As we enter Earth Month, there is much to be appreciated about the boundless beauty of this Earth and how it supports us in a rapidly changing world. Just as important, we should consider the ways we can support the Earth. It goes beyond recycling and reducing our negative impact that will long outlive us. Both of those are important in our sustainability efforts. However, there is a lot more that contributes to our ecosystem. Imagine a world where a walk in nature is void of bird songs? The ever looming possibility of extinction threatens the pleasure of sound. I had the honor of conversation with award-winning biologist and writer David George Haskell. Haskell has dedicated his expertise to the sonic ambience of nature and how it is at risk of being lost. 

“It’s about being generous beyond our own species.”

Do you have any theories, philosophies or general ideas on sustainability and what that means to you? 

It means being a good neighbor. Not only to our human neighbors but also the non-human ones like trees, birds and all living creatures inthe seas and rivers. It’s about being neighborly beyond our own species and encompassing the idea of living a good life. The idea that we should be respectful to others. Sustainability has this built-in idea in the word:  sustain. For me, living well and thinking about the future is noble. We can plan for a better future but what we control is the present moment. What do we do with our days? What do we do with our time and talent? That’s where sustainability becomes really relevant. What are the things in this world that I want to be investing my time and energy in? 

I love that your work overlaps with sustainability in this unexpected way. It also combines meditative writing and nature; it’s a blend of disciplines. How did you come to mesh these disparate topics and then proceed to put that work into the world? 

So my background is in science. I studied biology then went on to get my Ph.D studying animal behavior and conservation. I started off very much focused on animals, especially birds and their conservation. Then I began to teach on the subject and the questions that students would ask, compelled me to think more deeply. Through thinking deeply, I realized everything was connected. You can’t only think about bird conservation without thinking

 about how that connects to humans. Now, I work mostly as a writer and science is in my writing. Writing allows me to bring in more human interest. What happens to the birds in a region is tied up with human well-being. I live in Atlanta and some neighborhoods had roads and highways built through them that destroyed the neighborhood. That has an effect on the birds. The primary problem there is that it’s an unjust way of treating people. But also, by adding this traffic noise it intercepts with bird communication. When you stop focusing on just one thing you can see how human music fits with bird music. Some of the sounds of a city can be a beautiful thing, the sound of lots of good energy but it can also be terrible like too much noise. As a writer I’m not constrained by just having to write a scientific paper, essay or book. I can weave different strands together and I really enjoy that. And I don’t pretend to have the answers. We’re in a time of crisis and trouble. We’re not going to solve the problems by looking at things in isolation. I think we should think about interconnectedness and synergies more. 

Your writing is really exploratory and I enjoy that aspect of it. I was particularly intrigued by your work in The Forest Unseen. You take this therapeutic approach to understanding the natural world. Another thing that stood out to me was The New York Times review of your book where they called you “a laureate of the Earth.” How does that review of your work resonate with you if at all.

Yeah, I was obviously delighted they had such kind things to say about my work. I think we’re all laureates of the Earth, right? We’re all living beings who are trying to find our way through life. And we’re all creative right? Even if we’re just telling a story to our friends over dinner, we’re interpreting and we’re making and trying to figure out the meanings of stories. I’m delighted the reviewer thought that some of the stories I told were worth honoring that way. I also think it’s a danger in picking out individuals in that way because we’re all in this together. The challenge for all of us is how do we find meaning? How do we find the right parts moving forward? 

What are some of the ways you think humans can positively engage with their neighbors of other species?

The first thing is to take time and enjoy the gifts we’ve been given. Even though there’s a lot broken, it’s springtime and there are flowers blooming and birds singing. We should take time to enjoy and celebrate that together. It gives us a reason to care and restore our soul. It restores our spirit and it’s good for our mental health. So that’s the first thing, actually taking time to appreciate. The second thing is to engage our gifts and talents to become part of the solution. Writing is not enough. Education isn’t enough. I think we have to engage politically. Politics is really uncomfortable for me but I think it’s important because it matters who we elect. Sure, we’ve got some imperfect choices but it’s still important to be involved. Candidates may not speak on bird conservation but may have more to say about building highways, for instance. That’s relevant. Our political leaders shape the policies that determine how cities are built. That affects whether there will be bird songs for our kids and grandkids to enjoy. 

