This year has gifted us abundant jujubes at the farm! #backyardfruits

Wild senna (Senna spp.) with ants. Wild senna and ants have a mutualistic relationship where each species benefits. The ants receive sugar from extrafloral nectaries clustered near the top of the plant. The plant receives protection from herbivores. #NativePlants 🌱 #Invertebrates

Survey results caught my attention: "More than nine in ten insured Americans have delayed care due to cost ... In fact, 95% of those surveyed said a medical emergency would likely put them into serious debt even with insurance." INSURED Americans 😐 www.jgwentworth.com/resources/me...

The true cost of medical emergencies

Medical emergencies can push Americans into debt quickly. Our survey reveals the average financial breaking point, medical debt levels, and how insurance gaps affect healthcare decisions.

jgwentworth.com

A recent morning harvest of our early crop of figs. Top to bottom, varieties are: Brown turkey, Italian honey fig, and Celeste. #summerfruits #backyardfruit

Early paw paws are ripening. These fruits are from seedling trees of unknown genetics--they were not selected for fruit quality. But they are the earliest ripening pawpaw trees at the farm. This trait may be valuable in a breeding program with early ripening as a goal. #summerfruits #nativefruit 🌱

Sculpture at North Carolina's College of Veterinary Medicine

How can we better support Monarch butterflies? We can offer fresh, blooming milkweeds to late season travelers by mowing/cutting a portion of land once midseason (June to July in upper south/mid-Atlantic US). Example reports in comments. #pollinators #manageforwildlife 🧪🌍🌱🦋

Unidentified Bombus on sourwood (Oxydendrum arboreum) flowers. Haywood County, NC. People truck honey bee colonies up to the NC mountains each July to produce specialty sourwood honey. #nativebees #Blueridge

Summer king apples galore this year! 🌱 🐝 #heirloomapples #summerfruit

Also FYI, the majority of Colorado River water used for “farms” in the below graphic is actually for cattle feed (alfalfa and hay). The minority of the agricultural water use is for food people eat directly, like wheat. science.nasa.gov/missions/lan...

Kelly Hereid@kellyhereid.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Love this figure describing Colorado River basin allocation

Despite food being the largest source of American's PFAS exposure, FDA declines to set limits on food contamination. PFAS is common in foods, and some exposures, such as eating contaminated freshwater fish, dwarf drinking water exposures. 🧪 🌍🌱 #PFAS #FDA www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

US Food and Drug Administration rejects petition to set Pfas limits in food

Environmental protection agency and independent studies have found food biggest source of chemical exposure

theguardian.com

As antimicrobial use among animals is a driver of antimicrobial resistant bacterial infections in people, agricultural fungicide use is a driver of resistant fungal infections. And resistant fungal infections are increasing among people: tinyurl.com/dwp7s3jm 🧪🌍🌱 www.cidrap.umn.edu/antimicrobia...

The WHO aims to help nations confront growing threat of fungal disease, antifungal resistance

cidrap.umn.edu

Here’s Why Weather Forecasts Have Seemed So Inaccurate Lately. Meteorologists simply aren't able to gather as much data as they used to, and you're suffering for it. gizmodo.com/heres-why-we...

Here's Why Weather Forecasts Have Seemed So Inaccurate Lately

Meteorologists simply aren't able to gather as much data as they used to, and you're suffering for it.

gizmodo.com

Screwworms are invasive flies in the southern US (so far) whose larvae eat flesh. Dogs and cats can be infested as well as many other wild and domestic animals and humans. CIDRAP has advice for how to recognize infestations and protect your animals. 🧪🌍 www.cidrap.umn.edu/new-world-sc...

How to protect outdoor pets from New World screwworm

cidrap.umn.edu

Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) collapse will have global effects. "For too long, understanding and monitoring the AMOC was viewed as an academic pursuit. Instead, it should now be treated as what it truly is: an urgent, global priority." 🧪 🌍 www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Amoc collapse could change Europe’s climate 10x faster than expected. We aren’t ready

The system of ocean current that moves heat in the Atlantic Ocean plays a key role in regulating climate. Today’s monitoring of it may be discontinued

theguardian.com

Really well reported piece that shows why Congress appears to be itching to get into a fight with the National Academies.

