Category: Natural Resources and Environmental Design

Consider the humble farm pond. It’s used to water crops and livestock. It attracts birds and other wildlife and can be stocked with fish. In a pinch, farm pond water can be used to put out fires.

In 2016, Guochen Yang, Ph.D. decided to spice up North Carolina farming by testing ginger as a new niche crop for small-scale growers. Yang knew from his childhood in rural China that ginger was both tasty and medicinally beneficial, and as a horticulture professor in the United States, he has watched its popularity grow as both a spice for cooking and a desirable natural remedy for colds, aches and pains.

AS THE WORLD suffers bouts of extreme weather conditions, including record-breaking temperatures, torrential rains and prolonged droughts, many people may be thinking about how to make changes. But few may consider that the ground beneath them might hold the answers.