I’d like to get back into some of your ideas on sonic exploration. Can you talk a bit more about the importance of music in nature and how you found your way to that particular topic? 

I think we have two main problems with sounds in the world. One is that, in some places, we are making so much noise that we’re drowning out other species. In these places we have so much industry or highway noise, that birds and other insects can’t hear each other’s mating songs. So even if there’s food and habitat for them, they can’t thrive in that environment. And the other thing is we are basically silencing habitats. When we totally clear forests, a tropical forest for instance, we eliminate most of the species there. So when you walk into this forest it’s complete silence. 

How does the sound of nature affect human psychology?

It’s pretty good psychological evidence now that both sounds and also the sight of greenery and trees are good for our mental health. So if we lose that we have a tendency to become more anxious and depressed. We’re also less sociable. Studies have shown that when people are in nature they are more likely to be open and friendly strangers. Whereas in a place with more traffic, we subconsciously become more closed off. The sounds of the world actually affect human social dynamics. 

Going back to The Forest Unseen, you went into the same spot everyday for a year? 

Well, nearly every day. 

I find that kind of devotion admirable. How did that transform you and change your idea of Self and your environment? 

It messed me up (laughs). No, it was really interesting and I learned a lot about the forest. I noticed all kinds of interesting things about forest animals that I hadn’t before. Beyond that, it kind of gave me the sense of how small I was in the bigger scheme of things. In a way that made me feel irrelevant. And I felt in my bones that the world doesn’t revolve around me. It doesn’t revolve around any of us. It doesn’t even revolve around our species. This world isn’t older than any of us. There’s something kind of beautiful about being in relationship to a creative force. That transcends you. And that, to me, was reassuring. I also felt joyous in contrast to this sadness of what we’re doing to this world. When you’re in a place and become connected to it really well, you feel the wounds as well as the joy. 

“The world doesn’t revolce around me. It doesn’t revolve around any of us…it doesn’t even revolve around our species”

I’m a huge believer in nature as therapy. Do you have any thoughts on the therapeutic properties of nature? In general but also from your experience. 

I experience some level of anxiety. To me, that sensory connection of being in nature helps. Being able to breathe in the smell of soil and see some colors and hear some birds. So instead of just living in my head I actually come back into my body in a way that is relaxing. A lot of the world can feel threatening with crazy news stories but being in nature helps ease that. 

What is one pressing environmental or sustainability issue that is of special concern to you?

One place that we often forget is the oceans. There’s so much shipping noise and noise from seismic exploration for oil that it is quite literally killing some marine animals. It stresses them out and degrades their ecology. We’re on land and don’t hear those sounds yet we’re the ones creating it. Every time I fill up my gas tank or buy something from another continent, I’m putting sound in the ocean. That’s an issue that we tend not to think about but it is a sonic crisis.

Lately I’ve been seeing a lot of videos about marine animals washing ashore. I saw one where sea lions  flooded a beach in San Diego and another where millions of sardines washed ashore. What do you think the sea animals are trying to tell us? 

Quiet down humans! Just let us get a little bit of peace. The other thing is to stop using the ocean as a trash can. All the pollution and runoff is killing a lot of these creatures. It’s easy for us to forget but if someone dumped trash in our front laws we’d be upset about that. 

David’s Top 5: 

Favorite past time: 

Gardening. I love to grow food and flowers. 

Favorite band or musician: 

One that has blown me away is listening to a reconstruction of Paleolithic flutes played by Anna Patenkowski. She took the first known musical instrument on Earth that are 40,000 years old carved from mammoth ivory. She plays these simple melodies but for me they blow me away and transport me back in time 

Favorite snack:

I love a nice handful of mixed nuts and dark chocolate because it’s crunchy and sweet.

