Food Planet Future

ANATOMY OF A MONTAGE

MONOCHROME

COLOUR IMAGES: MACRO LENS

IMAGES: SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPE

EMBRYONIC RICE

RICE PANICLE

RICE AWN (TIP)

RICE PANICLE

RICE ANTHERS AND POLLEN 340×

RICE AWN DETAIL 340×

RICE PANICLE

RICE GRAINS

AZOLLA

A FLOATING FERN THAT ONCE REMOVED HALF OF ALL ATMOSPHERIC CARBON

I had never heard of Azolla until I visited Kirchoff Farm, on the San Juan Islands. Farm owner Dan reached down into a shallow trough in his field and handed me a moss-like clump. The humble plant reminded me of duckweed and other common algae. I brought it home, did a brief internet search, and was stunned by what I learned.

In 2004, a scientific expedition to the Arctic took core samples of the seabed and discovered 49 ft (15 m) of compressed, fossilized Azolla. It appears that there was a massive freshwater resource in this region, where Azolla flourished between 48 and 49 million years ago in “the Arctic Azolla Event.” It is credited with removing half of the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere at the time during its flourish, resulting in cooler global temperatures, particularly at the poles.

This fast-growing, high-protein plant is used for livestock feed and fertilizer. Ecuadorian, Indian, Thai, Indonesian, and other farmers value this “floating fern” as a rich source of nitrogen. The fern’s symbiotic relationship with the cyanobacteria Nostoc azollae enable it to replace petroleum fertilizers that support crop growth. Azolla that is grown in conjunction with rice is especially effective. In Asia, a system that integrates fish and Azolla into rice-duck farming shows promise: Azolla provides the nitrogen needed for the rice; ducks eat the Azolla (and invasive snails), and their manure naturally fertilizes the soil.

Azolla can double in size every few days. One unique strategy is to grow azolla using industrial waste heat and CO2, creating unique, closed-loop management of these industrial pollutants. Azolla produces lipids, making it a potential source of biofuels. Because it is a water-based plant, it doesn’t compete with other crops for scarce arable land. It offers an inexpensive source of easily digested animal feed, giving small farmers an alternative to expensive grain.

In some regions, Azolla is considered a nuisance – the UK banned its sale in 2014, listing it as an invasive species. It can choke out other aquatic life and plants and degrade water quality. Still, this plant’s impacts and potential extend far beyond its diminutive size, and in the right setting it plays a crucial ecological role.

MACRO: Azolla, floating fern, Azolla filiculoides

MICRO: Azolla floating fern; leaf detail: 130×

BLUEBERRY

CROP WASTE PRODUCT S AND A CIRCULAR ECONOMY

Viewing foods at the microscopic level reveals mysteries worthy of lifelong questions, research, and just plain wonder. My SEM work revealed the surprisingly patterned surface of a tiny blueberry seed. This image is inspired by the 1968 Earthrise photo taken by William Anders whose iconic photograph helped launch the environmental movement. Unlike every other image in this book, this one came together in a flash. As I worked on the blueberry composition, removed the studio background from behind the berry, and added a black background, the idea of berry-as-Earth leapt out.

In the 1850s, Henry David Thoreau documented the average flowering time for highbush blueberries near his home in Walden Pond, Massachusetts, at around May 16. Just 60 years later, Boston University biologist Richard Primack found that this had accelerated to April 23, with April 1, 2012, being the earliest date recorded. Blueberries worldwide are impacted by these seasonal shifts, which bring extreme weather, introduce new diseases and pests, and wipe out pollinators.

Random freezes on top of early budding can destroy harvests. And just four hours of heat above 95°F (35°C) can fatally damage blueberry pollen. As with many crops in the northern hemisphere, the range in which blueberries thrive is moving north. Quebec is now competing with Maine as a source of wild blueberries (“wild” being a euphemism, since native forests of jack pine have been clear-cut to make way for this popular and profitable food).

Blueberry crop waste products have found use as biochar, compost, and nutraceuticals. Biorefineries create biofuels with blueberry waste, (pomace). These tools fit a circular economy model, a recent name for an oftneglected practice of maximizing a product’s usefulness while turning waste into assets.

Savvy consumers pay careful attention to the geographical origins of their food. This is a core value of the locavore movement. Many would be surprised to learn that it is the method of transportation, more than the distance traveled, that greatly affects a food’s carbon footprint (or foodprint, as the nonprofit group by that name suggests). Once blueberries are harvested, the carbon footprints of their transportation methods may differ greatly. ClimateSmart Food author David Reay finds that a box of blueberries grown in the UK, and one transported there via ship have similar carbon footprint, while a similar box arriving by air has ten times that measure. This is a good argument for pick-your-own farms.

