THE UPSIDE

THE UPSIDE OF LOCKDOWNS Air Gets Cleaner Around the Globe

by Kimberly B. Whittle

Around the world, the COVID-19 ham, Bristol and Cardiff, NO2 and fine pandemic has changed the way particulate pollutant levels dropped by a millions of people live their day- third to half, with large declines recorded in to-day lives, but despite their dire conse- other cities. These are the two air pollutquences, government-mandated lock- ants that have the biggest health impacts on downs have had an unintended positive people, says James Lee, professor of atmoconsequence: cleaner air. spheric chemistry at the University of York

In China, as major cities shuttered and research fellow at the National Centre factories and reduced transportation for Atmospheric Science. earlier this year, experts found that carbon The U.S. has been part of these trends, emissions dropped by about 100 million as well. In Los Angeles, known for its smog, tons over a two-week period. Scientists the air quality index improved by about at the Royal Belgian Institute for Space 20 percent during March. According to Aeronomy, in Brussels, are using satellite Yifang Zhu, a professor at the University of measurements of air quality to estimate California (UC) Los Angeles Fielding School the changes in nitrogen dioxide (NO2)—a of Public Health, during March, the region pollutant emitted into the air when fossil recorded the longest stretch of “good” air fuels are burned—over the major epicen- quality that it has experienced for 25 years. ters of the outbreak. Their research shows NASA has observed significant air that NO2 pollution over Chinese cities quality improvements in other parts of decreased by an average of 40 percent dur- the U.S., as well. Satellite data for March ing the lockdown compared to the same showed that the mid-Atlantic and Northperiod in 2019. east regions had the lowest monthly at-

Across the United Kingdom, the mospheric levels of NO2 that month since reduction in traffic and industry similarly 2005. Data on NO2 from the Aura Ozone impacted the climate. Within the first six Monitoring Instrument over the Northweeks of lockdowns, in London, Birming- east in March indicated that levels of the

Jan. 1-20, 2020

Feb. 10-25, 2020

Stevens, J. NASA Earth Observatory (2020, January/February) Airborne Nitrogen Dioxide Plummets Over China

march 2015-19 avg.

march 2020

Schindler, T. L. NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio (2015-2020, March)

pollutant in March of this year were about 30 percent lower on average across the region of the I-95 corridor from Washington, D.C., to Boston than the mean of the previous five years.

Another immediate benefit of the reduction in pollutants is their effect on the pandemic itself. Public health experts agree people that have higher long-term exposure to fine particulate pollution have a 15 percent greater likelihood of dying from COVID-19. They attribute this to the lung damage caused over time by air pollution, combined with the fact that the virus targets the lungs and increases the risk of pneumonia.

Experts warn, however, that the cleaner air is likely to be temporary if we return to

Ease and convenience of at-home health tests

The public can check many health aspects of American Pathologists-accredited—usat home in an easy and highly convenient ing a pre-paid label. Most will receive a call way without going to a doctor’s office. Lets- from the company’s nursing team with reGetChecked, based in Dublin, Ireland, and sults a few days later, which are also posted New York City, provides comprehensive, in their LetsGetChecked account. at-home health testing along with comple- Thirty separate kits—grouped in mentary clinical services and connections men’s, women’s and sexual health plus with a global network of regulated labora- wellness—can check for sexually transmittories, enabling users to take more active ted diseases; some cancers; thyroid funcroles in their health and decision making. tion; vitamin, cholesterol and hormonal

After obtaining a testing kit online or levels; and more. from a selected pharmacy, customers self- Since its founding in 2014, the comcollect a blood, saliva or urine sample with pany has performed more than 250,000 a kit-provided lancet and send it to an affili- tests. CB Insights, a leading private comated lab—all Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments-approved and College ADvERTORIAL pre-COVID-19 levels of travel and industry. Although we have seen a dramatic reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, carbon dioxide (CO2) levels—another important contributor to global warming—have continued to rise. “The crisis has slowed emissions, but not enough to show up perceptibly [in CO2 levels everywhere]. What will matter much more is the trajectory we take coming out of this situation,” geochemist Ralph Keeling, who directs the Scripps Institution of Oceanography’s CO2 monitoring program at UC San Diego, told The Washington Post. But it’s possible that if people start expecting and demanding the cleaner air we have been enjoying during the pandemic, the coronavirus shutdowns could lead us to embrace new ways of living and working.

