Today, August 1st, is the so-called Overshoot Day which means that we have already depleted the renewable resources of our planet for the year. This date comes every year earlier because we consume our natural resources faster than the time the Earth needs to regenerate them, while our consumption keeps rising. According to the studies of the Global Footprint Network experts, at the moment we would need 1.7 Earths to meet our needs. My country, Italy, is the 56th in the ranking of the most voracious of natural resources: if everyone lived like my people, 2.6 planets would be needed to feed the world. We can’t keep living like this,…
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Edible wild plants: Taraxacum
We live in a world dominated by technology, haste, scheduled appointments and many things to do, that sometimes we forget the immense value of nature, which has played a vital role for men in history. For thousands of years, spontaneous wild plants have been a fundamental source of food that complements a diet low in vitamins, fibers, and minerals. Today, unfortunately, such a rich knowledge is going to be lost due to a certain level of wealth and development that always provide us available food, packed in supermarkets, suffocated in plastic… so we forget that all around us the luxuriant nature offers us plants, flowers and spontaneous fruits, excellent to…
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Domestic composting
When I was a child I spent a lot of time in my grandparents’ vegetable garden and I often saw them collecting fruit peels, egg shells and coffee grounds, crumbled and mixed with the soil of the garden. My grandma told me that this waste was perfect to feed our seedlings and get better vegetables. So every time I threw away an organic rest in the trash I thought I was throwing away a precious resource full of potential. What a waste! And that’s right, my grandmother taught me the right thing and now I can finally put into practice her teaching thanks to my composter! Unfortunately, where I currently…
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Zero Waste tips: solid toothpaste
My second zero waste tip concerns oral hygiene once again. I had already written about bamboo toothbrushes and the ones with the replaceable head, now it’s time for the toothpaste! Since long time I have wondered of how much unnecessary packaging there is around a toothpaste: the plastic tube, hard to recycle, and the box of laminated cardboard, both destined to end up in the waste bin. Not to mention the great problem of microplastics, often contained in the form of microgranules, which are killing our oceans! Fortunately, one day I found the solution: Lamazuna’s solid toothpaste! From the very moment I discovered this brand I have been attracted by…
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Throw your bombs… the seedbombs!
Put some flowers in your guns! For this post I have to thank my brother who unexpectedly gave me a beautiful gift: a bomb of seeds. The invention of seedbombs is attributed to a Japanese botanist and philosopher, Masanobu Fukuoka. In the 40s he gave birth to an agricultural technique called natural farming or do-nothing farming. Its revolutionary idea is based on supporting the natural biodiversity, minimizing human intervention. Therefore plowing, pruning, fertilization, or use of anti-parasitic are unnecessary. The germination occurs on the surface, mixing the seeds with clay and compost. So the farmer’s work is limited to sowing and harvesting. Recently the seedbombs have spread thanks to the activists…
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Find the essential, to live well with less
My husband is a robot with a heart made of bits. He is a virtual reality developer and the computer is an extension of his body. Long story short, together we are a couple of opposites: the hippie and the robot, white and black. About two years ago, on an ordinary evening, he received a Skype video call from abroad: he replied in his pajamas, lying on the bed, half asleep, and then realized that it was a job offer. A month later we were two migrants loaded with suitcases and hopes, tiny and lost in a huge and unknown city, London. We have lived for two years in a 20…
