Time to Grow

And just like that, we are three days into the new year. A good year is but a sequence of good days. A day is a gift that can have a mighty impact - so use each one wisely.

My new year kicked off by creating a vision board, a practice I love doing at any period of transition. This one, however, was special. Why? Well, I was able to make a vision board out of a magazine that I am featured in and wrote the cover story for: the Holiday issue of Noire Women's Wellness Magazine. Never before had I cut out a quote from a magazine that I myself had written. Pretty cool, huh?

There are many juicy stories within the issue from the powers of Yoni Steaming (which I may be trying Friday night) to revolutionizing new years resolutions. Plus, the article I poured days of my life into that features my interview with the first Black woman to grace the cover of Vogue, Beverly Johnson. Our conversation was so heartwarming and sweet that - as I wrote in the article - I felt Beverly "was the aunty I never knew I needed." 

Some words and phrases I cut out for my vision board this year were "Courageous," "Oneness with Mother Earth," "Power," "Sees Beauty in Everything," "Self Care," and "Fantasy".  What words are leading your 2023 vision? 🔮

The Future of Food

Farmers are facing an urgent question: how can we do more with less? The answer, it seems, may just be technology. By scanning crops and analyzing their protein and health levels, algorithms can enable farmers to be more efficient with water, build up soil nutrient levels, and become more sustainable. 

Farming itself is in the process of being reimagined. One vision for the future of farming is to integrate solar panels into these intrinsically sunny environments. A 2019 study in the journal of Scientific Reports predicted that the world's energy needs could be met by solar panels if less than 1% of cropland were converted to agrivoltaic systems.

There are lots of questions to address before this can be widely implemented, such as knowing which plants would benefit from the shade created by additional solar panels. Still, in order to integrate, we must first imagine. Therefore asking questions such as these is a big step in the right direction. 

Omg! What are you wearing?

Image by Florian Nagel

Imagine seeing red carpet coverage of an event when a celebrity your grandma would never know the name of is asked "Omg! What are you wearing?" and the celeb replies, "Oh, this? It's my favorite digital fashion line. It's 100% virtual!"

Digital fashion is creating a buzz in the fashion and web3 world. While we may be a long way from replacing pants with pixels, there is a strong case for how digital fashion can help mitigate the wasteful practices of the fast fashion industry.

Fashion is one of the highest polluting industries in the world. Digital fashion, however, can help to combat this. How? By targeting influencers and content creators, many of whom primarily interact with their fans through a screen. These digital creators can show up as their best selves online through digital fashion rather than spending resources on garments that would have never been seen by others in real life. 

There is a long way to go before digital fashion can be widely adapted by content creators. However, it is already being used as Avatar wearables and NFT digital collectibles. In fact, I recently interviewed Walé Oyerinde, founder of the digital clothing brand The Atklas about the future of fashion. Stay tuned for the fascinating conversation that followed.  

Should Schools Require Climate Change Curriculum? 

ARTISTRY BY TIARE RIBEAUX, QIANQIAN YE

Do younger generations need greater awareness about the tools for alleviating climate change? While it may be an issue we've inherited from older generations, it is one we have the responsibility to address head-on. 

One study found that the majority of biology textbooks published in the 2010s had far less content on climate change than textbooks from the previous decade, shrinking climate change education to an average of only three pages. 

While there is a list as long as a history textbook of things that ought to be discussed further inside the classroom, climate change indeed may be one of them. 

New Jersey seemed to agree with this sentiment, becoming the first state in the country to require teachers to instruct their kids about climate change. This applies to all subjects - even physical education, and grade levels as young as kindergarten.

"More jobs related to climate change are already opening up," said Margaret Wang, co-founder and chief operating officer of SubjectToClimate, a nonprofit that is helping teachers to find and share climate lessons. "Children will need skills not just to discover scientific innovations but to tell stories, advocate, inspire, and make public policy." 

Truly,

ANATOLA - the girl who got a C in her college Climate Change class (it was during Covid, what's your excuse?) 

Dive Deeper 

• Surreal Dreams of Digital Fashion (Behance)

• How Your Storytelling Can Evolve in 2023 (CMF)

• Airbus to strap hydrogen fuel cell engine to massive superjumbo jet (Futurism)

• The newest crop found on a farm? Solar panels (MIT Technology Review)

• The History and Future of Food(Grow by Glinko)

• Indigenous knowledge mixed with synthetic biology (Grow by Glinko)

• Can micro mobility replace cars? (Focities)