Scientists worldwide have emphasized that most of the air quality improvement is due to a reduction in traffic. Ed Avol, a professor of clinical preventive medicine at the University of Southern California, told Forbes that telecommuting is here to stay. “Telecommuting from home for those who can, even just for a couple of days a week, can have a marked reduction in terms of emissions.”

Kimberly B. Whittle is the founder and CEO of KnoWEwell.com, a community and marketplace platform committed to rigorous, evidenced-based research that empowers healthier living. To learn more, visit KnoWEwell.com or see ad on page 31.

pany research and analysis firm, named LetsGetChecked to its inaugural Digital Health 150 list in October.

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No-Waste Garden Edibles Ways to Maximize Your Garden’s Bounty

by April Thompson

Most gardens are loaded with deli- treats. Leaving the roses to decay after the cious, nutritious food that goes first frost rather than dead-heading them uneaten and overlooked, from yields rose hips rich in vitamin C for teas edible greens like sweet potato leaves to and jams. flavorful flowers like tulips, marigolds and wisteria. Getting better acquainted with the Tip-to-Root Eating edible parts of common backyard plants Several common vegetables are edible from opens up a world of culinary possibilities. leaf to root, including broccoli, beets, chard With continued concerns around potential and radishes, says Josh Singer, a garden exposure to COVID-19, maximizing a specialist with the U.S. Department of Parks garden’s bounty while minimizing trips to and Recreation, in Washington, D.C., who the grocery store is an added benefit. teaches classes on “alternative edibles” from

“Food foraged from your backyard the garden. “One of my favorite recipes is a is fresher, tastier and cheaper than store- hummus made with chard stalks in place of bought food,” says Ellen Zachos, the Santa chickpeas. It’s so creamy and delicious.” Fe author of Backyard Foraging: 65 Familiar Singer also cites borage, passionflower Plants You Didn’t Know You Could Eat. and squash flowers as favorite floral foods. “There is also the novelty factor. People “Unfortunately, it does mean making a don’t expect to be served a BBQ sauce hard choice between having beautiful made from crabapples or a curd made flowers in your garden and eating them,” with flowering quince fruit. You simply he adds. “It can also mean the plant not can’t buy those flavors.” producing fruit or vegetables, but you can

Many plants and trees commonly hand-pollinate female flowers in the case thought of as being ornamental have edible of squash and just use the male flowers for parts. Hostas are a common one that Zachos cooking. They make delicious fritters.” loves to nibble on as much as the deer do. Marie Viljoen, author of Forage, “You can harvest at a couple stages: First, Harvest, Feast: A Wild-Inspired Cuisine when spears are poking up and the leaves cookbook, has one tip for daylilies (Hemhave not unfurled. A little later in the sea- erocallis fulva) that overagressively multiply: son, you can blanch them and put in a stir eat them. “Daylilies are nose-to-tail eating: fry or quiche, or roast them as you would their tender, cooked shoots are as melt-inasparagus,” explains Zachos. your-mouth as leeks, and their firm, under-

Roses are another multipurpose orna- ground tubers are delicious snacks, raw or mental, with organically grown rose petals cooked. I like to roast them with olive oil, making aromatic additions to sweet or spicy like mini-home fries,” says the New York City forager, instructor and chef. “Their buds are juicy snacks and their open, fresh flowers are edible—and stunning in a salad—but so are the older, dried flowers, the so-called ‘golden needles’ that one can sometimes find in Chinese stores.” Viljoen cautions that a small percentage of people have a bad reaction to daylilies, and they should be eaten in moderation, especially when trying them for the first time.

Lindsay-Jean Hard, a food writer in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and author of Cooking with Scraps: Turn Your Peels, Cores, Rinds, and Stems into Delicious Meals, points out some common fruits with edible greens. Strawberry greens can be used to make a pesto or flavor water. Tomato leaves can flavor a tomato sauce (sparingly, as they pack a strong taste)—a tip found in Harold McGee’s On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen.

