Horticulture

Phenolics were extracted from fresh and dried flowers that were either whole or homogenized. Hence, four types of samples were made: fresh whole flowers , dry whole flowers , fresh homogenized flowers , and dry homogenized flowers . Flowers were mixed with the determined optimal extraction solvent and followed the same extraction process as described above, except whole flower samples were not homogenized and instead placed directly into the refrigerator to extract overnight.All sample extracts were analyzed via high performance liquid chromatography using an Agilent 1200 system with diode array detection and fluorescence detection . Separation of phenolic compounds was performed on an Agilent PLRP-S column at 35 °C, using a previously published method. Mobile phase A was 1.5% phosphoric acid in water and mobile phase B was 80% acetonitrile, 20% mobile phase A . The flow was set at 1.00 mL min-1 . The gradient used was as follows: 0 min, 6% B, 73 min, 31% B, 78-86 min, 62% B, 90-105 min 6% B. Most phenolic compounds were detected using a at 280 nm , 320 nm , and 360 nm .

Flavan-3-ols were detected using a fluorescence detector . Compounds were quantified using external standard curves employing surrogate standards for each group of phenolic compounds [-catechin for flavan-3- ols, hydroponic nft system chlorogenic acid for phenolic acids and simple phenols, quercetin for flavonol aglycones, and IR for flavonols]. Standards were prepared at concentrations of 200, 100, 50, 10, and 5 mg L -1 , except IR which included an additional concentration of 500 mg L -1 . Triplicate analyses of each concentration were performed .Compounds were separated using HPLC-DAD-FLD as described above and identified using authentic standards to check retention time and absorption spectra. Several peaks in the chromatograms did not match tR or spectra of authentic standards. Therefore, fractions of these peaks were collected. Fractions were dried and reconstituted in 1% formic acid in water. These samples were then subjected to high resolution mass spectrometry using an Agilent 6545 quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometer , using conditions previously established for elderberry phenolic compounds. Data were then analyzed using Agilent MassHunter Workstation Qualitative Analysis 10.0 . To tentatively identify compounds, the mass to charge ratio of the precursor and fragment ions were compared to online libraries of compounds and using formula generation for the peaks in the spectra.Volatile compounds were analyzed by headspace solid phase microextraction gas chromatography mass spectrometry .

The equilibration and extraction parameters were optimized using ground dry flowers, prepared using a spice grinder, pulsed 25 times . A 1 g sample of ground dry flowers was placed into a 20 mL glass vial and the vial was sealed by a crimp-top cap with a Teflon septa. Various incubation temperatures , equilibration times , and extraction times were evaluated to optimize for the highest total peak area and unique compounds identified from samples. The fiber used for all analyses was a divinylbenzene/carbon wide range/polydimethylsiloxane , 23 Ga, 1 cm length, with 80 µm phase thickness . After extraction, the fiberwas injected into the GC and volatile compounds were desorbed at 250 °C for 5 min. Compounds were then separated on a DB-Wax column . Helium was used as a carrier gas at 1 mL min-1 . A temperature program was used with the following steps: 35 °C for 1 min, 3 °C min- 1 to 65 °C, 6 °C min-1 to 180 °C, 30 °C min-1 to 240 °C, hold at 240 °C for 5 min. Total run time was 37.167 min. Compounds were detected with a single quad, triple axis mass spectrometer . The mass range for acquisition was 30 to 300 m/z. The MS transfer line temperature was 250 °C, the source temperature was 230 °C, and the quad temperature was 150 °C. The electron ionization was set to 70 eV. To have the same volume of head space in fresh and dry flower samples, 0.5 g of fresh whole flowers or 1.5 g ground dry flowers were placed in the 20 mL clear glass vials. For tea samples, 4 mL tea was placed in 20 mL vials. To each sample, 10 µl of 1-butanol-d9 in methanol was added as an internal standard. Volatile compounds were identified using Agilent Mass Hunter Unknown Analysis , using the NIST17 library requiring an ≥ 80% match and that compounds were identified in at least three of the five to be considered a volatile compound in the samples. An alkane series was run under the same chromatographic conditions to determine retention indices.

Confirmation of identification was performed by comparing the mass spectra and retention indices with those of standards when possible or literature values when standards were not accessible. Relative response was calculated by normalizing peak area for each compound to the internal standard peak area, and relative peak area was calculated using the relative response of a compound divided by the total peak area of a sample.The phenolic compounds were measured in fresh and dry elderflowers of S. nigra ssp. cerulea, both as whole and as homogenized flowers. The treatments used for this study were chosen to reflect the common ways that elderflowers are used in food and beverage applications and to provide more information on how to best extract the phenolic compounds from the flowers. The moisture content of the elderflowers was determined as 75.6 ± 1.7%. To achieve a consistent dry weight used in extractions, either 1.00 g of fresh flowers or 0.25 g of dry flowers were used. The extraction solvent was optimized to increase extraction efficiency of the main phenolic acids, flavonols and flavan-3-ols which included chlorogenic acid, IR, rutin, and -catechin . While chlorogenic acid, rutin, and catechin could be extracted in either 50:50% ethanol:water or 25:75% ethanol:water for maximum concentrations, the levels of IR increased with increasing amounts of water in the solvent system. However, in solvents containing ≥ 75% water, the flowers turned brown in color suggesting extensive oxidation. Therefore, it was determined that 50:50% ethanol:water was the optimal solvent for the extraction of the range of phenolic compounds in elderflowers without excess oxidation. A recent study of the effect of organicsolvents on the extraction of phytochemicals from butterfly pea flowers also found that 50:50% ethanol:water had optimal extraction properties for the phenolic compounds in flowers.117 These results differ from a study on the extract of phenolic compounds from dry, powdered European elderflower, which found water to be the optimal extraction solvent, specifically at 100 °C for 30 mins, as compared to 80:20% ethanol:water or 80:20% methanol:water .71Elderflowers are used in products as either fresh or, more commonly, as dry flowers and as either whole or homogenized flowers . Therefore, each of these parameters were evaluated resulting in the following types of samples: fresh whole flowers ; dry whole flowers ; fresh homogenized flowers ; dry homogenized flowers . Phenolic compounds were quantified using HPLC-DAD-FLD and information regarding the standard curves can be found in Table 1. Significantly more phenolic compounds were extracted from FHF compared with FWF, DWF and DHF indicating that phenolic compounds are released more readily from the vacuoles during homogenization while the flower is still fresh.118 There was no significant difference in the sum of all measured phenolic compounds between FWF, DWF, or DHF; however, levels of most phenolics were slightly higher in the DHF, suggesting that homogenization also increases the extraction efficiency in dry flowers. Furthermore, a statistically significant interaction was found between the fresh and dry flowers and homogenization of the sample for most phenolic compounds, due to the uniquely high levels present in the FHF and the absence of an equally high increase in DHF . This trend can also be seen in the totals of each phenolic class , as the FHF were significantly higher than all other sample types, nft channel with the exception of total flavan-3-ols in DHF .The most abundant phenolic compound found in extracts of the blue elderflowers was IR. The levels of IR were significantly higher in FHF, with a maximum concentration of 78.73 ± 4.84 mg g-1 . This is a significant difference as compared with the European and American subspecies, in which rutin is the predominant phenolic compound in flowers and at much lower concentrations. Levels of IR in European elderflower levels range from about 0.200 to 0.900 mg g-1 fresh weight, though higher levels were found in elderflower tea, ranging from 4.260 to 13.500 mg g -1 . This key difference in the flowers of the blue elderberry provides an opportunity to create unique products for consumers looking for high levels of bioactive phenolic compounds, as studies have shown that IR can induce apoptosis in cancer cells. 

Quercetin was the only flavonol aglycone identified in the flower extracts and was low relative to the flavonol glycosides. Though this compound may be due to the degradation of a quercetin glycoside, quercetin aglycone has been measured in other elderflower studies, and our results are similar to those reported by Viapiana et al. . The flavan-3-ols monomers found in the flowers include -catechin and -epicatechin, highest in the FHF at 1.110 ± 0.30 and 1.24 ± 0.19 mg g-1 , respectively -Epicatechin, but not -catechin, had an interaction between the fresh and dried and homogenization of the sample, as it was significantly higher in FHF. Proanthocyanin B type was also tentatively identified via HPLC-MS/MS analysis in the flowers, and was present in relatively low quantities in all samples . A procyanidin trimer was identified in elderflowers extracts and beverages by Mikulic-Petkovsek et al. . Chlorogenic acid was identified as the main phenolic acid in the flowers of the blue elderberry, like the flowers of the American elderberry,56 whereas the predominant phenolic acid in the flowers of the European elderberry is neochlorogenic acid . Neochlorogenic acid and other caffeoylquinic acid isomers were also present in the elderflowers of S. nigra ssp. cerulea . Two isomers of 5-caffeoylquinic acid in addition to 3- and 4-caffeoylquinic acid have been identified in elderflower products.115 Evaluation of the phenolic content of elder plants grown in different locations and altitudes indicate, in general, that plant material from shrubs at higher altitudes had higher levels of hydroxycinnamic acids and flavonols. The authors postulated that the stress of harsher climates at higher altitudes may have led to the increase in hydroxycinnamic acids and flavonols to cope with the increase in UV radiation. They also reasoned that the high amounts of sun and cool nights may increase the metabolism of phenolic compounds. The flowers in the present study experience hot, dry summers with cool breezes from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta at night, and these conditions may contribute to the unique phenolic profile in this flower. The average day/night temperatures for Davis, California while the flowers were growing were 24/7 °C in April 2021, 28/12 °C in May 2021, and 31/13 °C in June 2021, with less than 3 inches of rain during that time span. A phenolic compound unique to the blue elderflower was identified as 5-hydroxypyrogallol hexoside . This compound has also been identified in the berries of this subspecies grown in the same locations. The concentrations of 5-HPG ranged from 1.26 ± 0.20 mg g-1 in DWF to 2.00 ± 0.72 mg g-1 in FHF . Because no commercial standards exist for this compound, the tentative identification of this compound was determined by high resolution QTOF-MS/MS data. The mass spectrum shows the molecular ion [M-H]- at m/z 303.0728 and fragment ion showing the loss of the sugar molecule [M-hexose-H]- at m/z 141.0199. Although the biological properties of this unique phenolic compound have not yet been investigated, 5-HPG hexoside can serve as a marker for S. nigra ssp. cerulea, especially since it is present in relatively high levels in the flower and berry and is not identified in other elderberry subspecies. Elderflower tea is one of the most traditional and simplest ways that the flowers are used in the preparation of beverages. To make elderflower tea, the flowers are infused in hot water to extract the flavor and biologically active phenolic compounds from the flowers. Recommended steeping times can vary widely, however there are no studies investigating the impact of steep time on the extraction of phenolic compounds in the elderflower tea. To address this, the impact of time on the extraction of phenolic compounds from teas made from dried flowers was evaluated.

Taken together, these studies suggest that the gut microbiome may play an important role in acne pathogenesis and that we can modulate it for clinical improvements, but further investigation into the mechanisms and effects of oral probiotics in acne vulgaris is needed.The beneficial role of fruits and vegetables in health maintenance is well known, though the mechanisms have only been elucidated in recent years. The gut microbiome plays an integral role in almost every aspect of human health through transformation of food and through direct signaling. Most research on dietary effects do not consider whether the effect on the host or the effect on the host’s microbiome is primarily affecting the observed response. One of the first dietary intervention studies on acne vulgaris was performed in 2007 by Smith et al. and compared the effect of a low-glycemic load diet on acne severity. Forty-three males aged 15–25 with moderate acne were fed a low-glycemic load diet for 12 weeks. The number of acnelesions, sex hormone levels, round plant pot and insulin markers were compared at baseline and after intervention.

The patients both lost weight and showed improvement of acne compared to a conventional Western diet. Free androgen and fasting insulin levels were significantly lower in patients on the low-glycemic load diet. The patients designed their own diets, based on nutritional counseling, which instructed the experimental group to consume more protein and lower glycemic index carbohydrates, such as whole grains and fruits. The evidence suggests that high-glycemic load diets can contribute to acne by inducing hyperinsulinemia, while low-glycemic load diets may prevent hyperinsulinemia by lowering postprandial insulin. In 2016, Çerman et al. again probed the relationship between glycemic load and acne, collecting self-reported food logs from 86 patients over seven days. The study included male and female patients with mild to severe acne and tracked adiponectin in addition to insulin/insulin resistance markers. Both the presence and the severity of acne positively correlated with glycemic load, but not with insulin or insulin resistance markers. Adiponectin levels were lower in acne patients than in controls, though not significantly different by severity.

