Newton, Nicaragua & Biosand Filters

Written by Professor Eric Olson

San Juan del Sur, Newton, MA's "sister city" in Nicaragua, is building water filtration systems with the help of CAWST.

 
Water is fundamental to life, to health, to meeting the most basic human needs. There is no substitute for water: we can choose to eat more plant protein and less meat, and soon we may be able to run our cars on electricity instead of gasoline, but water is a singular necessity be it for drinking, for growing crops, and many other uses. It is irreplaceable.

Infectious disease is responsible for 26% of premature deaths worldwide, and much non-lethal sickness.  Much of this disease burden is water related: of the five top disease killers, diarrhea ranks third, with some 1.8 million deaths per year. Meanwhile, although global population growth has slowed overall, growth in dozens of nations remains around 2% to 3% annually. These are some of the same nations struggling to increase food production with irrigation, thereby competing for water that could be used for drinking. And anywhere, disasters like hurricanes, earthquakes, and tsunamis can overwhelm even the most thoughtfully designed water system, for months at a time. 

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Read more: Newton, Nicaragua & Biosand Filters

Eating Local in New England?

Written by Professor Brian Donahue

Eating local is all the rage. 

As someone who dropped out to become a farmer in the 1970s, and who has stayed involved with community and educational farming ever since, I am pleased.  As someone who eventually dropped back into academia to become an environmental historian, I am skeptical of some of what I hear.  Watching many of my students head down this path, I feel I owe their parents an explanation.  What does history teach us about growing food in New England?  Is this a reasonable proposition?

The idea that we should attempt to grow all our own food “locally” is easy to dismiss.  By 1790, when its population stood at less than a million, New England was already importing substantial amounts of food—in particular, grain from the Mid-Atlantic states.  This trend only accelerated in the decades that followed, even while much of New England was virtually deforested to feed booming cities and textile mills.  Our farmland couldn’t keep up then, and as a practical matter no combination of animals, vegetables, and miracles will suffice now, as our population approaches fifteen million. 

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Read more: Eating Local in New England?

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