Carrot tops and celery leaves also make great pesto, says Tama Matsuoka Wong, a New Jersey forager, chef and author of Foraged Flavor: Finding Fabulous Ingredients inYour Backyard or Farmer’s Market. While pea shoots have gotten to be a trendy item on many menus, Wong says they have long been an off-menu item at Chinese restaurants. “You won’t find it on the menu, but Chinese people eat pea shoots instead of beans all winter long, often stir fried with sesame oil, garlic and bamboo shoots.”

Many scrappy cooks know to use garden produce that fails to ripen before the season ends or bolts too soon. Singer uses unripe tomatoes to make green tomato chili, muffins and bread, whereas Hard likes working with flowers from bolted herbs and greens, including arugula, basil, chives, chervil, kale, sage, rosemary and others. “I mainly use them as garnishes, but every year, I make a batch of chive blossom vinegar,” she says.

Leaving a plant like cilantro to bolt and flower not only feeds pollinators, but also provides free spices at the season’s end, says Singer. Simply let cilantro dry on the stalk, then gather the seed pods for home-harvested coriander seeds. Letting annuals go to seed (and saving the seeds) provides the start for next year’s food plot.

April Thompson is a freelance writer in Washington, D.C. Connect at AprilWrites.com.

Crystal Coast Farms Organically Grown Hemp: Greener, Sustainable and Eco-Friendly

“Forever on the lookout for quality locally sourced products, I was pleasantly surprised to find a local hemp farm in my hometown,” says April Clark. “A visit to the farm was in order and I was given a tour by the grower himself. My time at the farm turned into a lesson in agriculture, botany and chemistry—what every middle-aged woman needs to know about hemp. What I came away with from that visit was a strong desire to not only purchase their product, but to also become an advocate for Crystal Coast Farms (CCF). I’m impressed by their methods, operations and products.”

CCF, established in Swansboro in 2018, is co-owned and operated by Justin Cleve and Chad Fleetwood. Fleetwood, the farm’s director of operations and grower who majored in horticulture in college, is a native Carolinian with 20-plus years’ experience as a grower for all types of vegetation for both wholesale and retail sale and use. Cleve and Fleetwood are brothers-in-law and the farm is a family endeavor; growing up and working on farms was a way of life for them and farm living is in their blood. Growing hemp was a way for CCF to move into the 21st century with a crop that has many uses ranging from alternative medicinal purposes to environmentally friendly products. They employ both outdoor and indoor growing methods for optimum production on the four varieties of hemp that they grow. While the farm is

Justin Cleve still in the infancy stages of its development and was severely impacted by the devastation of Hurricane Florence in September 2018, the co-owners have redoubled their efforts to grow and produce organic, locally sourced products.

“At one time, plastic was thought to be the mother of all inventions, a product with numerous possibilities and solutions that has turned out to be a huge problem that may never go away,” adds Clark. The use of a biodegradable product such as hemp will help to minimize the negative impacts of plastic. Hemp can be used as a plastic alternative and is environmentally friendly. Many major brands like Coca-Cola are experimenting with the use of plant-based plastic alternatives in an effort to be more eco-conscious. The use of hemp also supports conserving natural resources when used as a substitute for many wood-manufactured products, like paper, rope, flooring and other building materials.

There are many more benefits to utilizing hemp for a greener planet and CCF believes their contribution to a more sustainable future is through organic hemp farming. You can also help by choosing products that are eco-friendly and sustain our planet and resources.

CCF offers a variety of hemp-derived products including full-spectrum extract, pet supplement full-spectrum extract and several variations of pre-roll, smokable flower as well as clone specimens available in cell trays, quarts or gallon sizes. Products are not for sale to minors. Products can be purchased online via the farm’s merchant store or at local farmers’ markets such as the Market at Cedar Point located at 1046 Cedar Point Boulevard, in Cedar Point.

For more information about organically derived hemp and to purchase products, call 919-279-3385, email Sales@CrystalCoast Farms.com or visit CrystalCoastFarms.com. See ads, pages 7.