The glycemic load disparity between experimental and control groups was less than that in Smith’s interventional study , which may explain the differences in insulin markers and reflect the normal dietary differences between young adults in Turkey and in Australia. A low-glycemic load diet balances carbohydrate intake with dietary fiber, slowing digestion and the release of sugar into the bloodstream. The recommended daily allowance of dietary fiber is 25 g, based on a 2000 kilocalorie diet. Dietary fiber intake from 2001–2010 was 16.1 g/day for adults over age 19. This deficient consumption of dietary fiber reflects the whole grains, vegetables and fruits that average Americans are lacking on a daily basis. Though the mechanism by which this diet improves acne is unknown, complex carbohydrates, like resistant starch, insoluble fiber, and fructooligos accharides, have been correlated with greater insulin sensitivity and less inflammation. In addition to prebiotic polysaccharides, plant-based foods are also sources of bioactive polyphenols, which we discuss later.Insulin is a peptide hormone made by the pancreas that regulates carbohydrate metabolism through its influence on glucose. Evidence from multiple studies, including Smith et al., suggest insulin and carbohydrate metabolism may have a role in the etiology and severity of acne. The occurrence of acne as part of various syndromes associated with insulin resistance further supports the association between insulin and acne. For example, 70% of polycystic ovary syndrome cases have acne symptoms.

PCOS is characterized by hyperandrogenism, anovulation, polycystic ovaries, insulin resistance and hyperinsulinemia. Emiroglu et al. investigated the relationship between acne and insulin resistance in males with acne. All 22 subjects with resistant acne had impaired metabolic profiles and decreased insulin sensitivity. The mechanism linking high insulin levels and acne may be through the altered proliferation of keratinocytes in the pilosebaceous unit. Hyperinsulinemia increases serum levels of insulin-like growth factor-1 and reduces serum levels of insulin-like growth factor binding protein-3. Both of these factors have been shown to increase keratinocyte proliferation and stimulate hormone production, which may contribute to the pathogenic factors of acne. The gut microbiota may also contribute to insulin resistance. A Danish study of 277 non-diabetic individuals found increased populations of specific gut microbes and an association with insulin resistance. Insulin resistance and the gut may represent a new target for therapy in acne patients. There are many plant-based foods that can improve insulin sensitivity, thereby reducing overproduction and stabilizing blood sugar. Many of the compounds responsible appear to be polyphenols, though the molecular mechanism of action is generally not understood and may vary depending on the molecule. In vitro, berry extract exposure reduced glucose uptake by human intestinal epithelial cells. Foods/supplements that exert a positive effect on insulin sensitivity include olive leaf, berries , grapes and red wine, cinnamon, and green tea. Green tea extract supplementation has been shown to decrease the number of acne lesions in post pubescent females with a trending decrease in fasting blood sugar and a significant decrease in total triglycerides. It is important to note that there are few studies on most of these foods and their effects on glucose metabolism; therefore, results should be cautiously accepted until more, larger clinical trials are performed. Plants from the family Berberidaceae are commonly used in traditional Chinese medicine for a variety of ailments, including the chronic skin conditions eczema and psoriasis. This family includes the genus Mahonia and Berberis, which produce flowers and edible berries. Among many bioactive compounds in these plants, berberine is one of the most well studied. It has been shown to relieve insulin resistance in hepatic cells in vitro and to be anti-inflammatory. Berberine and other components are antimicrobial against common skin microbes, like Propionibacterium acnes, Staphylococcus spp. and Malassezia spp.. One of the reasons it may be effective in treating eczema and psoriasis is an antiproliferative effect on keratinocytes, which may also attenuate acne lesion development. Additionally, in hamsters, berberine appeared to decrease lipogenesis by sebaceous glands, which may translate to human sebaceous glands. Berberine showed strong activity against clinical isolates of Propionibacterium acnes isolated from acne patients. A Chinese study using Gong Lao Qu Huo herbal supplements comprised of Mahonia fruits was used to treat 92 patients with acne vulgaris. Ninety eight percent of the treatment group on berberine improved compared to 91% of the control group taking minocycline. Statistical analysis suggested there was no difference between the berberine and minocycline groups. This suggests that herbal supplementation may be just as effective as the standard antibiotics without the drawbacks. Fruits from the genus Garcinia are best known for their antibacterial and weight loss effects. Weight loss may be due to leptin-like activity and the resultant decreases in insulin and insulin sensitivity, in addition to appetite suppression. In sucrose-loaded mice fed Garcinia cambogia rind extract, there was a significant decrease in serum insulin levels compared to controls. Male rats consuming a high fat diet showed increased serum leptin levels and decreased glucose intolerance when fed Garcinia cambogia ethanolic extract. α and γ mangostin and phenolic ethers in Garcinia mangostana improved insulin sensitivity and attenuated lipopolysaccharide -induced inflammation in vitro. Garcinia mangostana extract led to an increase in the insulin-producing pancreatic β cells in normal and diabetic rats. The loss of β cell number and function is associated with type I and II diabetes, round garden pot and increasing the population has been hypothesized as a cure.

Although topically applied α mangostin clinically improved acne severity and inhibited growth of both Staphylococcus epidermidis and P. acnes in vitro, orally-administered extracts have not been tested as an acne treatment. The various activities suggest that Garcinia fruits may be worth studying for their effects on acne with oral supplementation. A prebiotic supplement containing inulin, β-glucan, and blueberry polyphenols led to significantly improved glucose tolerance in adult humans, though no statistically-significant difference was observed in insulin sensitivity. In diet-induced obese rats, a combination probiotic containing Bifidobacterium, Lactobacillus, Lactococcus and Propionibacterium strains improved insulin sensitivity and decreased body mass. Turmeric, the ground dried root of the Curcuma longa plant , is known for its prominent role in curries and traditional medical systems like Chinese medicine and Ayurveda. It has shown promising results as an antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, and antidiabetic, all activities that may improve acne vulgaris. It has been suggested that turmeric can help prevent the onset of diabetes and stabilize blood sugar. Several studies in mice have shown that curcumin supplementation results in reduced glucose intolerance, hypoinsulinemia, and hyperglycemia. The growth of the common skin bacteria Staphylococcus epidermidis and Staphylococcus aureus is inhibited by curcumin, which also acts synergistically with several antibiotics. When curcumin was photoactivated,it was also able to inhibit the growth of Propionibacterium acnes, though unactivated curcumin did not inhibit growth.Sex hormones, including androgens and progestins, have been implicated in acne pathogenesis. Progesterone, which peaks before menstruation and is elevated throughout gestation, has been correlated with flares of acne, psoriasis, rosacea, herpes lesions, and both atopic and allergic dermatitis. However, progesterone also inhibits the enzyme 5α-reductase that transforms testosterone into 5α-dihydrotestosterone , a hormone that has been shown to increase proliferation of sebocytes in ex vivo sebaceous glands to a greater degree than testosterone. High levels of 5αDHT have also been correlated with acne vulgaris. The effect of sex hormones on acne pathology is likely more complex than absolute levels of particular hormones and could result from an imbalance between several or from the activity of 5α-reductase. Female to male transsexual patients have in some cases suffered severe chronic acne after beginning testosterone supplementation. Typical treatments like doxycycline and topical retinoids did not show an improvement, but oral isotretinoin led to clearance followed by a delayed recurrence of severe acne in both patients. Another study with a larger sample size showed that acne presence and severity did increase over the first six months on testosterone, but that this condition was temporary and that only ~6% of patients had acne after long-term supplementation. One explanation for the development of acne in this population is an overall increase in sebum production. Giltay and Gooren studied sebum production and hair growth in both female and male transsexual patients, where testosterone supplementation increased overall sebum production and estrogen supplementation decreased sebum production. Several other studies show that women with acne have elevated levels of free testosterone and total testosterone, though this same relationship is not seen in men. Estrogen can counter androgens through negative feedback loops, suggesting that increasing dietary phytoestrogens may be a better solution than attempting to decrease testosterone, which can have negative effects on male fertility since testosterone is necessary for spermatogenesis. Estrogen seems to have a beneficial effect on skin, decreasing sebaceous gland size, sebum production and acne. Phytoestrogens are present in a variety of edible plants and are famously high in soy products in the form of isoflavones. Plants from the genus Vitex have been used to treat premenstrual acne, menopause symptoms and polycystic ovary syndrome. There are several polyphenols in Vitex agnus-castus fruit, which were able to strongly bind to estrogen receptors in human breast cancer cells in vitro and are likely responsible for their clinical responses/usage. The whole fruit extract of Vitex agnus-castus is thought to act on follicle-stimulating hormone and luteinizing hormone levels in the pituitary to increase progesterone levels . Vitex supplementation appears to cause an increase in estrogen levels, as well. In ovariectomized mice, Vitex supplementation attenuated learning and memory loss associated with low levels of estrogen, even causing an increase in estrogen receptor mRNAs. Along with Vitex agnus-castus, hops and red clover were shown to bind to estrogen receptors in human breast cancer cells. Ginseng and licorice root showed some downstream estrogenic activity, though they did not bind to estrogen receptors. These plants have been commonly used in traditional Chinese medicine for menopausal symptoms, but their role as estrogen analogues also make them promising for attenuation of acne.It is accepted that acne has some microbial etiology, though the exact pathology is not known. Typical treatments, like benzoyl peroxide and antibiotics, target this component of the condition. However, there are several plant-based antimicrobials that could be viable alternatives, especially in combination with other dietary changes that address insulin resistance and hyperandrogenism. A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial in India with fifty-three patients between 14 and 28 years old tested Ayurvedic plant extracts for safety and efficacy. Study subjects had mild to moderately severe acne exhibiting a minimum of 10 inflammatory lesions and five non-inflammatory lesions .

City Slicker Farms has recently changed organizational strategy and decided to shift away from the dispersed community market garden model, reducing the number of gardens they have planted in vegetable gardens, and transitioning some land to orchards . Their plan is to produce the vegetables needed at fewer, larger sites, chief among them the Union Plaza Farm, and then redirect resources towards their Backyard Garden Program. The Backyard Garden Program installs two raised beds in the backyard of West Oakland residents and provides them with seedlings and mentorship over the course of two years, creating a sense of ownership and connection with their food. This appears to be an implicit acknowledgment of the inherent flaws in the Community Market Farm model, as well as the problems with their Apprenticeship system, large plastic planting pots which both tended to create barriers within the community, economic and racial as well as physical barriers, instead of breaking them down.

They are attempting to adjust their imaginings – with tangible, material effects – in response to longtime patterns of interaction with the community.Oakland has a long history of displacement of its citizens through centralized “urban revitalization” projects targeting blight. West Oakland, a historically black, low-income neighborhood, has been the city’s testing ground for city planning experiments. As the end point of the transcontinental railroad, during the first quarter of the twentieth century it housed a thriving, ethnically diverse community. Seventh Street was a vibrant jazz and blues district, and Marcus Garvey’s West Coast headquarters of the Universal Negro Improvement Association was located one block over . While we can remain skeptical of so-called “golden ages” – which of course contained many social problems that become glossed in hindsight – the point is not whether we accept the narrative but simply that the narrative of history texts, today’s urban planners, and West Oakland residents regards this period as an apex. This impacts today’s imaginings of Oakland’s landscape by various groups – for instance, in current redevelopment plans for the area, which consciously try to recreate the art and music enclave on the 7th Street block today. Descent follows a pinnacle.

The neighborhood experienced an initial decline during the Depression, and again after the Second World War, some areas became dilapidated . The construction of the Nimitz freeway to San Francisco in 1955 as an explicit part of the city’s “blight-removal” program displaced many African-American residents and, according to the city’s own reports, destroyed many more sturdy structures than uninhabitable ones .Vibrant African American commercial districts and hundreds of homes were further decimated by two projects in the 1960s and 1970s to build the Bay Area Rapid Transit System connecting Oakland and San Francisco, and then the large central US Postal Service Facility for the region. Victorian homes from the turn of the century were replaced with concrete pillars, beige walls, and identical rows of public housing. Today, the neighborhood has the highest concentration of poverty in the city, is cut off from the rest of the city by freeways on three sides, and suffers from disproportionate rates of pollution-induced environmental illnesses. Why do some areas get labeled blight, and not others? Could blight call itself into being through the label itself? As we have already explored, the classification of blight is often a self-fulfilling prophesy. Neighborhoods with legacies of disinvestment, disproportionately communities of color, are further stigmatized by the label, which can result in a cycle of further disinvestment and alienation.