Inside the campaign to discredit a key climate science report

An emerging field of research that can measure how much climate change has worsened individual disasters is under attack by friends of the fossil fuel industry. Billions of dollars are at stake.

politico.com

Another example of how our regulatory system is failing consumers and protection of the public health.

paris martineau@paris.nyc · 3mo ago

my latest @consumerreports.org investigation is based on months of reporting and 120+ lab tests of popular snacks over a third of the products had more additives / contaminants in 1 serving than what health agencies have identified as safe to consume daily 🧵 www.consumerreports.org/health/food-...

The persistent drought is affecting wildlife, too. If you have deer neighbors--consider setting out water for the does to drink. They need extra water to make sufficient milk at this critical time with new fawns to feed. Here in central NC, I'm refilling wildlife water buckets daily. #wildlife

A proposed OMB Rule affects Medicaid, Science, Transportation, Food assistance, and more Federal grants represent about 36 cents of every dollar a state spends. This rule puts the grant process under political control effective October 1, 2026 Submit comments before 7/13/2026 tinyurl.com/mr2tu3h7

This new OMB Rule Is Bigger Than Science. Much Bigger.

This image was generated by Google AI (Gemini)

elizabethginexi.substack.com

Dreaming of cherries fresh from your backyard? In the mid-Atlantic area of the US, low care 'pie' cherries are commonly grown. We have two varieties: North Star, a small tree, and Juliet, a bush cherry . Juliet fruit (center in pic) flanked by two North Star fruits. 🌱 #backyardfruit #cherries

Independent science is threatened by political control if these proposed changes are enacted. Elizabeth shows how to submit impactful comments (July 13 deadline).

elizabethginexi.bsky.social@elizabethginexi.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Calling all Scientists! Research Administrators! Deans! Fans of Science! No one is coming to save us. Here is your assignment. I have written a step by step, easy to understand "how-to" document to help you comment on the proposed OMB rule. elizabethginexi.substack.com/p/what-we-ne...

Calling all Scientists! Research Administrators! Deans! Fans of Science! No one is coming to save us. Here is your assignment. I have written a step by step, easy to understand "how-to" document to help you comment on the proposed OMB rule. elizabethginexi.substack.com/p/what-we-ne...

What We Need to do NEXT: OMB’s Proposed Federal Financial Assistance Rule (OMB 2026-10817)

What OMB’s Proposed Federal Financial Assistance Rule Means in Practice

elizabethginexi.substack.com

For those in Eastern US receiving some much-needed rain, watch for turtles on the roads. Due to drought, the soil had been too dry to dig nests. Now, turtles will be active over the next days to weeks. If safe to do so, remove them from the travel lanes, car strikes are reducing populations. 🌍

Bottom trawling removes both animals and habitat.

Pádraic Fogarty@whittledaway.bsky.social · 4mo ago

"Scientists surveying the area found three times more seabed organisms and twice as many species compared to nearby unprotected waters" news.mongabay.com/short-articl...

Treskova et al. reported changes in vector borne disease in Lancet Planetary Health (2025) In our recent systematic review of drought and West Nile Virus, we find consistent associations between seasonal drought and West Nile Virus infections. www.mdpi.com/2076-2607/13... 🧪 🌍 #climate #disease

A clearwing moth on honey-scented Aronia melanocarpa blooms! Many moths are pollinators as are flies (see smaller insect to the left). Among insects as among other life forms, one cannot cleanly categorize into 'friend' or 'foe'. Assume 'friend' in the absence of other information. 🐝💚 #pollinators

Hickories decked out in their best spring attire: left, shagbark hickory (Carya ovata) and right, shellbark hickory (C. laciniosa). IME these species produce the best-flavored and easily accessible hickory nuts in central NC. 🌍 🌱 #foraging #foodforest #nuttree

Well here's a little ray of sunshine. Does this mean that I can distill spirits in my home now? A fruit growers dream: fortified wines and apple brandy within reach! www.theguardian.com/law/2026/apr...

US appeals court declares 158-year-old home distilling ban unconstitutional

Judge said ban, which originated in Reconstruction era to thwart liquor tax evasion, actually reduced tax revenue

theguardian.com

A serious setback for disease control: on 3/31 CDC eliminated laboratory testing for some pathogens and parasites. This leaves underfunded state health departments responsible for detecting rabies and monkeypox--diseases that require rapid interventions to limit spread. cdc.gov/infectious-d...

This is my favorite climate change chart. Japanese monks, aristocrats, and emperors kept meticulous records of cherry blossom festivals for 1,200 years and accidentally built the world's longest climate dataset.