In light of today’s Earth Day celebration, we are sharing our thoughts on why proper nutrition and empowering women to make conscious choices are both vitally important for protecting Mama Earth.
Why Proper Nutrition and Empowering Women is Needed
Leading scientists and policymakers around the world evaluated the 100 most substantive solutions to reversing global warming and the other negative impacts of climate change. Their findings, summarized in the book, Drawdown, edited by Paul Hawken, ranked possible solutions by their potential impact in reducing carbon in the atmosphere:
- Food as a sector is the largest potential contributor to atmospheric carbon reduction estimated at 321.93 gigatons of the seven sectors ranked. For comparison, Energy at 247.47 gigatons was number two and Land Use at 149.60 was number three.
- Women and Girls as a sector ranked number four with the potential to reduce 121.26 gigatons of carbon. For comparison, this is a greater impact than Buildings / Cities and Transportation combined at 54.50 and 45.78 gigatons respectively.
- Of the top ten and top twenty individual solutions, solutions within the Food and Women and Girls sectors comprised half (5/10 and 10/20).
The top food solutions included reducing food waste, expanding plant-rich diets, and adopting more environmentally-friendly agriculture and livestock raising practices through efforts like silvopasture (integration of trees and grazing livestock) and regenerative agriculture (soil rehabilitation focused farming).
The latter two efforts directly relate to our current need for proper supplementation:
- While a plant-based diet can be beneficial for the environment, having a lower impact on agricultural and land-use related emissions than fish and animal products, it can be especially difficult to meet all of your nutritional needs through a plant-based diet alone. Plant-based diets are at risk of nutritional deficiencies such as Protein, Iron, Vitamin D, Calcium, Iodine, Omega-3, and Vitamin B12, among others. Plant-based diets often have lower quantities of these nutrients, or the forms of nutrients are inactive and need to be converted by the body into usable forms - these conversions are often inefficient or for many impossible due to genetic limitations. According to international guidelines, plant-based diets during pregnancy and lactation require more of an emphasis on supplementation.
- More environmentally friendly agriculture and livestock raising practices directly impact the nutritional quality of food. Current conventional practices create nutrition poor food, enhancing the need for supplementation. For example, 1) a meta-analysis outlining of 100 peer-reviewed studies and conference proceedings confirmed that organically grown fruits and vegetables have higher levels of nutrients than their conventionally grown counterparts and 2) research spanning three decades concluded that grass-fed vs. grain-fed beef had a healthier fat profile (ratio of anti-inflammatory Omega-3s to inflammatory promoting Omega-6s) and higher amounts of vitamins and antioxidants.
Top Women and Girls solutions included family planning and educating girls. As Drawdown describes: “Girls education, it turns out, has a dramatic impact on global warming. Women with more years of education have fewer, healthier children and actively manage their reproductive health...there is a strong link between women and their natural systems as the heart of family and community life. Women often and increasingly play roles as stewards and managers of food, soil, trees, and water.”
We firmly believe that women are the health influencers within their families, making everyday decisions about which household products to buy, what food to eat, and much more that impacts the health of her whole family. Empowering and educating women has multi-generational and community-wide impact, both with respect to environmental and human health.
While we are a young company with a small overall impact today, our ambition to positively impact the health of all women, including Mama Earth, is vast. Today, we meet this need through education, empowerment, and giving back where we can-including through our contributions to 1% For The Planet and Every Mother Counts.
Why We Joined 1% For The Planet
1% For The Planet is is a global movement inspiring businesses and individuals to support environmental solutions through memberships and everyday actions. Businesses that join 1% for the Planet commit to giving 1% of gross sales each year to our approved nonprofit partners.
Through our partnership with 1% For The Planet, we are committed to supporting organizations focused on soil health, sustainable farming, environmental education, food security, and clean air, water, and ecosystem protection. These facets of environmental health directly impact the nutrient density of our food, the amount of nutrition we need to be optimally well, and thus our need for proper supplementation to fill in the gaps where food leaves off.
Below we list the four organizations we currently support - their mission, why we chose to support them, and how our contributions from your purchases are supporting their work.
Edible Schoolyard Project
What Is Their Mission?
Started by Alice Waters, the mission of the Edible Schoolyard Project is to provide a free sustainable school lunch to all students K-12 by purchasing food directly from farmers who take care of the land and their workers, and to teach students the values of nourishment, stewardship, and community.
Why We Chose to Support Them
We chose Edible Schoolyar Project as one of our partners as their mission fits into our ethos through its commitment to education, the health of kids, families, and our planet, and their support of sustainable farming dand the local community.