The city’s response is to acquire the land – at rock bottom prices – and historically has often created less affordable housing than it destroyed.The fields of law enforcement, urban planning and sociology were stirred up by a 1982 article in The Atlantic Monthly by James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling on the causes of crime in urban environments, which they termed Broken Windows Theory. They felt that disorder perpetuates further disorder; the central metaphor in the theory is the idea that if you let one window on a vacant house get broken, very quickly all of the windows will be broken. Therefore, they argue that the city should work to fix that first broken window, or that first graffiti tag, before all hell breaks loose. The theory establishes the idea that by focusing on small quality of life issues – a broken window, a graffiti tag – cities will prevent larger crimes such as drug dealing, burglary, or gang activity. The idea is to create the feeling: “We won’t allow that here.” This manifests itself in policies which increase penalties for petty crime such as graffiti, loitering or panhandling. As Wilson puts it in the forward to Fixing Broken Windows, the book that grew from the original article, “As the number of unconventional individuals increases arithmetically, the number of worrisome behaviors increases geometrically.” The original article was widely cited and the hypothesis became influential in sociology, and spread quickly to urban planning departments across the country. Broken Windows Theory was applied in New York City, with Kelling hired as a consultant to the New York City Police Department from 1984 to 1990, resulting in harsher penalties for “quality of life” crimes and pursuit of petty criminal offenders, such as aggressive squeegee men, fare dodgers, and graffiti artists. This initiative produced between 40,000 and 85,000 additional adult misdemeanor arrests per year during the period of 1994-1998. Although crime rates did drop in New York City, the underlying causes for this drop in crime are passionately disputed. The theory remains a dominant guiding force in many city planning departments. During interviews, several City of Oakland employees indicated that they believe strongly in the theory, and it has guided their departmental policies on blight abatement, such as allocating resources to repeatedly buff walls where graffiti frequently occurs. Desi’s definition of blight includes very different categories than what others mentioned: police are a blight on neighborhoods as an outside occupying force that criminalizes residents; the dumping of all kinds of things, including inferior food and consumer products, actual trash, and toxic chemicals; and the blight of drugs.Congress passed the Organic Foods Production Act in 1990, but the rules for implementing the law did not go into effect until October 2002. From that time forward, all agricultural commodities sold or labeled as organic must be in compliance with the national organic standards developed by the National Organic Program , created by OFPA and housed within the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service. The standards replaced an inconsistent array of state and private certification standards for customer assurance that organic foods meet a consistent and known set of standards. Also, they were implemented to facilitate interstate commerce in fresh and processed organic food. The USDA standards mandate that genetic engineering, sewage sludge, or ionizing radiation cannot be used to produce organic food. Further, organic crop production excludes conventional pesticides and petroleum-based fertilizers with notable exceptions. OFPA requires the establishment of a “National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances” for organic production. The NOP crop standards require that soil fertility, crop nutrients, pests, and disease be managed primarily through cultural practices such as cultivation, hand weeding, crop rotation, and introduction of natural enemies. Only when these methods prove to be inefficient may growers use approved natural or synthetic substances on the National List. For livestock production, black plastic planting pots animals must be fed 100% organic feed and must have access to the outdoors, including pasture for ruminants. Animals marketed as organic may not be given hormones to promote growth or antibiotics for any reason. Although, producers are also prohibited from withholding treatment from a sick or injured animal.

The national standards also require producers grossing more than $5,000 from organic sales to be certified by a third-party certifier that is accredited by the USDA. California is the leading state in organic production. According to the Census of Agriculture 2008 Organic Supplement, California accounted for 36% of all organic farm gate sales in the United States from 19% of all U.S. organic farms and 12% of all organic acres. Looking at the crop breakdown in more detail, California produces 55% of all organic fruit, 90% of all organic tree nuts, and 66% of all organic vegetables—for a total of 62% of all produce. In marked contrast, California represents only 11% of field crop production. While California produces over half of domestic organic fruit, it is even more important for specific crops. Over 90% of all grapes, strawberries, avocados, plums and prunes, lemons, figs and dates—in addition to three-fourths of organic oranges—are produced in California. The only important fruit crops for which California does not dominate are apples, pears, and cherries—these are produced primarily in Washington. Grapes are the most important fruit crop, both nationally and in California— including table grapes, raisin grapes, and wine grapes—with total California farm gate sales at $111 million out of $122 million for the United States. Strawberries show the second highest revenue both in California and nationally, with $40 million in sales in California out of $44 million in the United States. California produces two-thirds of organic vegetables and over 90% of all organic lettuce, broccoli, celery, sweet potatoes, and onions. The most important individual crop both nationally and in California is lettuce, with over one-third of all vegetable sales. California organic lettuce sales are $175 million out of $187 million in sales nationally. To put this in perspective, tomatoes are the second most important vegetable crop with $36 million in sales in California and $59 million nationally. Fruit is grown on almost two-thirds of California organic farms, by far the most dominant commodity group in terms of farm numbers. Vegetables crops are grown on 20% of California organic farms. In contrast, fruit is grown on 23% of U.S. organic farms and vegetables on 27%. Field crops are grown on 11% of California organic farms and 21% of organic acreage. In marked contrast, one-third of U.S. organic acreage is in field crops. California produces 69% of the country’s organic rice, but is not an important producer of any other field crop. Looking at livestock, California produces 43% of organic livestock and poultry and only 18% of livestock and poultry products. California dominates in chicken and turkey production but has a smaller presence in the production of milk from cows and chicken eggs . Nonetheless, milk from cows and broiler chickens are the second and third most important organic commodities in California, with $134 million and $129 million in sales, respectively. Animals raised in accordance with the NOP are required to eat 100% organic feed. California produces only 15% of organic hay in the United States and less than 2% of corn for grain or silage. Therefore, organic livestock producers in California typically import organic feed from other states. It is important to keep organic agriculture in perspective. In California, organic represents only 3% of farm gate sales, $1.1 billion out of $36.2 billion in 2008. Organic penetration is highest for vegetables, at 6% of farm gate sales . While vegetable production is a healthy 20% of all California farm gate sales, it is 40% of organic sales. In contrast, field crops contribute 12% of total sales and only 7% of organic sales. Therefore, organic agriculture is not simply a smaller version of conventional agriculture. Another way to look at organic production is that it brought in only 0.5% of California farm gate sales a decade ago and is now over 3%—a six-fold increase. The growing importance can be explained by a number of reasons. Price premiums allow farmers a way to diversify and increase revenue. The growth in processed organic foods provides additional opportunities for organic farmers. According to an ERS report, over 3% of new food products introduced in retail outlets are labeled as organic. Consumer demand for organic food has risen from $8.6 billion in retail sales in 2002 to $29.2 billion in 2011— according to the Organic Trade Association—compared to fairly flat food sales overall. Early in the decade, annual growth in retail sales hovered at 20% but has slowed in the past few years. With this rate of growth, the organic industry faces several unique challenges. Worldwide demand is rising and organic imports and exports are becoming increasingly common. The United States signed an equivalency agreement with Canada in 2009 and another with the EU in 2012. These agreements will undoubtedly escalate trade of organic foods. California’s dominance in domestic organic fruit, nut, and vegetable production corresponds to a reliance on exports out-of-state and internationally.

The murals capture the after-fade of light on the retina. Their artwork itself is ephemeral, fading either from the city painting over their illegal murals within a few days or weeks of their execution, or through the process of sun and rain, peeling after a few years. They are beautifying precisely not to gentrify but to assert ownership claims to territory, so in a larger sense it is tagging – our community, our population, our space. This is also in part about self aggrandizement. Desi W.O.M.E has in a sense, incorporated himself into the Community Rejuvenation Project – he is its embodiment. Therefore he can move from the illegal tagging of his own name, to the legal tagging of his name writ large, now CRP. This manifests in highly stylized forms of writing: murals often include large-scale letters done wild style, which to the untrained eye are illegible, a complex tangle of lines, corners, shadows. This writing is tagging taken to the level of an art form, and aerosol artists engage in a constant competition to push stylistic boundaries further. They see the blank, gray walls of the City’s abatement team and want to superimpose color – a literal way to assert the presence of communities of color – and reflect the vibrancy of the cultures living in the neighborhood surrounding the mural, and the histories of the spaces.

While the city does sometimes sanction murals, they have ideal content requirements. One that overlaps with the city’s imaginary is memorial images of people who have recently died in the area, plastic pot plant containers often youth caught in the crossfire of drug and gang conflicts. CRP tries to include “archetypical images” of people representing different cultures, and often searches the internet for cultural images to convey their message, which they then bring to the mural painting, squinting as they compare blurry printouts to the scaled up versions half-finished on the wall. Aerosol writers seek out big walls in blighted spots, places with clearly absent landlords, that correspond with areas of high visual impact. Spots viewed by many people are prized: those visible from a freeway, or at the intersection of busy streets. They see the city as a canvas, one not bounded by flat square walls, but extending through doorways and around corners. The visual imaginary for the urban farmers is an urban oasis with orderly rows of deep green, nutrient-dense vegetables, cute borders with flowers . In theory, people are included in this urban oasis but they are not fore-fronted. This point is highlighted by the fact that it took so long to put tables in at Union Plaza & Fitzgerald Parks after seating areas were removed during park construction; it was something that was not central to City Slicker Farms’ mission, yet it affected the experience of the park users tremendously. In practice, all City Slickers gardens are locked and people are only allowed inside during specific days and times and under supervision.

The nonprofit understandably has a need for control, because they measure their production, weighing their harvest and recording the stats. As a nonprofit, they must constantly prove their effectiveness in reports to their donors. Blueberry bushes outside the fence are the concession: their weight goes unrecorded, because they are put in place for anyone who might need a snack and the cupboard is unlocked. As Anna Tsing asserts, “Biological and social diversity huddle defensively in neglected margins. In urban jungles as well as rural backwaters, the jumble of diversity that imperial planners tend to consider excessive still teems.” Other groups huddle in the margins with strikingly different imaginaries. Scavengers congregate in Fitzgerald Park and earn money by collecting bottles and cans from recycling and trash bins and bringing them to the scrap metal dealer, Alliance Recycling, located across the street. Their visual imaginaries are centered on maximizing resource acquisition while still staying under the radar of vigilant homeowners or police who may object to this technically not-fully-legal activity. Their day starts long before dawn, with most scavengers working on foot, slinging a bag over their shoulder, or using shopping carts or bicycles, which allows roaming slightly farther from the recycling plant to find treasure. Use of a car increases capacity and distance exponentially, but not many have them. Scavengers have clear routes they’ve worked out based on their home base, transportation constraints, and power dynamics.

They finish their routes for the day and then socialize in the park across from Alliance Recycling, adjacent to the urban farm, in patterns similar to those noted by Gowan in her ethnography of San Francisco homeless scavengers . Not all scavengers are homeless, but many of the homeless are scavengers. The visual imaginary for the homeless shares an appreciation of weedy edges. Their imagined landscape prioritizes invisibility, seeking it out. It is marked by places they can rest where they won’t be harassed and can escape notice, places where they find temporary safety: seating areas, dry places to sleep under highway bridges, almost invisible paths leading to secret canopies under bushes. They look for wild spaces. The homeless embody the wildness in our cities, which is one reason why the forces of order – the police, the homeowners, the Condo Associations, the developers – are scared of them. They look for the black holes in the urban landscape, the places where rules are bent. Anything can happen there . For a long time, Union Plaza & Fitzgerald Parks were one of these places – a place where rules were suspended, outcasts congregated, possibilities multiplied. Proximity to wildness makes a lot of people nervous; those who were unnerved turned to the ultimate civilizing influence: agriculture. They sought a cultivated, orderly space. The visual imaginary for the condo owners who live around the urban farm is in stark contrast with the scavengers. Condos project an aura of newness and hipness; people who buy them generally care about design and have more money than time. They can expect to have fewer repairs on new construction, and their monthly condo association dues pay for landscaping and external maintenance. They therefore have professionally landscaped yards, containing only ornamentals, no edibles. By design, newly built condos provide no encouragement of scavengers or foragers, and because the sites were generally bulldozed and newly built to the edges of the lots, the lots don’t tend to include mature trees – the buildings often erase the botanical history of anyone who has lived there before them. The designs are modern and sleek, ranging in quality from Architectural Digest to strip mall design. Everything is legal, orderly, and there are no people. None of the condos in the neighborhood have lawns, front gardens containing space to socialize, or stoops to sit on; all social life happens in individual units or individual backyards. Condo owners generally have defined trajectories in space. They exit their houses, get in cars: car to house, house to car. They walk their small dogs around the same blocks. It is an orderly existence, large plastic gardening pots designed to be so. Video cameras and home security measures are prominent. When surveyed about their use of the only park in their neighborhood, many of the condo owners didn’t feel that they could say they had actually been to the park, and when asked would reply, “Well, I’ve driven by the park,” or “I’ve walked my dog past the park. Does that count?” The last visual imaginary is that of the long-term resident, often but not always African-American, who looms large for each of the organizations we have discussed . Each is uniquely attuned to them as a key part of their mission – the long-term resident is who each seeks to assist, appease and ultimately, discipline. Residents are to be respected for their long-term status in the community, yet as a group they inspire anxiety – over whether they’re eating enough vegetables, whether they’re politically empowered, how they earn a living.