Favorite tv show or movie: 

I like Verna Herzog’s Cave of Forgotten Dreams. It’s kind of quirky but I like most animated things, especially claymation. It’s such an exciting visual world.

Favorite self-care activity:

Playing music. I’m not a great musician but I play as an amateur guitarist and violinist. To me, it’s another activity that gets me out of my head and back into my body. 

Favorite snack:

I love a nice handful of mixed nuts and dark chocolate because it’s crunchy and sweet.

David Haskell is a writer and biologist. His latest book, Sounds Wild and Broken, was finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction, finalist for the PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award, and winner of the Acoustical Society of America’s Science Communication Award. The New York Times listed the book as an “Editor’s Choice”. Sounds Wild and Broken explores the story of sound on Earth. Starting with the origins of animal song and traversing the whole arc of Earth history, he illuminates and celebrates the emergence, diversification, and loss of the sounds of our world, including human music and language.

By R. Tiara Malone

Tell us about Grove Grocery and your role there?  

Grove Grocery was established in 2012 as a registered student organization meant to offer food pantry services and to educate our university community about food insecurity in higher education settings and in our state. I have served as the staff advisor to Grove Grocery since 2019. As staff advisor, I have the great honor of supporting our passionate student leaders who run our operations, educate our community, and continue to build our capacity to serve.  

Have you seen an increase in food insecurity amongst college students? 

I began serving as staff advisor just prior to the impacts of the pandemic.  During the pandemic, our utilization soared as students sought support around food insecurity due to lost wages and pandemic shutdowns.  Utilization has increased every year since that time as more and more students learn about our services.  In the last year, especially with increased food costs, we are seeing more and more students that need some assistance with food and nutrition security. 

Do you have any advice for students who are hesitant to use the pantry due to taboos or shame around pantries? 

Food is one of our most basic needs.  We need a diverse nutritious range of foods to maintain our health and to focus as students.  I hope that any student that struggles to have enough food or enough nutritious food knows that our pantry is available for all.  While we have a limit on how much food students can take in one visit, we have no other barriers to access.  We have set up our pantry to feel like a food shopping experience that allows students to access the space and select the items they need. 

How can members of the Ole Miss community get involved?

We are run completely by our student volunteers.  We have volunteer opportunities available for open hours at the pantry, tabling events, fundraising events, Kroger shopping trips, and other committee work.  Students need to participate in a volunteer training via zoom and then can sign up for various volunteer opportunities. This is a great way to serve our community and see the direct impact of our services. 

What are the hours of operation and do you have any social media we can follow? 

Most of our pantry updates are available via Instagram (@grovegrocery). 

Our hours of operation, volunteer information, and other updates can be found there.  At present, our fall hours are Wed-Sat 10-6pm and Sunday 1-4pm. 

Black Farmers in Mississippi, Past and Present

In the field of sustainability, agriculture is regularly examined through the lens of its physical and ecological impact on the natural environment. Agriculture accounts for around 24 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, not including its culpability in the clear cutting of millions of acres of forest cover. Furthermore, the specific practices of most modern-day agricultural production–large scale monoculture which relies on pesticides and genetically modified strains of plants–have been linked to topsoil erosion and pollution of waterways through runoff. 

However, as much as agriculture exists as a space of physical environmental degradation, it also exists as a space of social environmental degradation. Who can farm which crops, what is farmed where, and who has access to which agricultural products, are all inextricably intertwined in social and economic structures of power. The history of Mississippi, therefore, cannot be told without an understanding of the complexities of agriculture, particularly the ways in which Black people have, over time, interacted with agriculture and the food system. 

The Past

Mississippi was a sparsely populated territory during the earliest days of United States history. As settlers flocked to eastern states of New York, Pennsylvania, and the Carolinas, Mississippi’s interior position sheltered it from all but the most daring of new arrivals. However, this situation shifted dramatically following the invention of the cotton gin in 1793. The cotton gin allowed for cotton to be harvested in massive quantities, opening the figurative (and literal) door to the plantation economy which would emerge in Mississippi. 

