeholder engagement approach.
2. Background Paper
   • A comprehensive, well-referenced paper linking land tenure security, food sovereignty, and ecological soil restoration as the foundation of the campaign.
3. Campaign Strategy Package, including:
   • Strategic framework and advocacy roadmap of the campaign
   • Three-year implementation plan
   • Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) framework
   • Branding and communications toolkit.
4. Validation and Final Outputs
   • Validation meeting and report
   • Final (approved and launched) campaign strategy
   • Translated background paper and campaign strategy (English French).

5. Proposed Methodology

The consultancy is expected to apply a mixed-method approach, integrating doctrinal analysis and participatory techniques, including:

• Desk Review of scholarly literature, policy documents, and AFSA materials (Agenda 2063, AU Land Governance Strategy, Malabo Commitments, etc.);
• Participatory Research and human-centred design approaches through virtual FGDs with farmers, pastoralists, women, youth, and Indigenous communities;
• Key Informant Interviews with policymakers, CSOs, traditional leaders, land and agronomy professionals, AFSA Land working group, regional bodies, and funders;
• Stakeholder Consultations and Co-creation Workshops;
• Iterative Drafting and Validation with the AFSA Secretariat and steering committee.

 8. Submission Requirements

Kindly submit here your brief details here (https://forms.gle/gboWrxyGe7zrSE8cA) within 5 days (or not later than May 13). Please don’t attach CVs, technical proposals, financial proposal at this stage. We’ll invite selected candidates to submit these 1 week after the closing date.

Please feel free to reach out to me via admin@afsafrica.org if you require any clarification.

We look forward to receiving your proposal and potentially working together to advance land justice, agroecology, and ecological restoration across Africa.