All three groups hope their projects result in behavioral changes and new discipline, new subjectivities . Clearly these imaginaries are in conflict, in some cases at war: over landscape and visual markers indicating race, class, gentrification; war with visual markers of territory, over who gets to inscribe space ; a war of categories ; a war of habitus . New collaborations between city government and non-profits do not appear on the surface to be driven by a central profit motive and seem outside the main current of the capitalist model, if perhaps still caught in a side eddy. Painting murals? Giving away low-cost vegetables? However, the idea of cities turning over portions of their functions and services to outside organizations has a long-standing precedent within a neoliberal push towards smaller city governments. The city-nonprofit collaborations are conceived of by the politicians involved as creative, progressive solutions, and they are presented as such to their constituents. The City Council voted unanimously to turn a city park into an urban farm by giving control of it to City Slicker Farms. But from another angle it could be viewed as turning public property and public space into private property, thereby changing who has access and rights to that space . This is a deeply capitalist mode of thinking. In terms of a mural, although some might object to its content, most feel that the addition of art to a neighborhood is an improvement. However, does the presence of a mural mean an abdication of city function – is it no longer the city’s job to pick up trash, remove gang symbols, keep the city beautiful? There is a direct correlation between murals being funded and cuts in Public Works, especially a reduction in city staff assigned to abatement. So while on one hand it seems progressive for a city to support more art, from another it is a deeper entanglement in a more neoliberal model of government. In this war, food and art, space and signs are tools. Condo owners have the tools of power and law on their side: police, property developers, and Council members support them. Condo owners are tax payers, they are the people who show up to community meetings, they are the squeaky wheels. The tools of the scavengers and homeless are their ability to be inconspicuous, by moving around in early morning hours or late at night. When their bodies become visible, they are targets.They have their feet and their mobility as tools. When a space becomes problematic, they move on and find a new one. The aerosol writers have their imagery and spray cans as tools, and their ingenuity in choosing locations. They have their political savviness as a tool. When they are painted over by city abatement employees, someone goes out at night and scrawls up phone numbers of city officials to call in protest. The urban farmers have literal tools: trowels, hoses, wheelbarrows. The garden produce itself is a tool, both in the way they intend it – as a tool to fight food insecurity in the neighborhood – but it is also a tool that serves to justify their control of the space. They argue that they grow food for the community good, so their use trumps other possible park uses. Other tools are their nonprofit status, their innocuousness, their aura of goodness. They inscribe the space, cultivate it, erect fences, signs, plant perennials, put down roots. They are disciplining the space and by extension the people who use it simply by their presence. Their race and middle class markers tame the space and make it acceptable for capitalist investment to rush in. The visual imaginaries of the aerosol writers and City Slickers are aligned in their bid to bring color and life to areas they see as deserts, but they diverge in important ways. Both are clearly in conflict with the imaginaries of the city government and condo owners, who use language such as “cleaning up” a space, “bringing it back” or maintaining order, to talk about their ideals for urban spaces. Blight is a key catchphrase in all of the imaginaries, used in different ways and to enact different purposes. Certainly ideas of neoliberalism and colonization engage here with local questions of poverty, food insecurity, and gentrification in a sticky local encounter. Every mural site and urban farm exemplifies “the awkward, unequal, unstable, and creative qualities of interconnection across difference” .

Similarly, the diversity of Californian vegetation and its variable sensitivity to Pc has not been considered: higher resolution studies considering differentials of vegetation susceptibility could provide a far more nuanced picture of the spatial extent of Pc, and could, for instance, eliminate areas of risk in primarily urbanized environments in the San Francisco Bay Area. However, in the absence of improved data regarding host–pathogen interactions for dominant vegetation types in the area, there is limited basis on which to make such a high-resolution suite of assumptions about vegetation susceptibility. Despite this missing information, the damped sensitivity of Pc range relative to changes in assumed host resistance across the region in conjunction with field observations confirming that a wide range of regional species are susceptible to Pc, suggests that the overall conclusions of the modeling study regarding climate sensitivity should be robust. Finally, we have assumed that the local environmental conditions experienced by Pc are determined solely by climate, square plastic plant pots which is not true in the irrigated agricultural areas in California’s Central and Imperial Valleys.

In these regions, irrigation regimes that are sufficiently frequent to sustain high water potentials in the root zone would alleviate the environmental water stress, as indicated by the observation of Pc occurrence within the Imperial Valley. If water stress is alleviated in these regions, temperatures are warm enough in both winter and spring to support high levels of Pc activity. Thus, irrigated agricultural land should be considered at risk of Pc infestation under both present and future scenarios. Overall, the modeling analysis suggests that Pc has a much larger potential range in the US southwest than could be inferred purely from current observations of the locations of infected sites. At present, despite the high awareness of Phytophthora ramorum and sudden oak death in the US southwest, there is limited public awareness, policy or scientific attention given to Pc . Sources of Pc are known to exist in agricultural and nursery settings in California , and appear to be the source of Pc infection in native ecosystems in several cases . However, no current phytosanitation certification programs, protocols for reducing soil movement from infected to clean sites, or recognized successful spot treatment approaches to minimizing Pc spread are in place in California . While the number of native species in California that are susceptible to Pc remains unclear, estimates in comparably biodiverse southwestern Australia suggest that over 3000 of the 5700 indigenous plant species are susceptible .

In the absence of detailed information about host susceptibility in California, the large ranges that appear to be supported by contemporary climates in conjunction with the severe effects of Pc in comparable ecosystems point to a critical need to improve risk assessment, phytosanitation and awareness of Pc disease. Despite its relatively simple ecology, Pc nonetheless displays non-monotonic responses to climatic warming at regional and local scales, with spatially distinct regions having opposite trends in Pc risk. Although the modeling framework presented accounts for many different aspects of climate, other changes including carbon fertilization due to enhanced atmospheric [CO2], changing land use and ecological thresholds have been neglected, and linking disease risk models to ecosystem outcomes remains challenging. For example, in Western Australia a 40 year drying trend has reduced Pc activity, but with the effect of replacing Pc induced mortality with drought stress stress . Considering that Pc mortality is linked to periods of drought stress that follow wet periods in which Pc causes root damage , limitation of Pc range due to drying, while beneficial for limiting expansion of the pathogen, may come at the expense of increased mortality for infected ecosystems.A previous set of studies using the medicine for back pain scenario found that most participants tended to perseverate, though about 7% of participants alternated consistently . In this task the underlying back pain function was autocorrelated, which caused participants who perseverated to have very high error rates, grossly over or underestimating the actual difference in the effectiveness of the two medicines. For example, if the baseline pain trend increased over time, participants often concluded that the first medicine worked much better than the second. Participants who alternated, either by choice or by instruction, were much more accurate. Furthermore, perseveration vs. alternation did not make a difference when the underlying function was random from day to day. Given that perseveration caused worse performance, why did most participants perseverate? One potential reason is that they were worried about TSDC effects and wanted to give each medicine enough time to exhibit these effects. A second reason is that they thought that back pain was random from day to day, in which case alternation would not be necessary. The current studies test whether people have the foresight to choose appropriate search strategies based on their beliefs about autocorrelation and TSDC. There are at least two other factors that may influence this search task. If participants really imagine themselves as the patient in the scenario, they might try to test the medicine that they think is currently working the best . This could lead to just a couple switches between the medicine rather than frequent alternating. A very similar strategy to exploiting is some sort of positive test strategy – to keep on testing the medicine that one thinks is working better because one erroneously thinks that testing this medicine is the best way to figure out which of the two medicines actually works best. Exploiting and positive testing are hard to empirically disentangle. The following two studies test whether people are able to use their beliefs about autocorrelation and TSDC effects to choose more optimal search strategies. In Study 1, I approached this question by creating cover stories for which participants had different pre-existing beliefs about autocorrelation and TSDC to see if they are able to make use of these beliefs. In Study 2, I directly manipulated participants’ beliefs about TSDC and autocorrelation. Both of these studies have strengths and weaknesses. The strength of Study 2 is that it has a high degree control. However, the weakness is that by manipulating people’s beliefs explicitly it cannot assess how people behave in situations for which their beliefs about TSDC and autocorrelation are internally generated. In addition, Experiment 2 used 15 different cover stories to examine information search across a variety of situations for external validity.Condition C had stories with low autocorrelation and low TSDC effects. A prototypical example is a doctor testing two back pain medicines on 14 sequential patients . There should be no autocorrelation or TSDC effects across 14 patients because there is no plausible way that one patient’s pain level or medicine should influence another patient’s pain level. Comparing Conditions A and C tests for an influence of autocorrelation beliefs on the testing strategy. There is no fourth condition because it is difficult to conceive of situations in which each observation is independent from the previous one yet an intervention at one time could have some TSDC effect at a later time.

It is not that such a case is impossible , square pot plastic but that it would be hard to devise a natural situation that participants would confidently interpret as having low autocorrelation and high TSDC effects. There were 3 reasons for having 5 stories per condition. First, if only one story was used per condition, any differences between condition could be due to the different story. Thus I took the approach of sampling from a broader range. Second, using a variety of stories introduces variability in the cover stories within and across conditions , which is useful for correlational analyses. Third, the cover stories allow for a degree of external validity not typically afforded to many reasoning studies. Procedures and Manipulation Checks Participants were randomly assigned to one of the 15 cover stories. After reading the story they answered two questions about whether the outcome was autocorrelated or not. Two measures were used because there are no validated instruments about autocorrelation beliefs, and autocorrelation beliefs can be queried multiple ways. Question 1 asked whether the outcome scores were closely related to the prior observation or not . Question 2 showed participants a graph with low, medium, and high autocorrelation and participants judged which graph reflected their beliefs about the outcome on a 1-9 scale. Even though the two measures were not strongly correlated, r=.27, p<.001, they behave similarly for all the analyses, so they are averaged for simplicity. The manipulation worked as intended. Participants believed that autocorrelation was higher in Condition A than C , t=7.01, p<.001, d=.98, and there was no difference between A and B , t<1. Then, participants in Condition B were asked to rate whether the causes would have TSDC effects. These four questions were not asked in Conditions A and C. For example, it does not make sense how one patient’s medicine would have a tolerance or carryover effect on another patient’s back pain . Asking participants to make such a judgment could encourage unintended beliefs about the scenario to accommodate the question. The only exception was that these questions were asked of the deodorant story in Condition A; this story was included in Condition A instead of B because it was guessed that deodorant would be viewed to have low TSDC effects. Beliefs about tolerance, sensitization, delay, and carryover were all significantly but weakly correlated; the only exception was that tolerance and delay were uncorrelated, r=-.06, p=.53. Even though they were weakly associated, they are all expected to have the same influence on alternation , so for conceptual convenience they were averaged. Participants were worried about the possibility of TSDC effects within Condition B; the average rating was 5.12, right at the middle of the 9-point scale, “somewhat likely”. Average ratings for individual scenarios ranged from 4.62 to 5.78. The deodorant story had an average rating of 3.35, verifying that it did belong in Condition A. Next, participants were tasked with figuring out which of the two options produced a better outcome. Participants received 14 sequential choices between the two options. After they chose one option they saw the outcome score . When they were ready they made the next choice. The outcome score after each choice was determined in the following way. There was a baseline function that participants did not know about. One of the options increased the score of the baseline function by exactly 5 points whenever it was chosen, and the other did not change the score from the baseline function. So, at any given choice, one option always worked exactly 5 points better than the other, but participants could not directly experience the 5 point difference because they had to choose between the two options. The outcome scores were given numerically, and disappeared when the next choice was made; they did not see a graphical plot over time. In Conditions A and B, the baseline function was a compilation of three sine waves with different amplitudes and frequencies. This function is highly autocorrelated and gradually fluctuates in unpredictable waves. In Condition C, 14 observations from the function were sampled, but then randomized so that the data would support the interpretation that the observations were independent, not autocorrelated. After making the 14 choices participants were instructed to identify the better option . They also rated how much better it was; 5 points was the correct answer counter factually. Participants knew in advance that they would earn a 20, 15, 10, or 5 cent bonus for a judgment within 2, 4, 6, or 8 points on either side of the correct answer, respectively. Finally, participants rated the extent to which they exploited and used a positive test strategy. They were asked: “When I thought that one medicine was working better than the other, I would continue to use that medicine”…“in order to reduce my pain during the 14 days” and “in order to figure out whether it really works better or not to choose the best medicine for the future” .Exploitation and Positive Testing had a correlation of .70, and were averaged to create one composite measure . The reason for asking these questions was to understand why certain participants perseverated. However, there is a challenge in interpreting these sorts of questions in which subjects introspect about their reasons for behaving in a particular way; it is possible that they use the questions to justify their behavior even if it was not actually the cause of the behavior.

The presence of human steroid hormones, including estrone, estriol, estradiol, and testosterone, in pomegranate seeds was reported previously based on TLC separations and colorimetric assays. However, HPLC-DAD- and gas chromatography -MS-based analysis showed that these steroid hormones could not be identified in pomegranate seeds using the more sensitive analytical methods. Multi-target drugs derived from mixtures of plant natural products have increasingly been pursued nowadays to contradict drug tolerance and resistance in cancer therapy. Although several studies have suggested synergistic interactions among pomegranate phytochemicals, this is a promising, but currently under-explored topic. Fresh arils and juice products of pomegranate fruit, as well as seeds of the soft-seeded cultivars, are mostly consumed. Phytochemicals in pomegranate fruit peel extracts, fermented pomegranate juice, blueberry box and pomegranate seed oil exhibited cooperative interactions toward limiting the proliferation, metastasis, and invasiveness of human prostate cancer cells in vitro.