Between 1798 and 1820, Mississippi’s population increased from 9,000 to 220,000, with a large percentage of these arrivals being enslaved Africans brought by settlers or slave traders. During the period leading up to the civil war and until the passage of the 13th amendment, Mississippi was nearly entirely reliant on the labor of enslaved people. Between 1820 and 1833, and especially following the exile of indigenous communities, Mississippi’s cotton production increased from 20 million to 70 million pounds. By 1839, Mississippi was the nation’s top producer of cotton, even boasting a per capita income above the US average. These numbers, however, were built entirely upon the forced labor of enslaved African Americans.  

Slaves in Mississippi during this time were barred from receiving an education or leading lives independent of their owners and labor obligations. It goes without saying that they were, as a result of this denial of basic human rights, unable to accumulate wealth which could have been handed down to their children. This situation made it all too easy for wealthy landowners to continue de facto enslavement through sharecropping even after the passage of the 13th amendment. For those Black individuals who were, despite all odds, able to eventually acquire land, a number of political and economic obstacles emerged to curtail their ability to succeed, an issue which was reported in depth in the Atlantic article “The Great Land Robbery: The Shameful Story of How 1 Million Black Families Have Been Ripped From Their Farms.” Available via this link. 

It is likely the case that none of the preceding information is new or shocking. As painful of a history as it is, Mississippi’s reliance on slavery and subsequent reliance on sharecropping are well established facts. However, these points are important in contextualizing the current state of farming and food access in today’s black communities, and the resilience that Black communities have shown in overcoming such circumstances. 

The Present

In order to shed light on the individual narratives of present-day black farmers in Mississippi, as well as sustainable farming practices, I spoke with Dria Price and Halima Salazar of Brown’s Farm in Water Valley, Mississippi. Dria moved to Mississippi from Chicago at seven years old, while Halima found herself in Mississippi just three years ago after a lifetime in Nigeria. Both women had only minimal experience with agriculture, but became passionate about the work that Leonard Brown was doing at Brown’s Farm. 

Brown’s Farm sits on around 360 acres of farmland in Water Valley, Mississippi. There, Mr. Brown, Dria, and Halima care for cows, goats, and most recently, chickens. Of all the products they produce, Brown’s Farm is most famous for its shiitake mushrooms. “Our goal last year” says Halima, “was to inoculate one thousand mushrooms so that we could have a steady supply to send to restaurants and the community market.” In addition to live animals and mushrooms, Brown’s Farm is home to an extensive herb farm which represents the primary work of Dria and Halima. Here, they cultivate rosemary, thyme, and basil, as well as about ten types of mint, with the long term goal of being able to package and sell these herbs in local grocery stores. 

Recently, given the large quantity of herbs that Dria and Halima were producing and selling, they decided to expand their production into teas. “Since we are growing all the herbs anyway and it won’t take up too much extra time,” said Halima “we thought, why don’t we start a tea company, and that’s what we did in creating Justevia.” Dria and Halima, as avid tea lovers themselves, believed that there would be a market for locally-sourced, organically-grown, and hand processed teas in the Oxford area. They hope that Justevia’s teas (which are available naturally sweetened or unsweetened) “can provide an alternative to sugary beverages,” says Dria. “We wanted to create something healthy for our community. In Mississippi, you see a lot of Black people plagued by diseases that can be avoided through a healthier diet.” 

What sets Brown’s Farm’s operations apart from traditional agriculture is not only its small scale or organic farming methods, but also the dedication and love which surrounds the entire production process. Halima proudly states, “We actually have a radio that plays in our greenhouse, because Mr. Brown says that the plants will be sad if they don’t have music.” Although Halima and Dria laugh at this quirky practice, it is clear that both women hold the farm–its commitment to sustainability and its people–with deep regard. The purposes behind the work they do at Brown’s Farm and through Justevia have allowed Dria and Halima to reclaim what it means to be a Black person working in agriculture. Rather than seeing themselves as reverting back to an oppressive, ecologically exploitative system, they believe that they are creating something new and beautiful. They are proud of the work they do and they are deeply connected with both the Earth and the delicate balance between our bodies and the foods with which sustain them. 