MACRO: Blueberry, Vaccinium corymbosum

MICRO: Blueberry; seed surface texture: 300×

RESTORING GREAT UNDERSEA FORESTS

One of our family’s favorite activities is snorkeling in the local Salish Sea. While visiting a particular wall over the years, we started to notice an increasing proliferation of green urchins. There were sections of wall that were scoured clear, and all that remained were densely packed urchins. On one trip, I came upon the stipe (stalk) of bull kelp being devoured by several of these predators, and was both grateful for the evidence, while saddened to catch them in the act of destruction.

In 2015, a warming ocean-induced wasting disease began to devastate large populations of sea stars along the northeastern Pacific coast. Sunflower stars, apex predators of the coast which are capable of reaching three feet (90cm) in diameter, have nearly been wiped out. Sea stars prey on the urchins, and the stars’ decimation has led to an explosion in the urchin population. One of urchins’ favorite foods is kelp, whose massive forests along coastlines provide rich carbon sinks (and thus, reduced ocean acidity), while being a biodiversity haven, a protective habitat for fish and crabs, and a source of sustainable food for humans. This image dramatizes the voracious appetite of urchins as they ravage bull kelp in the Salish Sea. Kelp forests from Tasmania to Norway, as well as along the US’s Pacific coast, have also witnessed tremendous losses.

Urchins are considered a delicacy in Japan. Kelp forests and urchins were once prolific in coastal Maine; Maine anglers mined this “green gold” in the 1980s and 1990s, flying a yearly peak of 40 million pounds (18 million kg) of green urchins halfway around the world to feed the demand. (It should be noted that food transported by airlines is one of the most carbon-intensive sources of nutrition.)

SeaForester raises kelp on land, using small stones as kelp anchors. Within months, these “kelp stones” are sown like seeds in the ocean, a method that is showing great promise. Along the Northern California coast, other efforts are underway to restore kelp forests whose bull kelp populations crashed by 96% between 2014 and 2020. One diver developed large vacuums which could remove 200,000 purple urchins a day from urchin barrens – zones scraped clean of nearly all life. Urchins go dormant in these barrens when their preferred kelp is gone. They can live for decades, becoming nearly empty (and worthless to both predators and divers as a result). The firm Urchinomics employs divers to collect dormant urchins, clearing cliffs and rocks so that the kelp can return. The weakened urchins, now on land, are farmed back to full health, and marketed as a commercial food.

Efforts such as these put a dent in the global urchin population, which is likely to be billions strong. Warming seas also hamper recovery efforts; kelp dies when water temperatures rise to 64°F to 69°F (18°C or 20°C).

MACRO: Bull kelp, Nereocystis luetkeana; head and blades, showing urchin chew marks; green urchin, Strongylocentrotus droebachiensis

MICRO: Green urchin; tube foot disk: 270×

LETTUCE 2.0

MICROGREENS AND HYPERLOCAL, NUTRIENT-DENSE VEGETABLES

Microgreens might be the ultimate in healthy, local (kitchen counter) produce, with a minor carbon footprint. These tiny vegetables (though not the same as sprouts) are packed with more key antioxidants and nutrients – such as vitamin E, K and C – than the mature versions of the same plant. For example, red cabbage microgreens have 40 times the vitamin E compared to mature red cabbage. The same nutrition value can be received from broccoli microgreens as opposed to mature broccoli, all while using 200 times less water.

This image features radish, mustard, sunflower, fennel, sorrel, Japanese onion, nasturtium, arugula, and purple basil, in a mix conceived as a miniature food forest, with the canopy complexity, textures, and beauty of tropical rainforests.

– Opposite: design by Emily Deason at BabyPower Microgreens

Nasturtium microgreens

PLANKTON

TINY PLANTS THAT PRODUCE HALF THE WORLD’S OXYGEN

Long ago, I spent a summer as a naturalist along Washington State’s Olympic Peninsula. One morning, I stood by a river feeding the Pacific, and all of the dots connected: sandy silicon from eroded inland mountains washed to the sea, diatoms used that silicon for their structures and in turn, produced half of the globe’s oxygen. Some epic transformations happen silently, and these plants – just a fraction of a pinhead’s width – have such power. This image celebrates diatoms, the elegant host algae that they were attached to, and the ecological services they provide.

