#5SmartReads - March 22, 2023

Hitha on sustainability, careers we should be investing in, and a simple way to reduce poverty

March 22, 2023

"We have this stigma with working with your hands like that's supposed to mean you have less of a brain," says Robb Sommerfeld, co-founder of the National Center for Craftsmanship. "That's absolutely not the case."

While the steadying rise in apprenticeships and career trainings without a four year degree is great news, the decline in those entering skilled trades is something to examine - and invest in.

The application rates for plumbing and electrician careers have dropped by nearly 50% between 2020-2022, and this workforce is beginning to age out.

I hope technical education gets the investment and resources to recruit that it deserves - and that we give trade and vocational careers the respect they deserve.

““It was literally just an idea. We had no prototypes or even beakers to pour water into, and we got half a million dollars — just from an idea, which is unheard of in the Black community,” Ojeaga says, noting that Black and brown founders face more scrutiny from investors. The funds jumpstarted production, and four months later, Ojeaga had two prototypes of compostable, plant-derived braiding hair that were infused with ginseng root extract and rosemary... unlike anything else on the market.”

Nourie Hair is the kind of company that made me an investor - a truly disruptive product (and a much improved one compared to the market), building the right team early on, and getting the funds needed to advance it from idea to reality.

I can only imagine how many “no’s” Osahon Ojeaga and Dr. Mary Ellen More received, and how they kept fighting to get to that first yes - and then the next.

I’m in awe, and I can’t wait to see what’s next for Nourie.

This is not an easy - or short - read. But this interview with Matthew Desmond, author of Poverty, by America (I just ordered the audiobook) is a careful examination on defining poverty in line with today’s America, and who is benefitting from the aid intended to reduce poverty in this country.

It is a hard read, but a hopeful one as well.

I highly recommend listening to the 35 minute interview (the article is an excerpt of the full interview). It’s well worth your time and our collective attention.

This quote, in particular, is one I’m still thinking about:

“A lot of us are getting these tax breaks and we don't see that as a government helping us. We see that as us getting to keep more of what is rightfully ours. And often that leads to a kind of attitude, a political attitude, where we don't think the government is in our lives. And so those of us who are more apt to take that mortgage interest deduction are also more apt to vote against affordable housing proposals. Those of us who already have employer-sponsored health insurance — which by the way, is government subsidized in a massive way — we're often apt to vote against the Affordable Care Act. And so it does have this kind of strange political, maddening irony in our lives.”

The past has been on my mind lately, especially my early years as a content creator. I wrote about how a single post changed the direction of my blog (and my career, really) in last weekend’s newsletter.

I’m also thinking about the outfits I would wear specifically to share on said blog, and why I chose those outfits (jumping on trends I saw others wearing, feeling underdressed when I wore my usual styles at events).

The core why is I was still learning who I was, and wearing “blog-worthy” outfits was a part of that journey.

Fatima Fahreen Mirza (whose book, A Place for Us, is one of my all-time favorites) writes about this journey of style and self with such heart and eloquence. This essay is so beautiful and empathetic, and has me revisiting those old outfits with compassion (and a imperceptible cringe).

“Advocates like Doumeizel cast seaweed as the savior of many social and environmental woes: the industry requires no fresh water, pesticides, or fertilizers, they note; it doesn’t take up any land and can overlap with other uses of the ocean like offshore wind farms; its low-tech operation can help to alleviate poverty and provide jobs for women in the developing world; and some companies, including Cascadia, are collaborating with Indigenous communities. Seaweed creates a rich habitat for sea life, soaks up CO₂, counteracts acidification, and absorbs run-off nutrients.” 

While there’s no sole solution to singlehandedly turn around climate change, there are a lot of immediate and near term solutions, like carbon sequestration and gas-electric hybrids, that can help.

Seaweed farming is one of those solutions, but needs to be scaled responsibly to avoid the challenges faced in previous aquaculture booms (especially fish and shrimp farms). I really enjoyed learning more about seaweed and its role in food production and climate mitigation efforts, and the potential and risks in scaling seaweed farming.

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