We firmly believe that nutrition starts with food, and that education is key to making healthy and sustainable food choices.
The mission of Edible Schoolyard Project is near and dear to both of our co-founders. Julie wrote her college thesis on food deserts in Chicago while studying Economics at Northwestern, finding that education is key to a community obtaining better access to healthy foods. Ryan co-authored a nutrition curriculum for K-5 kids while studying Earth Systems as an undergrad at Stanford, and saw firsthand the impact this education has on kids' food choices.
We are passionate about nutrition education in and outside of the classroom, and we love Edible Schoolyard Project’s belief that “cafeterias are the heart of our schools.”
Julie and Ryan started Needed while in business school at Stanford, and the San Francisco Bay Area, home to Edible School Yard, is a special place to both of us.
How Needed's Contributions Support Their Mission
Needed’s contributions support Edible School Yard’s work in educating the next generation and their support of local sustainable farming practices.
Heal the Bay
What Is Their Mission?
Heal the Bay is an environmental nonprofit dedicated to making the coastal waters and watersheds in Greater Los Angeles safe, healthy, and clean. They use science, education, community action, and advocacy to fulfill their mission.
Why We Chose to Support Them
Julie and Ryan started Needed after they were shocked to realize food wasn’t fully meeting our needs. Omega-3 was the first nutrient they discovered through nutritional testing that they were seriously deficient in (though there were many others). Fish is the best food based source of the usable DHA and EPA forms of Omega-3. But, fish populations (and our main global source of Omega-3) is in jeopardy.*
With the company now based in the Westside of Los Angeles, we wanted to support protecting our local waters and watersheds and the fish and other animals that live there.
In addition, Ryan, an LA native, has also been volunteering with Heal the Bay since she was 11. Her interest in the connection between human and environmental health really blossomed there.
*For this reason, we source the Omega-3 in our products from algae. Algae is a cleaner and more sustainable alternative to fish, and is actually where fish get their Omega-3 from.
How Needed's Contributions Support Their Mission
Needed’s contributions supporting science-based advocacy, grassroots community outreach, and award-winning educational programs.
Sustainable Conservation
What Is Their Mission?
Sustainable Conservation helps California thrive by uniting people to solve the toughest challenges facing our land, air, water, and wildlife. They bring together business, landowners, and government to steward the resources that we all depend on in ways that make economic sense - because Common Ground acknowledges that common ground is California’s most important resource.
Why We Chose to Support Them
Julie and Ryan met at Stanford’s Business School. Ashley Boren, Sustainable Conservation’s Executive Director and main steward, is also a Stanford Business School alum. We admire how Sustainable Conservation drives collaborative solutions between stakeholders that often otherwise would not be working with (or even speaking) to each other. We know that solving the broken perinatal nutrition paradigm will take an integrative approach, and we know we can learn a lot from Sustainable Conversation’s work to date.
How Needed's Contributions Support Their Mission
Needed’s contributions help California thrive by uniting people in solving California's toughest environmental challenges.
Kiss The Ground
What Is Their Mission?
Kiss the Ground works to increase societal awareness about the extraordinary benefits of healthy soil. They educate millions of people across the globe and provide pathways for everyone to participate in the regenerative agriculture movement.
Why We Chose to Support Them
We believe that proper nutrition begins with the food. As lifelong nutrition nerds, we were shocked to find that food alone was not cutting it for us. The reality is, in our modern world, supplementation is needed to meet optimal nutritional needs before, during, and after pregnancy. Three of the main reasons why include: 1) soil quality and therefore the nutrient density of food has degraded, 2) we are exposed to more toxins that take a toll on our bodies to eliminate and 3) we are exposed to fewer good bugs from healthy soil to support our microbiomes.
Regenerative agriculture describes farming and grazing practices that rebuild soil organic matter and restore degraded soil biodiversity. This produces healthier and tastier food, supports clean air and water, and contributes to a future we can proudly pass on to our grandchildren.
Regenerative practice and philosophy also aligns closely with our core company values.
How Needed's Contributions Support Their Mission
Needed’s contributions support 1) farmers in their transition to regenerative practices, 2) advocacy and activism around the regenerative agriculture movement and 3) supporting coalitions to ensure public policy is including the adoption of regenerative agriculture practices.
1% For Our Planet, Our Community, and Our Health
The efforts of these organizations directly impact our nutrition, the health of families, and the health of our local community in California.
