Feed #61 - Milk that can revive soil & germs that keep us healthy

Welcome to The Feed! This is where we share good news stories about the environment and composting tips with our community every week. Subscribe to our newsletter to get a short & sweet version of The Feed delivered to your inbox every week!

Subpod Minis have started arriving!

Earlier this year, we launched a compact version of Subpod for pre-order – Subpod Mini. We’re excited to say that, despite the pandemic’s best efforts to muck up shipping, the first pre-orders have begun arriving on peoples doorsteps!

We were inspired to make Subpod Mini because of our community. Interacting with you on Grow Hub, Instagram and Facebook helped us understand just how diverse your needs are. Not everyone has the space for a huge garden, or needs to be able to compost up to 8 people’s worth of food waste. But everyone should be able to compost.

We're hoping that Subpod Mini will offer people with compact homes a more affordable and suitable option to start composting! If you’re a household of one, you might not think composting your food waste will make much of a difference. It’s only an average extra 330lbs of food waste in landfill each year, right?

But 10 people diverting their waste saves 3300lbs of food waste from landfill every year – and 100 people can divert 33,000lbs! Alone, our impact might seem mini, but together we can make a mighty difference.

Hemp milk – not just good for your body

Move over, almond milk – there’s a new cool kid in town. Vegans and dairy-free folks have been spoilt for choice in recent years, with brand after brand releasing plant-based milk alternatives.

Plant-based milks really got popular in the last two decades, as conversations around the environment and animal rights brought to light the negative impacts of the dairy industry. But recent studies have found lots of the plant milks on offer today aren’t that great either.

Soy milk is rumored to mess with thyroid function and potentially feed cancer cells, while the healthier almond milk uses a lot of water to produce, and rice milk releases higher levels of CO2 during production. The good news for our plant-based milk lovers? Hemp milk might be the answer!

Hemp is a legume, which fixes nitrogen in the soil as it grows and sequesters huge amounts of carbon. It requires very little water and doesn't need any fertilisation, pesticides or fancy soils to grow. All in all, it's a pretty hands-off crop that does a lot of good wherever it's planted.

Caring for the unseen warriors that protect our skin

How are your hands doing? Since the start of the you-know-what, dermatologists have been reporting higher rates of patients with hand dermatitis, thanks to harsh sanitisers and over-washing with soap.

We know that there’s a balance of healthy bacteria in our gut, but there’s an even larger microbiome that exists on our bodies – our skin! Our skin is the largest organ we have, and it hosts a unique party of bacteria that help keep us healthy and protected from nasty bacteria.

The problem with hand sanitizers that advertise that they kill “99% of germs” is… they really mean it. There’s no way to pick and choose which germs we kill when we sanitize our hands, so how can you still take care of your skin while staying safe?

The article linked below from the ABC explains how you can balance safety from the bad germs with care for the good bacteria our skin needs to be healthy. Turns out, it’s as simple as just being a little more selective with when – and how – we wash our hands.

From the community – A little garden appreciation

We like to share something from the community every week, and we couldn't go past this post that @mysimplysimple shared with us on instagram.

"The garden is my happy place. It calms my mind and feeds my soul in a way nothing else has come close to achieving. Out here the air smells of fresh tomatoes and basil, and the only sounds are those of chirping birds or a tractor in the distance. It’s not perfect or overly organized, but it is simple, quiet, peaceful, and full of life. It’s a constant evolution of planning, hard work, and love - a visual representation of life. It’s meant to be enjoyed, exactly as it is."

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