When we think about seafood, we rarely consider the one-celled diatoms that anchor the food chains of every ocean, priming the waters for tastier things. Those single-celled algae are under siege from climate chaos. While it is tough to describe its impacts over all of the oceans, especially as conditions vary worldwide, and affect plankton species differently, emerging patterns warrant attention.

Hotter deserts lead to more atmospheric dust. Iron in the dust is blown over oceans, fertilizing plankton blooms. When plankton die, they sink to the seabed, becoming a carbon sink for thousands of years. Ocean acidification caused by more absorbed CO2 leads to smaller plankton species with a limited ability to take up silicon. These plankton are less likely to sink and take their carbon into hiding.

Plankton stressed by intense summer UV radiation produce dimethyl sulfide which makes its way into the atmosphere and helps form clouds. Rising temperatures cause plankton species to migrate northward, disrupting food chains. Lower salmon populations increase the numbers of copepods, which decrease diatom populations. Coccolithophores, a marine phytoplankton that formed England’s White Cliffs of Dover, has spiked intermittently over millions of years during warm, high CO 2 periods, and is rapidly expanding in the North Atlantic. Toxic plankton near coastlines makes shellfish dangerous to eat, and their prevalence rises with warmer waters.

This rollercoaster view of shifting plankton fortunes is an example of the chaotic ecological changes underway. Individuals may recoil at the scale of the problem, but we can take a cue about real power from none other than these tiny organisms.

MACRO: Red algae, Cryptopluera ruprechtiana

MICRO: Diatoms, Isthmia enervis: 800×

ROOT CROPS

CARROTS AND CROP WILD RELATIVES

Before I created this image, we had always discarded the leafy green carrot tops when buying carrots. When we learned that these leaves were highly nutritious – and made tasty pesto – our habits changed. And who knew that dried carrot leaves look like dragon fire?

I especially like the patterns on the leaves, and the fact that the stomata are so easy to see. Having such an intimate view of food gives me a whole new appreciation for what I’m eating. Food art nourishes my body and my spirit.

Like so many vegetable crops, carrots are impacted by increasingly wild swings of drought and flooding. Carrot seeds need steady moisture; they are damaged by intermittent drying. Excessive heat causes the plants to bolt prematurely, making the carrots bitter and woody.

Carrots are a powerhouse of vitamin A, a nutrient that is crucial for our eyesight and immune systems. According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 250,000-500,000 children who are vitamin A-deficient become blind every year, and half of them die within 12 months of losing their sight. These children deserve healthy nutrition. Having access to carrots is one part of the solution, but climate impacts add another layer to the challenge.

When simulating future climate impacts on this major export crop, Australian researchers confirmed that carrots grown in hot temperatures are inferior in both flavor and texture. The range for optimal growth would likely shift south to Tasmania. It is likely that carrots, like so many other crops, will continue to degrade nutritionally as temperatures and CO2 levels rise. In response to this, Australian agronomists are in the process of researching more resilient varieties.

The Crop Wild Relatives Project is cross-breeding today’s carrots and other crops with their crop wild relatives in order to increase resilience to drought, heat, and increased salinity. The introduction of crop wild relatives’ diverse genetic material provides invaluable opportunities for crop improvement. As for celestial solutions, astrobiology students at Villanova University found that carrots could grow successfully on Mars.

MACRO: Carrot, Daucus carota var. sativus; leaves

MICRO: Carrot; leaves: 300×

SALMON

ALTERNATIVES TO DESTRUCTIVE AQUACULTURE

The only salmon I encountered as a boy came from a can. This salty food never inspired me, nor did crunching on the soaked bones and vertebrae that were part of the meal. Years later, I was thrilled to taste fresh salmon and experience its moist, buttery texture. I rarely eat salmon these days, preferring to leave them to the endangered orcas of our region, but I’ve come to appreciate the significance of this remarkable species.

Salmon species are among the most iconic fish in the world, and they are particularly prized in the Northern Pacific Rim. They’ve supported Indigenous cultures for millennia, inspiring ways of life, stories, dances, myths, family structures, and language. Historically, tribes have managed sustainable salmon harvests by fishing in rivers and using a mix of traps, weirs, wheels, catwalks, harpoons, and nets.

Chinook salmon are the critical prey of the endangered southern resident orcas of the Salish Sea, though declining salmon populations – due to mismanagement – have greatly stressed these orcas, and their population too is in decline. Salmon support cultures, economies, orca populations, and remarkably, woodlands. As they return to their native rivers and streams to spawn and die, scavengers, including bears, gulls and eagles, drag salmon carcasses deeper into forests, where their remains, which contain vast quantities of nitrogen, provide nutrients in the soil which decompose into fertilizer for trees and other plants.