A subsequent analysis with pure phytochemicals, including EA, caffeic acid, luteolin, and punicic acid, also showed synergistic interactions on suppressing the invasion of prostate cancer cells. Interestingly, commercial pomegranate juice demonstrated more antioxidant and anti-proliferative activities than the purified pomegranate polyphenols in colon cancer cells, suggesting that inherent synergies exist among polyphenols and other phytochemicals in pomegranate juice. When the commercial pomegranate-nectarine juice was separated into predominately sugar, organic acid, neutral phenol, and AT fractions, complex antagonistic or synergistic effects were observed among different fractions on the total phenol or total antioxidant content. The antagonistic or synergistic interactions depended on the concentrations of the chemical constituents in the juice product. The polyphenol extracts of pomegranate fruit also synergistically interacted with the antibacterial drug ciprofloxacin, though various bacterial strains responded differently to the phytochemical-drug synergy, and the underlying mechanism of such synergy remains unknown. ATs are colorful, water-soluble polyphenol pigments that are found in many plant foods, such as berries and pomegranate fruits. Plant ATs are often investigated collectively as a group of phytochemicals for their bioactivities, and have been linked to many aspects of human disease prevention and treatment.

The anti-inflammatory and cardioprotective activities of ATs are attributed by their antioxidant properties via various underlying mechanisms. ATs can quench free radicals, inhibit the activity of xanthine oxidase that generates free radicals, and chelate metal ions that are involved in oxidation of low-density lipoproteins. In addition, ATs induce the expression of nuclear factor-erythroid 2-related factor-2 that regulates the expression of endogenous antioxidant enzymes, such as hemeoxygenase-1. Besides reactive oxygen species , ATs also inhibit the production of reactive nitrogen species , particularly nitric oxide , as well as their associated oxidative processes. Furthermore, release of pro-inflammatory mediators and adhesion molecules is suppressed by ATs via targeting of the respective signaling pathways, e.g., the arachidonic acid and the tumor necrosis factor -α, nuclear factor -κB pathways. Aside from cardioprotection, the anti-inflammatory property of ATs also contributes to their anti-obesity effect and action in adipose tissue. Studies using AT-rich fruit extracts showed that ATs prevented the upregulation of inflammatory response in adipose tissue, when triggered with consumption of a high-fat diet, by regulating the NF-κB stress signaling pathway . ATs also reduce the level of pro-inflammatory cytokines and modulate the expression of adipocytokines. Although studies using cell lines and animal models support the anti-obesity effect of ATs, a causal relationship between AT consumption and reduction of body mass index has yet to be conclusively established by clinical studies. This could be due to one or more parameters that are associated with different clinical studies, such as the amount and types of ATs ingested, the food matrix of ATs, and the inherent difference of the study subjects.

In addition to their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities, ATs act in cancer chemoprevention by inducing terminal differentiation of tumor cells and thus impeding tumorigenesis. Prevention of malignant cell transformation and inhibition of cancer cell proliferation by ATs have also been reported. ATs can further interfere with cancer development by activating caspases and inducing apoptosis of cancer cells. However, the cancer chemotherapeutic effect of ATs still requires strong supporting evidence from clinical studies. In addition, the bioconversion of ATs by human intestinal microbiome should be rigorously investigated. Similar to other AT-rich fruits, the pomegranate also has a cardioprotective effect by targeting two major causal factors of atherosclerotic lesion and cardiovascular disease, namely the accumulation of cholesterol and oxidized lipids, and arterial macrophage foam cell formation. Pomegranate juice and fruit extracts are also associated with antidiabetic activities, largely due to the antioxidant properties of HTs and ATs in reducing oxidative stress and lipid peroxidation. Supplements of pomegranate juice or fruit extracts at 1 g/kg/day for five weeks, effectively enhanced endothelial NO synthase expression, as well as plasma nitrate and nitrite levels in plasma in obese Zucker rats fed with an atherogenic diet. In addition, supplements of juice at 100 mg/kg/day or 300 mg/kg/day for four weeks prevented the development of high blood pressure in diabetic rats. Consumption of pomegranate juice rich in ATs and HTs also lowered systolic and diastolic blood pressure in hypertensive patients. The bioactivities of pomegranate ATs have mostly been studied in the context of pomegranate juice and fruit extracts. However, these AT-rich sources are abundant in vitamin C, carotenoids, and HTs, which can also contribute to the ascribed bioactivities. To this end, “white” pomegranate cultivars are available, which lack the accumulation of ATs in leaves, fruits and flowers. Comparative analysis of the white and AT-rich pomegranate cultivars will be informative as to the specific role of ATs in the health-promoting activities of pomegranate juice and fruit extracts.ETs are abundant in pomegranate fruit peel, as well as juice and extracts that are produced commercially from the whole fruit. Besides pomegranate, ETs are also present in a wide range of medicinal and food plants, such as many berries, nuts, and herbs. As such, the knowledge of biotransformation and bioconversion of pomegranate ETs by human and microbial enzymes will inform nutritional and pharmacological studies on ETs that are isolated from other plants. EA, a hydrolysis product of ETs , can be detected in the blood circulation of healthy volunteers within half an hour of ingesting pomegranate juice or extracts. The human gut microbiota can further convert EA into urolithins prior to their absorption by the intestinal cells. Aromatase that converts androgens to estrogens has been considered to be a therapeutic target for treating the hormone-sensitive type of breast cancer. Although several urolithins exhibited anti-aromatase activities in a placental microsome-based enzyme assay, blueberry package only UB competitively inhibited and most effectively suppressed the aromatase activity in an aromatase-overexpressing breast cancer cell line. Consistent with “in cell” aromatase-inhibitory activity, UB also significantly arrested testosterone-induced proliferation of MCF-7aro cells, suggesting an underlying mechanism of aromatase inhibition. Interestingly, estrogen-induced proliferation of MCF-7aro cells was also inhibited by urolithins. However, inhibition was was likely effected through mechanisms independent of the aromatase activity. Besides breast cancer, urolithins can also reduce the risks of another sex steroid hormone-related cancer, endometrial cancer. UA and UB caused over 50% reduction in the proliferation of human endometrial cancer cells. UA arrested cell cycle at the G2/M phase and regulated the expression of cell cycle-related proteins at this phase. On the other hand, UA was shown to act as an estrogen agonist and modulate the estrogen-receptor α -dependent gene expression in the ER-positive endometrial cancer cells.

It remains to be determined whether and how estrogen signaling could be involved in the suppression of endometrial cancer cell growth by urolithins. The canonical Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway has been shown to activate T-cell factor transcription and function in colon carcinogenesis . To determine the potential involvement of urolithins in colon carcinogenesis through Wnt signaling, phenolic extracts of several fruits rich in ETs, including pomegranate, strawberry , and Jamun berry , as well as pure EA and UA compounds, were tested in the human embryonic kidney 293T cells that express a reconstructed canonical Wnt signaling pathway. Although the fruit extracts and chemicals all inhibited Wnt signaling, only UA exhibited an IC50 value that was physiologically relevant in the lumen of colons when taking enterohepatic circulation of urolithins into consideration. During the initiation stage of the HT-29 colon cancer cells, urolithins A–D inhibited TCDD-induced, CYP1-mediated EROD activities. At the cancer progression stage, UA and UB impaired the proliferation of HT-29 cells and led to cell cycle arrest at the G2/M phase, as well as activation of CDKN1A expression. In addition, treatment with urolithins resulted in activation of caspases 3, 8, and 9, suggesting that urolithins induced both the extrinsic and intrinsic apoptotic pathways in HT-29 cells. UA, UB, and mUA inhibited the proliferation of the T24 human bladder cancer cells in vitro, with IC50 values of 43.9, 35.2, and 46.3 µM, respectively, comparable to the UA inhibition of Wnt signaling at an IC50 of 39 µM. The transcript and protein levels of Phospho-p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase were increased by the urolithin treatment, while those of MAP kinase kinase kinase1 and Phospho-c-Jun were decreased in the T24 cells. Furthermore, these urolithins reduced the level of H2O2-induced oxidative stress and induced apoptosis through activation of caspase 3 and PPAR-γ protein expression. Inflammatory responses involving the activation of neutrophils and monocytes play a central role in the development of cardiovascular diseases. Intriguingly, the number of free hydroxyl functional groups on urolithins appeared to impact how they modulate the inflammatory functions of neutrophils. Among the urolithins tested , UA exhibited the most potent antioxidant activities against the release of ROS from the pro-inflammatory triggered neutrophils. UB significantly affected several inflammatory biomarkers that are associated with cardiovascular events, by inhibiting the production of interleukin 8 and metalloproteinase-9 , and preventing the shedding of selectin CD62L triggered by the pro-inflammatory factor cytochalasin A/formyl-met-leu-phenylalanine . UC , on the other hand, inhibited the release of elastase, a pro-inflammatory mediator responsible for extracellular matrix degradation, from the f-MLP-stimulated neutrophils. In addition to recruitment of neutrophils, monocyte adhesion to endothelial cells represents another key event in inflammatory responses. A mixture of UA and UB restricted the adhesion of Tamm-Horsfall protein-1 monocytes to the human umbilical vein endothelial cells. UA glucuronide , but not UA, UB or UB glucuronide, inhibited monocyte adhesion to TNFα-stimulated human aortic endothelial cells ; a dosage-dependent inhibition of TNFα-induced migration of endothelial cells was also shown for the above-mentioned urolithins. NO plays multifaceted roles in combatting cardiovascular diseases. Although UA, UB, and UB glucuronide did not show any effect individually at 15 µM on NO bioavailability, a mixture of the three urolithins at equal concentrations activated the expression of eNOS after a 5-min incubation and increased NO production in primary HAECs after a 24-h incubation. Overall, these in vitro studies with neutrophils, monocytes, and NO suggested the potential anti-inflammatory and cardiovascular-protective functions of urolithins.Based on the urinary excretion of urolithins by healthy volunteers after ingesting ET-rich foods or fruit extracts, three urolithin metabolic types have been defined, including A , B , and 0. Interestingly, the population of the human gut bacteria Gordonibacter urolithinfaciens correlated positively with the in vivo production of UA, but inversely with that of UB and isoUA . A recent study observed an interlinked relationship among gut dysbiosis , ET metabolism, and obesity. A relatively high percentage of metabotype B was found in the overweight-obese group, while metabotype A had a higher presentation in the normoweight than the overweight-obese group. In addition, G. urolithinfaciens levels were higher in the metabotype A than the metabotype B individuals. Further investigations should provide a mechanistic understanding of how consuming the polyphenol precursors of urolithins, in the presence of UA-producing bacteria, may reduce the risks of diseases associated with obesity. Large inter-individual variations in the cardiovascular risk biomarkers were observed in healthy overweight-obese individuals after consuming pomegranate supplement. However, after clustering the different urolithin metabotypes in these individuals, improved blood lipid profiles were evident in the metabotype B group, in a dose-dependent fashion, while there was no significant effect in the metabotype A group. Interestingly, several metabotype 0 individuals shifted to metabotype A or B after consuming pomegranate extracts. Together with the study by Selma et al. , these results suggest that consumption of pomegranate extracts may have personalized effects that are associated with the gut microbiota and the urolithin metabotypes of the individuals.Of the various pomegranate phenolic metabolites exhibiting anti-Alzheimer activities in in vitro assays, only urolithins, including UA, UB, mUA, and methyl-urolithin B , were predicted to be capable of crossing the blood-brain barrier.

Participants that designed for personal use on a single site said they narrowed in their interested in plants that could grow in their specific micro-climate, which may have slightly different ranges of conditions than the regionally specified hardiness or heat zones. Take for example the Santa Ana Winds – warm, dry inland desert winds that travel to the Southern California coast. A Southern California resident that lives in a place that is protected from the Santa Ana Winds will have lower temperatures during the wind events than most of the rest of the region. The unusual microclimate of this protected place will accommodate plants that have a lower heat tolerance and higher humidity needs than a location several miles away and exposed to the warm, dry desert winds. As an example of the importance of climate information, fourteen of the community-authored plant lists and information sheets emphasized climate-appropriate plants. They used terms such as “for Live Oak” to indicate a regional climate appropriateness and terms like “temperate regions” to indicate a broader climate appropriateness.

Four of the plant lists specified an environmental niche in addition to the climate, such as “Aquaphilic plant list specifically for Live Oak.” Two of the plant lists contained plants grown at specific demonstration sites to indicate which plants were appropriate in the microclimates of those particular properties. The community-referenced texts likewise emphasized climate-appropriate plants. Many of the community-referenced texts focused on large regions such as such as the North American temperate climate zones , global climate regions , growing bags or dryland areas . However, within the books, the authors specify that the information they provide is more useful to some climate regions than others. For example, Lancaster provides plant lists for the Tucson area, and Jacke and Toensmeier specify that their information is most useful for deciduous forests between USDA plant hardiness zones 4 though 7 with some overlap into zones 3 and 8. Bornstein, Fross, and O’Brien narrowed their focus to a smaller climate region .Participants also wanted the database to include plants that provide ecosystem services that appeal directly to humans. Typically, the “key species,” or focal point, of sustainable polycultures are useful to humans. Participants designate a primary goal for the agroecosystem and choose key species that achieve the goal. For example, if the primary goal of the agroecosystem is to produce half of the family’s produce, then the key species need to be high-yielding and food-producing.

