About 190 million Americans have experienced an earlier-than-normal spring leaf-out, based on the behavior of lilac and honeysuckle. Leaves emerged 30 to 50 days earlier than normal near the Rockies and in parts of the Plains, breaking records.

When a baby grows in the womb, it doesn’t grow alone. It grows inside a placenta. A living support system. Delivering nutrients. Balancing water. Filtering toxins. Supporting development. Without the placenta, the baby cannot survive. Life depends on relationships. And trees are no different. A fruit tree planted alone in the middle of a lawn is like a baby without a placenta. Technically alive. But missing the living system designed to support it. And what do we do when that happens? We replace relationships with chemicals. Fertilizers for nutrients. Pesticides for pests. Herbicides for competition. Because the natural support network is gone. In nature, trees never grow alone. They grow inside communities. Plants that mine minerals from deep soil. Plants that fix nitrogen. Plants that attract pollinators. Plants that confuse pests. Plants that protect and cover the soil. In permaculture we call this a tree guild. A living support network. For example: Comfrey mines minerals. White clover fixes nitrogen. Yarrow accumulates nutrients. Chives and marigolds deter pests. Borage attracts pollinators. Nasturtium acts as a trap crop. Each plant has a role. Not competing with the tree. Supporting it. And honestly… Who wants to live alone anyway? Nature thrives in communities. So do we. Maybe the real question when planting a fruit tree is not: “How do I care for this tree?” But: Who belongs in its community? 🌳

Bill Zylmans said it plainly: diversification is key. Different markets. Different varieties. Different ways of doing business. That kind of flexibility is no longer a nice-to-have for growers. It is what resilience looks like. If a farm, business, or supply chain is too dependent on one buyer, one channel, or one export market, it leaves itself exposed. The tough years have a way of revealing where the weak points are. That is exactly why Grow matters. Grow is not just another tool. It is a different way of doing business. We have built infrastructure that helps create: more market opportunities more flexibility stronger domestic and supply chain relationships new ways to capture, verify, and monetise value From traceability to commerce to ecological assets and real-world tokenisation, Grow opens the door to diversification in a way traditional systems simply do not. Resilience will not come from doing more of the same. It will come from building optionality into the system. That is what we are building. Come explore what we have built. #Grow #Agriculture #AgTech #FoodSystems #Traceability #Diversification #Resilience #Web3 #RWA #Farmers https://spudsmart.com/5-questions-with-cpc-chair-bill-zylmans/?utm_campaign=Spud%20Smart%20Spudcast&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_6RPuQNC6SlPcoZBU6FHZn3YXJg1ZRINZeac0FxCi_z4OmNeVkIuAFCPO5JYjpAsf9HUpZui0qS9xjwyBWuuzbCv_eF-LSxf-58BYeXGjZeSfRIAs&_hsmi=410400060&utm_content=410399629&utm_source=hs_email

We all know that in the last five years, inflammation has skyrocketed and has been in the news almost constantly. There have been diets and meal plans all founded on combating inflammation in the body. One thing that isn't talked about enough is pesticides and residues from conventional agriculture. When considering that cost is always a factor when people are buying food, it's safe to assume that most people are buying conventional produce. And with that, they're getting a whole list of herbicides, fungicides, pesticides... And a lot of that stuff doesn't wash off in the sink. And when it's being ingested, it's breaking down our gut lining, causing leaky gut and therefore inflammation. The longer this goes on, the harder it is to heal. And once again, I think the solution is regenerative farming, organic farming, local farming, local ranches. I feel like once we get that established, then we can really talk about focusing in on nutrition and healing the rest of the body.

How many people genuinely believe they’re getting enough vitamins and minerals from the food they eat? Most people assume they are. They eat reasonably well, maybe take a multivitamin, and feel fine enough. But the bigger picture tells a different story. Data based on NHANES analysis from the Linus Pauling Institute shows widespread shortfalls across 19 essential nutrients when measured from food alone. No supplements. Just diet. That matters because micronutrients are not a bonus feature of a healthy diet. They are the machinery of human biology. Every immune response, enzyme function, hormone signal, and neurological process depends on a steady supply. When that supply falls short, the body compensates. It prioritises. It borrows. That can work for a while. Until it doesn’t. This is what researchers call hidden hunger. Not starvation. Not even hunger in the way most people think about it. It is a condition where a population can be overfed on calories and still undernourished at a cellular level. Food is everywhere. Real nourishment is not. Now look at the standard Nutrition Facts label. Out of those 19 nutrients, only four are consistently highlighted: Vitamin D, Calcium, Iron, and Potassium. The other 15, including Magnesium, Choline, Vitamin E, Vitamin K, and Zinc, are often absent or treated as optional. So the main tool people use to judge whether food is healthy does not show the full nutritional story. It was never designed to. It captures a narrow slice and presents it as enough, largely in a system built around processed food and generic averages. And even then, what it shows is only an estimate, not a real measurement of what is actually in the food on your plate. That is a problem. At Grow, this is exactly why traceability, transparency, and data integrity matter. The future of food cannot just be about volume. It has to be about quality, nutrient density, and trust. Farmers, producers, and consumers all deserve better visibility into what food really delivers.