Fruitabulous

How do you address food insecurity, global warming and provide agricultural and environmental education to millions of people around the world? These are not easy topics to tackle and there's a myriad of NGOs scattered across the globe who are tirelessly working to address these issues. One way to start to address these problems is through fruit trees. Yes, the trees might have some answers for us. Cross over to me living in Los Angeles, and enjoying the fruits of, well, my lemon tree. I love having it not only because I get to pick fragrant, tasty fruits but it radiates out to provide light shade for me while I practice yoga under it and it provides a home for lots of critters. Having the lemon tree is an instant way to be a glorified locavore. But, rather than selfishly sharing the tree with only my fellow apartment building-mates, what about public fruit trees? Fallen Fruit, based in LA, offers guided tours through neighborhoods to teach people about public access to fruit trees (to sum things up-if it's in a public domain, it's yours to pick). However, the Fruit Tree Planting Foundation is taking things a step further with their ambitious, yet achievable, goal of planting 18 billion fruit trees worldwide (that's 3 trees for each of us). I don't know about you, but I'd like a avocado and blood orange to add to my lemon mix. More importantly, planting fruit trees will make millions of people into locavores, help the planet by absorbing some of our out-of-control greenhouse gas emissions and provide abundant healthy food sources to many individuals who lack access to such foods now. Already, the foundation has stretched its reach around the world by planting fruit trees in India, Kenya and Arizona. Start picking and planting in your community today. (photo: emeraldimp, flickr creative commons)