Participants explicitly valued edible,medicinal, sensually pleasing, and dye-producing key species. Several participants emphasized high-yielding key species for the calories and nutrients they provide. As an example, the exemplar agroecosystems in section 1.1.1 provided a number of products and services. For example, the key species in the Suburban Central Florida exemplar, including persimmons and avocados, provided food products. The bamboo and sugar cane supporting species provided natural fencing that served as privacy barriers. The bamboo also provided materials for a bench. The passion flowers were aesthetically pleasing in addition to medicinal. The gopher apple attracted interesting wildlife. Demonstrating the importance of this criteria, seventeen plant lists contained plants that provided products or services to humans. Ten community-authored plant lists focused entirely on edible plants, and six additional lists featured edible plants in addition to non-edible plants. One plant list exclusively featured plants that had medicinal properties, and four others provided information about medicinal plants in addition to other information. Two plant lists provided information about plants that could be used as dyes or fragrances.

All of the community-referenced texts specified the plants’ or agroecosystems’ products and services to humans. Perennial Vegetables included edible plants only. The Edible Forest Gardens series series included edible plants and featured non-edibles primarily for their ability to support edibles either directly or indirectly. This series provided a wide range of information on the products and service to human if plants, including which plants were edible and brief descriptions about how they are processed to become edible, the taste of the edible components of the plants, the historic and modern cultural importance of the plants, and their ability to provide shade, privacy, and protection from wind. Other texts also included information about these products but subordinated them to other considerations. For example, Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Create an Oasis with Greywater specifications of plant’s products and services to humans were secondary to the ecosystem services it provided, specifically in terms of capturing and filtering water. California Native Plants for the Garden specify provisions for native human populations and modern cultural services, such as privacy barriers and aesthetic appeal.Participants wanted to include plants that provide ecosystem services that support the local ecology. In addition to services for humans, participants also design agroecosystems to provide ecosystem services that support the local ecology such as stabilizing the soil, bio-remediation, and regulating the air quality. For example, the exemplar agroecosystems in section 1.1.1 provided a number of local ecosystem services. In the Suburban Central Florida exemplar, the fruiting trees provided both habitat and food for birds. The goldenrod, gaillardia, coreopsis, milkweed, and sunflower attracted pollinators like bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds by providing food and habitat. Trees and large grasses have intricate root structures that support soil stabilization and oxygen flow. In the Sonoran Desertexemplar, pollinators helped the mesquite tree produce seed pods that wildlife consumed, then left manure behind to fertilize the sustainable polyculture. The desert hackberry, greythorn, and wolfberry provided habitat and food for birds. The mesquite provides shelter to a young saguaro cactus from excessive sun and cold. Participants call plants that provide regulating and supporting ecosystem services “support species” because, in addition to offering general ecosystem support, they directly and indirectly help the key species thrive . Support species are typically native and non-native perennial plants that produce the behaviors that an agroecosystem aims to mimic from the ecosystem. Support species attract pollinating and predatory animals and insects, accumulate nutrients, regulates the climate, and produces top-soil. Without support species’ ecosystem services, key species would need external input such as fertilization, pollination support, and pest management. For example, without nitrogen-fixing plants in the sustainable polyculture, a human would need to amend the soil with nitrogen. Seven plant lists contained plants that provided ecosystem services that support the local ecology. Specifically, five lists specified plants that aided in nutrient cycling and soil formation. Four plant lists specified biological control and pollination support by way of providing habitat and provisions for animals and insects that provide those services. Most of the community-referenced texts feature some plants that provide regulating and supporting ecosystem services. Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Create an Oasis with Greywater emphasized plants that contributed to water regulation such as flood regulation and water purification. California Native Plants for the Garden emphasized provisions and habitat for animal and insect species, nursery grow bag including species that provide pollination support and biological control, as well as plants that provide disturbance regulation, such as hillside erosion control. The Edible Forest Garden series specified a wide range of regulating and supporting ecosystem services, including the production of an allelopathic chemical that keeps some species from growing around it, the “dynamic accumulation” of micro and macro nutrients such as calcium, phosphorous, nitrogen, and potassium, the production of feed for livestock, and formation of habitat for wildlife.

Participants wanted to include low-maintenance plants. Low-maintenance perennials become established in their environment and need only basic care while continuing to offer a yield or ecosystem service. There are some general principles of what kinds of plants are low- or high-maintenance, though there are exceptions. Although some perennials, like strawberries, require frequent care, perennials are generally lower maintenance than annuals because annuals often require seasonal soil preparation and planting, as well as more intensive and frequent fertilization, irrigation, and pest management. However, some annuals , such as self-seeding annual wildflowers, require less maintenance than other annuals. Self-seeding annuals grow from seeds left behind from the previous year’s crop,and are thus already in environments that are well suited for them. Invasive species are also sometimes considered low maintenance because they easily grow without human support. However, they can grow so well that they out-compete desired species and become high maintenance as one now has to remove them. Finally, native plants are generally considered low-maintenance because they are well-suited to grow in the local climate. The exemplar agroecosystems feature plants that can thrive with no additional water or fertilizer inputs from outside what is naturally occurring . For example, the Sonoran annual flowers sprout each spring after the winter rains and do not require supplemental watering. The non-native fruit trees in the Suburban Central Florida exemplar, however, produce better fruit with pruning, extra water during dry seasons, and supplemental seasonal fertilization, though they will likely survive and produce some fruit at a lower level of maintenance. Seven lists had exclusively perennial plants, most of which were fruiting or had medicinal value. Six plant lists had annuals , biennials , and perennials , but most of the annuals and biennials included on these lists easily self-seed and were herbs or flowering plants that were native or attracted pollinators. Three plant lists had exclusively annual and biennial plants – mostly plants you find in a vegetable garden – because community members maintained annual gardens in parallel to their sustainable polycultures so that they had a rapid production of food while their sustainable polyculture matures. Perennial plants may not produce enough food or any food at all while they are maturing, which can take many years depending on the species. Four lists emphasized which plants were native. The community-referenced texts also demonstrate how a plant can require different levels of maintenance depending on context. For example, a banana tree in the region Manzanita is located would typically be high-maintenance because it requires significantly more water than the local climate could provide. However, if a house has greywater output on the south side of the building, bananas could be the ideal species to use up the excess water that doesn’t naturally occur there . California Native Plants for the Garden demonstrate the low-maintenance characteristic of native plants in their region of origin, for example, specifying that a plant only needs additional water during its first two summers and during long-sustained droughts. These categories of inclusion properties dictate which plants are featured in the SAGE Plant Database for sustainable polyculture design for each community or climate region. Each of these inclusion properties were represented in both the community authored and community-referenced artifacts, demonstrating their relevance in both theory and practice. The next section details which plant attributes are used in sustainable polyculture design and therefore need to be defined in the plant database.Mollison and other permaculture leaders and authors define these categories of attributes, or ones similar to them, during the functional analysis stage of sustainable polyculture design . As Weiseman, Halsey, and Ruddock describes, “plant form is diverse to the point of infinity” and “these forms are based upon the species’ adaptation to its surroundings.” However, it is impossible and unnecessary to capture the entirety of these expansive attributes – participants and permaculture leaders instead consider a finite subset of properties and values that are relevant to their specific design context. This section introduces the range of intrinsic characteristics, growing conditions, and products and services considered during sustainable polyculture design by participants and the resources they consulted.Participants prioritized selection and arrangement of plants in sustainable polycultures based on their ecosystem service, which participants referred to as products and services. In the previous section, I demonstrated why participants chose plants to be included in the database based on their ability to provide products and services to human and other ecosystem constituents . In the context of this section, products and services are data points that need to be defined per plant in the SAGE Plant Database so that the user can make decisions on which plants to include in their sustainable polyculture. Weiseman, Halsey, and Ruddock argue that ecosystem services are the plant traits that “maintain ecosystem resiliency” and “[if] ecological functions are not in balance, then the overall survival of the guild may be in jeopardy” . Participants typically chose key species for their products, including high-yield and high-calorie foods, medicine, timber, and dye.

The modern PDC is a seventytwo instruction-hour course, introducing topics regarding permaculture principles and ethics, food, waste, energy, water, and shelter. Students engage in design practice and some hands-on implementation activities of selected permaculture elements. The amount of time it takes to complete a PDC varies greatly, meaning the 72-hours of instruction time may be completed in one week or three months, and the details of the instruction often cater to the local climate and social norms. As more communities emerge with or adopt lower standards for competence, the permaculture movement may grow in population, but it is unclear if it is an effective model for increasing permaculture’s impact on the world.Like agroecology, permaculture also has a set of limitations – a lack of diversity, a lack of size and impact, a lack of precision in practice, and high barriers to entry, as described in the previous section. Permaculture farm operators in North America are predominately middle class, white, and male , nursery pots thus it has not significantly increased the diversity of farm operators in the US agricultural system as reported by the United States Department of Agriculture – i.e., 96% white , 70% male , and 62% middle class or higher .

However, permaculture farmers are younger and newer to farming than average, and more are first generation farmers compared to farm operators in the traditional US agricultural system . Although permaculture attracts those from a high standard of living seeking to live more moderately, it lacks appeal to those who are struggling to meet their basic needs. However, these issues of diversity may be slowly changing as permaculture is adopted in urban areas that have seen economic decline or natural disaster, like earthquakes in Haiti . For example, in 2013, the city of Detroit, Michigan filed for bankruptcy following a decades-long financial decline propelled by the decline of its automobile industry . Today, it still has a poverty rate of 39.4% . In addition to empty lots and vacant homes, Detroit is now also characterized by urban agriculture . The people of Detroit have used permaculture and other urban farming techniques to grow food, rehabilitate contaminated soil, restore forest habitat, and create businesses . These acts have provided residents with a socio-ecological connection with their community, which may have a positive effect on mental health and crime rates . More recently, however, local journalist Tom Perkins argues the exemplary Detroit urban farming movement has been challenged by colonialism as white people attempt to start large projects that give away free food in predominately black neighborhoods. Perkins questions, “Should [the Detroit urban agriculture movement] aim to improve food security, strengthen local economies, provide jobs, and empower longtime residents? Or is it about giving away free food?” At PV2 I observed the permaculture community’s energized discussions about the necessity of introducing more people to permaculture.

One central argument for making an effort to introduce permaculture to a wider audience was that the permaculture movement and its participating communities would not make a significant impact on the world without more participants . The conference publicized projects demonstrative of permaculture’s success, such as Geoff Lawton’s Greening the Desert project in Jordan and Paul Wheaton’s permaculture homestead education center and community, Wheaton Labs, in Montana. The conference also showe cased projects that align with permaculture but do not necessarily call themselves permaculture, such as the Global Village Construction Set and Stamets’ work on fungi for bioremediation and medicine at PV2. The movement believes that increasing the number of people participating will lead to more projects, and thus more success and social acceptance. Permaculture has not traditionally followed scientific methods nor engaged with scientific research. Unafraid of experimentation, permaculture practitioners show a huge amount of creativity and develop novel solutions to unusual problems. Unfortunately, sometimes these experiments can lead to unintended adverse effects, such as unknowingly introducing an invasive species to an environment. Consequentially, the permaculture movement has been criticized for being too idealistic and a “pseudoscience” . More recently, however, Ferguson and Lovell attempts to bring in the strengths of the agroecology discipline and permaculture movement together to address areas where each is lacking , such as encouraging permaculture to adopt norms of formal social learning such as more rigorous evaluation and feedback, and engagement with other agricultural disciplines.