During the summer and fall, both wild and hatchery spawning salmon rely on adequate water levels in rivers and streams that are fed by melting snow and glaciers. There is great concern that the loss of glaciers in the Pacific Northwest, US due to a warming climate, will eliminate this essential water supply, disrupting the salmon’s life cycle. Higher water temperatures lead to more fungal and bacterial infections and pose additional threats for species dependent on cool streams.

Farmed salmon is a multibillion dollar global industry with a long list of unsustainable qualities. Land-based farms may be better, but they, too, have issues. Farmed salmon are fed meal from overfished ocean catch as well as from destructive soy practices. Researchers have found that salmon can be fed, essentially, methane, addressing two grave environmental problems at once. Condensed methane is given to methanotrophs – methane-loving bacteria – that create biomass very similar in nutritional value to fish meal, but at a comparable cost.

MACRO: Chinook salmon, Oncorhynchus tshawytscha; alevins, chinook shoulder bone (cleithrum)

MICRO: Salmon; scales, with growth rings indicating roughly four years of age: 22×

SOIL

THE KEYS TO THE KINGDOM

In my childhood home, food waste was churned up and whisked away by a garbage disposal, or sent to the landfill. This was classic modern sanitation, which amounted to isolating and devaluing what that food waste could offer. As an adult, I’ve learned to prize these resources and I use a worm bin (or wormery) to convert all of that waste into compost. The mix created by the red wiggler worms seen in this image is a welcome soil amendment for our land and garden.

Franklin Roosevelt famously said, “A nation that destroys its soils destroys itself.” Most agricultural practices are deeply culpable for soil destruction, leading to a cascade of impacts including erosion, biodiversity loss, and climate change.

To describe healthy soil and its inestimable benefits would take far more than this single page. Consider the work of Walter Jehne and Didi Pershouse, who articulate the concept of the “soil carbon sponge” – what it is, how it is formed, and why it matters. In brief, the soil sponge is a complex, vital mix of soil, minerals, and organic matter held together by bacterial and fungal glues, aggregated further by root hairs and fungal hyphae. Pores and voids provide crucial space for water to percolate and absorb, and for roots to access minerals and thrive. Living plants and invertebrates are essential components of the soil sponge. The resulting soil structure reduces evaporation and inhibits erosion, regulating moisture and temperatures both above and below ground.

This is in stark contrast to compacted, almost lifeless soils that need massive interventions to produce food. Croplands tilled or left bare after harvests further expose soils to wind and water erosion. This disrupts small water cycles, a balanced dynamic of gradual evapotranspiration, localized cloud formation and rainfall, and cooler local temperatures. Small water cycles are best supported when grounds attain a healthy soil sponge. Information and training about these and other healthy soil strategies are increasingly available and popularized, as shown by groups such as The Land & Leadership Initiative, Carbon Eight, Kiss the Ground, the “4 per 1000” Initiative, Regenerate Earth, and many more.

Perhaps no organism is more associated with healthy soils than earthworms; Darwin sang their praises in his final published work. Worms are indeed masters of transformation, ingesting organic matter and breaking it down into ever smaller pieces, allowing bacteria and fungi to feed on it and release nutrients, including essential nitrogen. But not all earthworms are beneficial. In the US, Midwestern and New England forests are suffering from invasive earthworms – both European and Asian jumping varieties – whose voracious appetites for leaf litter remove mulch and other habitat for microorganisms, and reduce water retention for already-stressed tree roots.

MACRO: Red worms, Eisenia fetida

MICRO: Compost and topsoil: 90×

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

A career science educator and self-taught photographer, Robert Dash searches out tiny subjects with large stories about climate, conservation, and biodiversity. His work has been published by TIME, Lenswork, Buzzfeed, and National Geographic (Growing a Greener Feast, 2022, Best Science Photos of 2021). Dash’s images have appeared in galleries and juried shows in the US and overseas. His TEDx lecture, The Intercourse of Nature, explores leaf stomata as a metaphor for interconnectedness. Dash’s traveling exhibition, which birthed this book, is titled Food Planet Future . His first book, On An Acre Shy of Eternity / Micro Landscapes at the Edge, which won the Nautilus Book Award, was a three year study of land on the edge of the Salish Sea where he and his partner, artist Ranna McNeil, reside.