It is not the goal of this essay to take Dria and Halima’s positive experiences as representations of the experiences of all Black people in farming today, however, it is the goal of this essay to highlight them as beacons of hope. Although we may not find in Dria and Halima’s stories the end of an unjust system enacted on Black people in Mississippi, we are able to celebrate victories where they do occur, in the hope that Dria and Halima will become one among many of such stories of redemption. 

If you are looking for ways to support Justevia, their products are available here. 

Written by Lennis Barlow, Green Student Intern

Lennis is a senior at the University of Mississippi double majoring in International Studies and Chinese with a minor in Environmental Studies. This semester, Lennis will serve as the Outreach and Communication Intern, but she has previously worked as the Sustainability Data Intern. Through her time at the Office of Sustainability, Lennis has become passionate about amplifying the voices of campus and community sustainability leaders, and is thus excited about creating innovative ways for connectivity despite the continuing pandemic. 

Written by Allegra Latimer

College–the usual bustle between classes, Saturday football, and late nights with friends, thismight be what you think of when you think of the traditional college experience, right? 

Well, in the midst of a global pandemic, college has been anything but traditional. 2020, among other things, has been a year of change. With Zoom meetings, virtual classes, and remote work, 2020 has called for us to adapt to life online. However, even though college is online, this doesn’t mean that college students don’t face the same real-world challenges and insecurities with any lessening degree.

Even before this non-traditional semester, for many students, their college experience took on a non-traditional path with nearly “71% of students experiencing circumstances of financial independence, part-time enrollment, full-time work while in school, or caretaking of dependents” (Feeding America). 

Beyond the immediate stress of classes, there exists the larger stress of financial insecurity. From daily expenses to the steadily rising costs of tuition, college bills don’t distinguish between online or in-person––the challenge is the same. 

So where does food insecurity enter the conversation? 

Food insecurity is defined as “a lack of consistent access to enough food for an active, healthy life” (Feeding America). And as of 2017, 47% of Ole Miss students felt some degree of food insecurity. Of that number, 18-20% felt an impacting degree of food insecurity (Grove Grocery). Prioritizing education over food or vice versa should not be a question that one has to ask themselves; however, for many students, this question exists as a daily reality. 

Financial insecurity stands as the root of the problem. Being college students we often find ourselves in a transitional period; having the independence to move out of our parents’ house, but still in the process of continuing our education towards a future career. Money, or the lack of it, lends itself to the all-too-real stigma of being a “broke college student.” The result leaves many having to face a difficult reality. 

What is being done?

Food insecurity is a serious problem, though one that the UM Campus is fighting to change. Campus resources such as the Grove Grocery, formally known as the UM Food Bank, are working to ensure that all students have access to food. The Grove Grocery is available for all students/faculty as or when needed. 

And just as most everything this semester has undergone some form of virtual adaptation, the Grove Grocery is offering contactless “Grab and Go” meals and grocery orders that students can place and later pick-up just as they would at any grocery store. 

What can you do?

The move to end food insecurity does not stop there, and is one that is being fought from every angle. Especially on college campuses, there is no shortage of food; rather, the issue exists in access and distribution of this food, a reality further tied into food waste.

Student-led groups such as Flower of Life Food Rescue are working to not only provide food to low-income areas of the LOU Community, but also to spread awareness about the wastes of mass consumerism and socioeconomic inequality. 

In many ways, fighting injustice is about first spreading awareness of the problem. The more people that are aware of the issue of food insecurity, the more that can be done about it. As college students looking to get involved, joining these groups and volunteering throughout the community is a significant step in the right direction, only taking a small amount of time out of your week to make a huge difference. 

Written by Allegra Latimer

Green Student Intern