In the next chapter, I will be discussing my experiences in two permaculture communities and the challenges the communities faced when engaging in a range of sustainable agriculture practices.Throughout this dissertation I discuss two participating communities. Both communities were in the United States, one in the humid subtropics of the Southeast coast and the other in the Mediterranean climate of the Southwestern coast. To protect the privacy of these communities and the participants in this research they will be referred to as the Live Oak and Manzanita communities, respectively, after prominent trees from the local ecology. I also refer to these communities’ geographical locations as Live Oak and Manzanita, however, these are not the true names of these geographical locations. Both permaculture communities were forming when this research began. People typically explored their interest in permaculture by attending an annual introductory course on permaculture design . The people interested enough in permaculture to attend a PDC or otherwise engage in the community were either members of the established, though not formally organized, grassroots sustainability communities in their local areas or newcomers to both. They came from a variety of backgrounds including college students, farmers, restaurant owners, medical professionals, landscape designers, computer scientists, parents, and school teachers. However, they were unified in their interest in learning how to live and lead more sustainable lives and particularly interested in exploring sustainable agriculture from the perspective of permaculture. The first phase of my research was with the Live Oak community during the 2011 PDC, henceforth known as Live Oak PDC-2011. I engaged in Live Oak PDC-2011 as a student. I engaged as a participant or volunteer in other community activities, such as planting community gardens or tabling at city festivals, concurrent to attending the 2011 Live Oak PDC season. The second phase of this research occurred in 2012 including the Fall 2012 Live Oak PDC . During the second phase I was a participant of an on-going apprenticeship, a volunteer for many community activities, and a facilitator of Live Oak PDC-2012. The third phase of this research was in 2014 with the Manzanita community, including their Spring 2014 PDC , during which I was a facilitator. The fourth phase was primarily a requirements inquiry and occurred 2015-2018 during which time I served as a volunteer and participant for community activities, but no longer a facilitator in the PDCs. The Live Oak and Manzanita communities were unaffiliated and outside of my involvement in these communities, they do not, as far as I am aware, share members.The Live Oak permaculture community existed within a larger metropolitan grassroots sustainability activism community, along with a local food cooperative, an organic grower collective, a simple living institute, a holistic medicine school, a university arboretum, and several small sustainability-oriented businesses. The permaculture faction did not contain a distinct member group from the rest of the sustainability community.

Devoted members of the permaculture faction, often selfdescribed as “permies,” were often involved in other Live Oak sustainability activism. “Permie” is a term informally used throughout the permaculture movement to distinguish full participants from the peripheral, plastic planters and sometimes uncommitted, participants in a permaculture community. The permaculture community founder participated in the local food cooperative as a farmer. Some permaculture participants and students were also students of the local holistic medicine school. Sometimes these interactions were partnerships. For example, the permaculture founder hosted workshops at local businesses, such as a rain barrel installation demo at nearby a sustainable food restaurant. Participants of the greater grassroots sustainability community supported the permaculture faction even though they themselves were not participating. For example, a local farmer waved admission to his workshop about raising chickens for students in the permaculture course. The permaculture community was initially centered around the founding instructor of the local PDC. The community was approximately one year old, having started the previous year with a PDC, when I became acquainted. In the following years, the once pupils of the founding instructor practiced and became new instructors or service providers for the community. They moved from peripheral participants to full participants with knowledgeable skills, a development that Lave explains is difficult to achieve . Lave explains that becoming a full participant is hinged on empowering socialization of the participant by the old timers and the willingness of the participant to adapt his or her perspectives to those of the community. By 2013, the Live Oak permaculture community grew to over fifty full participants. A few of the full participants started consultation LLCs, and permaculture installments began popping up in the local area. Some participants focused on establishing home permaculture gardens. Some of the more complex implementations, both residential and civic, became community demonstration sites for using specialty systems in permaculture, such as grey water reclamation, rainwater catchment, and aquaculture. One participant created a permaculture-based elementary-school curriculum and garden. This permaculture community also partnered with other permaculture communities. In 2012, several members of the Live Oak permaculture community worked with a community in another South Eastern state to revamp a permaculture garden at an eco-hostel – a lodging destination that supports ecotourism. In late 2012, the Live Oak permaculture community partnered with another regional permaculture community on an excursion to South America to build bamboo structures at another eco-hostel. In 2013 and 2014 this community hosted the statewide permaculture convergences .This sustainability community is located within a predominately affluent suburban area within a greater metropolitan area. One previous resident explained that a small permaculture community had existed five to ten years earlier. Although a number of permaculture members from this era remained in the area, they were either autonomous or focused on their own sustainability oriented, but not permaculture branded, organizations. When the previous leader left, the previous resident explained, the local permaculture community of practice fizzled out – a result of when too few peripheral participants become full participants and none desires a leadership role . Lave and Wenger characterize the success of communities of practice as groups of people that have “reproduced” by engaging newcomers in apprenticeships in which newcomers learn through legitimate peripheral participation of a practice that is happening in its normal context . More specifically, a newcomer engages in the practice alongside a full participant, thus being able to observe the full participant’s practice and learn from it. At first newcomers engage in simple tasks, but as they observe and work alongside the old-timer they take on more advanced tasks, until eventually they become full participants of the community . The sustainability education center that I partnered with re-initiated the effort to establish the permaculture community of practice. It did so by offering a PDC for four consecutive years. Despite more than forty-five students attending PDCs over four years and the collaboration of other permaculture communities, the permaculture community continued to struggle to foster the transition of newcomers into full participants. Although I cannot definitively explain why this was the case, there are a few conditions that I believe contributed. First, many students were often transient, many leaving the region right after their PDC for work or school-related reasons, and so they were not able to engage in legitimate peripheral participation in the permaculture practices beyond the short-term PDC education. Second, several students in each PDC were employees or established volunteers at the hosting sustainability education center and concentrated their participation in the context of that organization and the larger grassroots sustainability community ratherthan continued legitimate peripheral participation in the permaculture faction. Third, although the education center offered the PDC, “permaculture” was not part of its branding, and so the leaders were not focused on providing continued education specifically for permaculture. Fourth, many instructors were guests from other, somewhat distant, communities, introducing distance as a barrier for newcomers to engage in legitimate peripheral participation outside of the sustainability education center . In the time since the fourth PDC in 2016, a permaculture community has formed beyond the sustainability education center, which has increased the opportunities for newcomers to transition to engage in legitimate peripheral participation.

The possible benefits remain largely speculative, since adaptive consequences of recombination between close relatives are difficult to detect. Adaptive shifts may be important in maintenance of transformation , and there is some evidence that homologous recombination may be important in promoting a number of adaptive responses. These include maintaining variability of surface proteins in animal pathogens to avoid host defenses , transfer of virulence genes in plant-pathogenic bacteria , and evolution of new taxa by, for example, facilitating adaptation to novel hosts . Homologous recombination can most easily be studied when genetic transfer has occurred between genetically distinct but closely related taxa. Under such circumstances, it may be possible to detect not only recombinant events but also sources of incorporated DNA and, potentially, to identify adaptive consequences of the exchange. This scenario is found in the plant-pathogenic bacterium Xylella fastidiosa, black flower buckets where intersubspecific homologous recombination is well documented .

X. fastidiosa infects xylem vessels of a wide range of plant host species in the Americas . X. fastidiosa has been divided into four subspecies, three of which are found in the United States . These groups are genetically distinct, with values of DNADNA hybridization between them of less than 70% , sequence differences of 2% or more at synonymous sites , and distinct 16S rRNA gene and 16S-23S rRNA gene spacer sequences . These differences reflect estimated divergence times of more than 15,000 years . Furthermore, each subspecies has a distinct and largely nonoverlapping set of plant hosts : in the UnitedStates, X. fastidiosa subsp. fastidiosa causes Pierce’s disease of grape, X. fastidiosa subsp. sandyi causes oleander leaf scorch, and X. fastidiosa subsp. multiplex causes leaf scorch disease on a range of trees, including oak, elm, and peach. In South America, X. fastidiosa subsp. pauca infects citrus and coffee . X. fastidiosa is competent for transformation , and some isolates carry conjugative plasmids , so sympatry of subspecies potentially creates conditions conducive for both the occurrence and detection of IHR. Sympatry of X. fastidiosa subspecies appears to be relatively recent: while X. fastidiosa subsp. multiplex is probably native to the United States, there is compelling evidence that the other two subspecies found in the United States were introduced . X. fastidiosa subsp. sandyi has been known in the United States for only about 30 years, while X. fastidiosa subsp. fastidiosa has presumably been present since the first known outbreak of Pierce’s disease ca. 130 years ago.

Furthermore, it appears that a similar situation exists in South America. While X. fastidiosa subsp. pauca is native to South America, there is evidence of the introduction of a second subspecies into Argentina and/or Brazil causing plum leaf scald, first observed in 1935 . Analysis of sequences indeed demonstrated large-scale recombination of X. fastidiosa subsp. fastidiosa sequences into X. fastidiosa subsp. multiplex in the United States , and, in Brazil, there has been substantial recombination into X. fastidiosa subsp. pauca of sequences from a distinct taxon, tentatively identified as X. fastidiosa subsp. multiplex . However, large-scale introgression is not the rule. Analyses of genomes of U.S. isolates of X. fastidiosa subsp. fastidiosa show very limited introgression of X. fastidiosa subsp. multiplex ; moreover, large-scale introgression into X. fastidiosa subsp. multiplex is restricted to a well defined set of genotypes, suggesting that it may have been initiated by very few events . The majority of X. fastidiosa subsp. multiplex isolates show little evidence of IHR, and the data available suggest that even intrasubspecific recombination is limited . Thus, the picture emerging in X. fastidiosa is one of limited successful homologous recombination on a short time scale, with bursts of large-scale exchange occurring very infrequently. This raises the possibility that, by substantially increasing the available genetic variability, these large-scale events facilitate rapid evolutionary change that can result in colonization of new plant hosts.

This scenario has been proposed as the mechanism underpinning the invasion of blueberry by recombinant forms of X. fastidiosa subsp. multiplex and, more speculatively, the infection of citrus and coffee by X. fastidiosa subsp. pauca in Brazil . Another candidate for this scenario is the form of X. fastidiosa infecting mulberry, a form that does not appear to fit within the framework of the four subspecies so far identified. Kostka et al. first observed the disease of mulberry leaf scorch in the Washington, DC, area on the native red mulberry , and further study revealed infected trees along the east coast as far north as New York City, NY. Since that time, MLS has been observed in Nebraska and also in California on the introduced white mulberry . Previous genetic assessment showed that, although the 16S rRNA gene sequence of mulberry isolates is consistent with that of X. fastidiosa subsp. fastidiosa, based on analyses of randomly amplified polymorphic DNAs and 16S-23S rRNA gene spacer sequences, these types cluster as a distinct group . Here we used multilocus sequence typing to evaluate the genetic relationship of the mulberry isolates to the 4 subspecies and to establish its hybrid ancestry via IHR, supporting the hypothesis that IHR facilitates host shifts. We show that this ancestry is shared with the recombinant group of X. fastidiosa subsp. multiplex; however, the recombinant group has largely introgressed into X. fastidiosa subsp. multiplex, and we propose that the continued genetic distinctiveness of the mulberry type merits recognition as a new subspecies, X. fastidiosa subsp. morus.Isolates used. The study examined DNA sequences from 20 isolates from mulberry, Morus spp. , plus 1 isolate from heavenly bamboo, Nandina domestica, known to be genetically similar . These 21 isolates, referred to as a group as the mulberry isolates, included examples from California, Kentucky, and Washington, DC . They were all typed using the MLST scheme developed for X. fastidiosa and using 7 housekeeping loci . A sequence from one additional locus, the cell surface gene pilU, was also obtained. Genetic relationships of the isolates within X. fastidiosa. The DNA sequences were compared to previously published MLST and pilU data from 352 isolates of X. fastidiosa, defining 65 sequence types , where an ST is a unique genotype based on the MLST, as follows: 110 isolates ofX. fastidiosa subsp. fastidiosa , 21 isolates of X. fastidiosa subsp. sandyi , 143 isolates ofX. fastidiosa subsp.multiplex , and 78 isolates of X. fastidiosa subsp. pauca from Brazil . To show the genetic relationship of the isolates from mulberry to all previously published STs, we created a distance tree using a concatenation of the 8 sequenced loci for all of the known STs using the PHYLIP programs DNADIST and NEIGHBOR . In the analysis, the two known indels were given weights equivalent to 1 and 3 transversions, respectively. A distance tree was used since the IHR involved in the history of X. fastidiosa made a phylogenetic tree inappropriate; however, a maximum-likelihood phylogenetic tree was evaluated for completeness and comparison. Using maximum parsimony, we tested the hypothesis that the STs defined by the mulberry isolates were related to the STs of the recombinant-group X. fastidiosa subsp. multiplex though an ancestral introgression of X. fastidiosa subsp. multiplex into X. fastidiosa subsp. fastidiosa, with subsequent divergence due to additional X. fastidiosa subsp. multiplex introgression. We created a maximum-parsimony tree using the PARS program in PHYLIP, with each allele as a character.

