Caroline James

We already know that 1/3 of our food system relies on pollinators, so purely from a human interest point of view, it's in our interest to take care of pollinators! Of course, that also means that they're a keystone species for all kinds of other processes to keep plant species healthy and thriving. 

I accidently started this challenge today! I was facing a window and saw a possum run across our neighbor's yard. My mom said, "oh no, a possum..." because they have raided our garbage cans before. But I said no, I'm sure they serve a great ecological purpose! And started Googling. Now I have some favorite things about possums to share!

Possums eat a lot of the things around us we don't care for--roaches, ticks, mice, rats, and roadkill. They're carrion species, so they do a lot of "clean-up" for us in terms of eating dead or overripe things. For us gardeners, they also like eating the snails and slugs that tend to cause our crops damage.

There are also rarely reasons to fear or get rid of possums around your home. They're not aggressive and are very unlikely to carry rabies. The biggest issue with possums is similar to raccoons--they enjoy eating trash. But this is a manageable problem and shouldn't require killing a possum.

From a purely ecological nerd perspective, I also thought it was so interesting that possums are the only marsupial in the U.S. and Canada. Apparently, their babies are born about the same size as honeybees, and they then crawl into the mother's pouch where they develop further. So cool!

I've struggled some with eating seafood. I became pescatarian a few years ago, so fish is my only meat. However, I know that it's a fraught topic in terms of environmental impact, and it's honestly really confusing for most people. You can't simply say "only buy wild fish" or "only buy farm-raised fish;" it isn't that simple and depends completely on where in the world they're caught, what species you're talking about, and with what methods they're caught. I really like the SeafoodWatch app that I just downloaded! While the amount of information is overwhelming, I really only eat a handful of seafood options, so I'm hoping I can learn what to look for in those select few so I don't always have to consult the app.

One thing I think I can do is to start buying the foods I don't think others will because they're not as educated on this topic. So for example, if I see foods in the store that are approaching/at their sell by/best by dates, I can buy those, because I bet others avoid them. The same goes for bumpy/bruised produce; I know some others won't buy them, but I'm willing to. I can deliberately look for those items in the store and make a point of taking them, since they're more likely to get wasted.