Since our hypothesis emphasized a single ancestral X. fastidiosa subsp. fastidiosa strain, french flower bucket with potentially multiple X. fastidiosa subsp. multiplex donors, we weighted the loci that included alleles containingX. fastidiosa subsp. fastidiosa sequence more than those loci identified as having only X. fastidiosa subsp. multiplex sequence. We used a 2-fold weighting scheme; higher values produced identical results. The collection of equally parsimonious trees was reduced by applying the assumption that all nonrecombinant X. fastidiosa subsp. fastidiosa alleles absent from the current U.S. population of X. fastidiosa subsp. fastidiosa had been vertically transmitted through the tree. We evaluated the origins of all alleles found in the mulberry isolates using two tests. For chimeric alleles, we tested for recombination breakpoints using the targeted introgression test . In most cases, the alleles were not chimeric and their ancestry was obvious; however, in each case a ratio test was used to support this conclusion .We examined the plausibility of this hypothesis through parsimony analysis, using alleles as characters, and the result is broadly supportive of the idea of a common origin of the mulberry-type and recombinant-group STs . The initial analysis produced 7 equally parsimonious trees, but by assuming that the four X. fastidiosa subsp. fastidiosa alleles inconsistent with the current U.S. strains were themselves ancestral , the total was reduced to 2 trees. The only difference between these two trees involved the position of the clade corresponding to ST27, ST28, and ST40. In one tree , the required recombination transfer of cysG allele 18 is minimized to one event ; alternatively, in the second tree, the clade branches from the ST58 lineage, which removes the necessity of a recombination transfer of leuA allele 6 , which is an X. fastidiosa subsp. multiplex allele unique to the recombinant group. Consistent with the common-origin hypothesis, parsimony requires very little postorigin modification within X. fastidiosa subsp. morus. Specifically, it requires only the basal acquisition of cysG allele 18, derived by recombination from presumed ancestral cysG allele 12 . All other allelic changes are single base substitutions. The genesis of the recombinant group is more complex, consistent with the conclusions of Nunney et al. and with the assumption of a history of continued introgression. Thus, the data suggest that the recombinant group has undergone sufficient additional recombination with X. fastidiosa subsp. multiplex that it has ceased to be a separate taxon. On the other hand, the mulberry isolates show no evidence of such introgression and thus have remained a distinct taxon meriting subspecific status. To this point, there is no evidence of intermediate genotypes that bridge the genetic space that now exists between the recombinant group and X. fastidiosa subsp. morus . Nunney et al. previously proposed that IHR-generated genetic variation facilitated invasion of new hosts, based on the observation that all isolates from blueberry were recombinant-group X. fastidiosa subsp. multiplex. This hypothesis is further supported by the invasion of mulberry by the chimeric X. fastidiosa subsp. morus. These examples raise three additional points of support. First, given the long-term geographical association of the native X. fastidiosa subsp. multiplex with these 3 native host plants, the failure to infect them suggests that the genetic variation required for successful invasion had been absent from the native subspecies. Second, contact of these plant hosts with two newly introduced subspecies has failed to lead to infection of these plants; in all known cases of natural infection, these hosts were infected only by STs that had undergone large-scale IHR. Third, in each case, the STs found on these hosts show very little variation: blackberry, 1 ST; blueberry, 2 STs; and mulberry, 4 STs. This lack of within-host variation is consistent with host plants imposing strong host-specific selection on the bacterial genome. The data also suggest that host specificity is not determined by the lateral gene transfer of novel genetic material, since this would not impose the observed constraint on the genome. In addition, a similar pattern has been found in X. fastidiosa subsp. pauca in Brazil : evidence of large-scale IHR, combined with very limited genetic variation. From a sample of 55 citrus and 23 coffee isolates, only five STs were observed, with 85% of the citrus isolates having the same ST. The data from X. fastidiosa show that massive recombination can occur between subspecies. We see this in the creation of X. fastidiosa subsp. morus, and a similar event may have been involved in the genesis of the X. fastidiosa subsp. pauca strain that infects citrus and coffee in South America . But how did this happen? It has been established that conjugative plasmids can occur in X. fastidiosa , including a candidate found in the mulberry type . Furthermore, high rates of transformation have been observed in the laboratory . Which of these processes is involved in large-scale genomic exchange is not known. These data raise a second issue: how, given the clear potential for genetic exchange, X. fastidiosa subsp. morus and also the ancestral X. fastidiosa subsp. multiplex and X. fastidiosa subsp. fastidiosa strains have not introgressed into an ill-defined network of isolates.

Despite this more conserved estimate of genera, the floral resources used in New Hampshire are still rich compared to those utilized in Georgia. We also found that foraging females in Missouri foraged from more plants to form a single pollen provision mass than those in Georgia . This suggests that suitable floral resources at the time of brood provisioning may not be as diverse in Georgia as more northern areas of Ceratina’s range, or that they were simply not locally abundant in the area around the collected nests. Across its geographic range, C. calcarata encounters a broad variety of possible forage. Diets in Georgia, Missouri and New Hampshire were dominated by pollen from different plant genera . Out of the 96 floral genera found in provisions in this study, only Rubus was found in more than 1% of reads across all three states . All other genera, even if abundant in one or two states, procona buckets were rare in provisions from the third. For example, sumac was a key floral resource in New Hampshire but made up less than 10% of the reads in Georgia and was hardly utilized at all in Missouri .

It is important to note that while read counts have been correlated with microscopy pollen counts in many studies, factors such as pollen morphology can skew the abundance estimate obtained from DNA sequences. Our study uses the marker rbcl, which has shown strong correlation with pollen counts, outperforming trnL and ITS2. With this in mind, comparison of relative abundance between sites shows state-wise differences in diet. Many of these plant genera are common to all three states, so perhaps these dietary variations are due to differences in bee and floral phenologies, as well as possible microhabitat distinctions in floral assemblages in proximity to the bee nest. While we do not have data on floral distributions within each collecting site, our records of nest substrate allow us to determine that foraging was not skewed towards the host plants. Rubus was a common pollen source but even nests formed within Rubus plants did not show a bias in pollen collection. Different pollens vary in nutritional qualities, which may influence foraging decisions. Pollen can also have toxic constituents, and some generalist foragers appear to actively utilize a broad range of floral resources to alleviate the effects these may have on brood development. How these factors influence C. calcarata foraging is unknown but our results suggest that spatial orientation of floral resources alone does not determine foraging preferences.

The presence of a consistent core microbial community despite the variation in pollen sources suggests that many of the most common bacterial genera do not have specific floral associations. We identified a number of tentative bacteria–plant correlations, but these were not consistent among states . In the overall analysis, the tuplip tree genus Liriodendron was correlated with Lactobacillus, while the same plant genus was correlated with Sphingomonas in Georgia. In Missouri, Wolbachia was correlated with four plant genera: Brunia, Camptotheca, Rhus and Smilax but this bacterium was not correlated with plants in the other states or the overall analysis. The correlations found in Georgia and Missouri also differ to those previously identified in New Hampshire, following the same methodology. These correlations broadly suggest that plants and bacteria are co-occurring but the variance in results between the overall dataset and the state-level analyses indicates these relationships are facultative or transient. Using read data to identify co-occurrence correlations is statistically challenging and further experiments sampling pollen bacterial communities with and without pollinator visitation, such as the study by McFrederick et al., are needed to directly test for plant–bacteria associations. Whether plants harbor certain microbes over others or not, there are many factors altering microbial floral communities.

Long-term artificial warming of grassland plots was found to alter the microbial communities of plant leaves, including microbial groups common to bees. Aydogan et al. found Acinetobacter and Wolbachia increased in frequency, while Sphingomonas frequency decreased, these three bacterial genera being common to C. calcarata pollen provision and adult gut microbiomes. These temperature based microbial changes could translate into changes in insect microbiomes, and indeed climate has been correlated with changes in microbiome composition in some species such as the red palm weevil, the chestnut weevil and a spider mite. Flower visitation by bees can transfer microbes to flowers, but herbivorous insects, other pollinators including thrips and wind are thought to contribute to microbe dispersal as well. Similarly, the presence of potentially predatory or competitive species such as ants can reduce floral visitation and this in turn alters the microbes present on flowers. Any and all of these could be important factors influencing the observed microbiome variation in C. calcarata and are important considerations when concerned with wild bee health generally. Our study shows that the diet of C. calcarata varies widely with geography, with only Rubus found in more than 1% of reads at all three sites, indicating that this generalist bee species is able to utilize different resources as floral communities change. However, it seems that floral preference may not be simply determined by the proximity of the floral resource to the nest. The same six bacterial genera consistently dominated provisions in all sites but the relative abundance of these fluctuated widely. There are still many unknowns regarding how microbes are acquired, both in the pollen provisions and subsequently the bees themselves. Flowers appear to be general points of bacterial transmission,but so far specific associations have not been identified. The current lack of knowledge on microbial associates is a major hindrance in our ability to maintain diverse wild bee populations.When I took on the role of Preschool Program Director at Daybreak Star Preschool, an entity of United Indians of All Tribes Foundation , located in Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center, I also took on the community that built and sustained a palpable culture of resiliency, passion, honesty, strength, and love. UIATF serves urban Natives and Alaskan Indians in the greater Seattle area, once a relocation city for American Indians. As an organization, we provide holistic human wraparound services beginning with a doula and prenatal care program all the way up to our Elders program. The preschool is right in the middle, not just programmatically, but at the heart of the organization. I entered at a time just after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in September 2020. The new school year had just begun, and I was coming from fourteen years as an early childhood educator, twelve of those years as a toddler and family educator, at the same school, made up of mostly affluent white families. The state of the world was unknown and uncomfortably new, so I thought, why not take on an entirely different kind of job with much more responsibility? Being in this new role as a director wasn’t the only newness of this journey; this would be the first time in a while that I would be surrounded by people who looked more like me than not. UIATF is made up of a racially diverse group of people who are also diverse in their upbringings, cultures, languages, and socioeconomic status; many of these people are also of Native American descent. The shroud of uncertainty and social trauma maintained its presence for some time, procona florida container as the various programs needed to figure out how they were going to maintain the delivery of service.

Questions about funding sources lingered as funders also had to figure out their own systemic approach to sustain the programs they supported. The tight-knit community of UIATF, specifically those working at Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center, was and is the force that prevented everything from imploding on itself. At the onset of the lockdown, with about one to two weeks’ time, the remaining preschool staff made a quick pivot to open up care for essential workers, eventually opening up to other families with many of the heavy regulations we all experienced in one way or another. Likewise, other programs of UIATF found themselves with a unique opportunity to distribute funding to community members who needed rental assistance, gas vouchers, grocery vouchers, etc. The preschool program, like many other programs within UIATF, was greatly impacted by the pandemic and it became apparent that a great deal of healing and rebuilding would need to be done. How would this healing process begin? Who would facilitate this process? From whom do we have to learn lessons? The answer lies with our plant relatives. As with most answers to big daunting questions, the answer to our communal healing surrounded us, for plants carry wisdom if we’re ready to take it in. All around Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center are probably thousands of plant varieties—some indigenous and some not, some invasive. The preschool has several growing boxes and a small plot where tobacco and strawberries grow alongside one another. And of course, blueberry season is highly anticipated among children. Beyond our little garden are communities of alder trees, groves of cedar towering above the trails that meander around Daybreak Star, and many conifers that share their cones and branches for various lessons and activities. In this article, I aim to illustrate the community inquiry we dove into while outlining lessons learned as they relate to the wisdom of our plant relatives. The focus and intention on the teaching from our plant relatives comes from Plant Teachings for Growing Social-Emotional Skills, a toolkit of a book and a set of cards aimed at guiding individuals in their journey to deepening their capacities of self-reflection to lead healthier and resilient lives. This toolkit came to fruition through a collaborative effort between GRuB , Northwest Indian Treatment Center, and the Seattle Indian Health Board to aid individuals going through recovery from addiction but is applicable to early childhood learning centers. Throughout this article, I will introduce a plant relative and their lessons as they relate to my journey in our Community-Based Inquiry.In the early spring of 2021, my curiosity about finding ways to push the school forward was poked by the leaders of the Indigenous Early Learning Collaborative , Tarajean and Ethan Yazzie-Mintz, Joelfre Grant, and others with the provocation to embark on a journey of inquiry within our community setting. As I was ingratiating myself into the UIATF community as a newbie, I searched for questions within our preschool community I would want to explore alongside those who have been with UIATF. This search process was primarily observational, seeing and listening for issues and concerns within our early learning community of families, educators, elders, and children. A silver lining of the COVID-19 pandemic was that there was a significant level of understanding that spending time outdoors was an effective way to prevent the spread of infection. The already established preschool classrooms had dedicated much of their time to being outside, transplanting learning experiences and outcomes to the temperate climate of Seattle, Washington. Yet there was an increasing need for families and their children to have access to early care and education, and at the same time, the adults in children’s lives wanted to make sure their children were safe from potentially contracting COVID-19. These needs paired with the potential of elevating Daybreak Star Preschool into a new phase of evolution sparked my curiosity to home in on a community inquiry. Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center, where the preschool is housed, is set in an urban forest which affords many opportunities for land-based learning. My natural state of curiosity beckoned me to wonder: What would an outdoor preschool class look like within an urban Native context? And why hasn’t this happened yet? In the Pacific Northwest, where we are located, outdoor preschool settings are on the rise. The North American Association for Environmental Education reports that there has been a twenty-fivefold increase in nature-based preschools just in this past decade. Currently, there are 585 nature-based preschools in the United States alone1. Our state, Washington, has become the first and only state to license outdoor nature based early learning centers. The growing trend in nature-based learning environments indicates a progressive movement to create early learning experiences that not only offer a counternarrative to how preschool is taught and experienced but also expand the opportunity to foster a sense of love and respect for the natural world in young children.