This story was originally published by Grist, an independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Sign up for Grist’s weekly newsletter here. Picture the bucolic little town of a fairy tale. At its core stand medieval buildings, a square where folks hawk their goods and perhaps a well to provide water. Beyond the defensive wall radiate agricultural fields where people toil to bring grains, fruits and vegetables to market. Invert that for modern times and you’ve got the idea behind “agrihoods,” communities designed around a central farm. Like a garden in a big city, agrihoods promise to boost food security, reduce temperatures, capture rainwater and increase biodiversity. As climate change intensifies heat, flooding and pressure on food systems, agrihoods could be a way to make urban living more resilient — not just more picturesque. “Developers have a hard time offering open space, because they would like to build more housing,” said Vincent Mudd, a partner at the architectural firm Steinberg Hart, which designs agrihoods. “One of the few ways to kind of bridge that gap is to be able to use active open space that actually generates commerce.” On paper, an agrihood is a simple concept: A working farm surrounded by single- or multifamily housing. Steinberg Hart recently finished two of them in California — one in Santa Clara and another, called Fox Point Farms, in Encinitas. The former, south of San Francisco, features townhouses, market-rate units and affordable housing, plus a community center and retail shops. The latter, north of San Diego, adds a farm-to-table restaurant, an event venue and a grocery store, but its housing is primarily for sale instead of rent. “Two different housing programs for two different communities, but built around the sustainability of urban farming,” Mudd said. While these projects are in relatively affluent areas, Mudd said agrihoods can be built nearly anywhere — though it might require tweaks to zoning rules. “Almost every city has the ability to make that zoning change,” Mudd said, “because it retains commerce, preserves jobs, generates sales tax income from retail and provides mixed-income, attainable housing.” Fox Point Farms agrihood in Encinitas, California. Credit: Kyle Jeffers (Last year, residents of the agrihood development in Santa Clara alleged that management failures have left them living in unsafe and unhealthy conditions, with delayed repairs, poor air quality and other issues. The building’s manager, the John Stewart Co., and owner, Core Affordable, did not respond to a request for comment.) Where it gets more complicated is the logistics of the farm. Water is the big one: Ideally a farm captures enough rainwater to keep crops hydrated. Because Northern California enjoys a Mediterranean climate of rainy winters and warm, dry summers, the Santa Clara agrihood gathers precipitation and stores it in a tower. “It auto-refills with city water once it gets to a certain point, but we can get two-thirds, or sometimes all the way through the summer without having to do that,” said Lara Hermanson, co-founder of Farmscape, which helped design, install and maintain the community’s farm. A rainwater-capture system, though, comes with an upfront cost that a community garden in a lower-income neighborhood might not be able to afford. If one year the rains stop and drought takes hold, it will have to pay for more water. “Perhaps people with the biggest need for food or nutrition security are also sort of disproportionately facing greater water expenses,” said Lucy Diekmann, an urban agriculture and food systems advisor at University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources. Weighed down by negative news? Our smart, bright, weekly newsletter is the uplift you’ve been looking for. [contact-form-7] Even so, one of the many charms of any urban farm or garden is that greenery, and even bare dirt, breaks up the concrete landscape. Historically, cities have been designed to whisk water through gutters and sewers as quickly as possible before it can pool and cause flooding. This strategy struggles to keep up as climate change supercharges rainstorms, making them dump more water. Green spaces let all that liquid soak into the ground, mitigating flooding even without deliberate catchment systems. Still, an agrihood’s farm isn’t going to run itself. From the very beginning of planning, Hermanson said, a community must decide what it’s going to grow. The general idea is to get as much yield as possible because space is constrained compared to an industrial farm. So pumpkins probably aren’t a great idea, because those plants take up so much room. Instead, in Santa Clara, Hermanson grows Persian cucumbers, cherry tomatoes and hot peppers because they’re small. While an agrihood can’t feasibly provide all the calories residents need, it’s an especially powerful system because the produce that it does produce is highly nutritious. Scale that food production up across a city, and the impact could be huge: One study found that Los Angeles could meet a third of its need for vegetables by converting vacant lots into gardens. “It’s incredible what we could do with what we have, and what we could do even more with intentional planning,” said Catherine Brinkley, a social scientist who studies urban agriculture at the University of California, Davis. In Encinitas, Greg Reese, the farm manager at Fox Point Farms, is sending food to the agrihood’s grocery store, so in addition to size he also considers the value of his crops. A lot of that comes down to speed: Arugula grows faster than cantaloupe, meaning Reese can harvest it, send it to market and grow some more in quick succession. (Given the pleasant climate of Southern California, the farm can grow food for 11, maybe even 12 months of the year.) It can also produce foods that the chefs at the on-site restaurant want. “What is in high demand, and then what grows really fast as well?” Reese said. “I can plant a seed and they can harvest it in a month, or transplant it within two months, so it’s a higher turnover.” These crops can even benefit from a quirk of city life: The urban heat island effect. As the sun beats down on all that concrete, asphalt and brick, the landscape absorbs its thermal energy — raising the mercury well above surrounding rural areas — and slowly releases it at night. This is a growing problem for urbanites struggling with ever-higher temperatures. On the flip side, these green spaces help cool the neighborhood because their plants release water vapor, making summer more comfortable for the surrounding community. Wait, you're not a member yet? Join the Reasons to be Cheerful community by supporting our nonprofit publication and giving what you can. Join Cancel anytime An agrihood can also support local biodiversity. Planting native flowering species, for instance, simultaneously beautifies the landscape and attracts pollinating insects, hummingbirds and bats (which eat mosquitoes, an added bonus). Even the flowers the crops produce provide food for these pollinators, which return the favor by helping the plants reproduce. With the crop varieties decided, an agrihood can figure out how much refrigeration and storage capacity to build out. Those who live there will also have to decide whether to sell produce from a stand or use it in an on-site restaurant. And they’ll need to project the costs of hiring outside help to keep the farm going. It’s not so simple, then, as just erecting a few buildings around a green space and calling it a day. “All those things need to be figured out before you start putting things on paper and making commitments,” Hermanson said. “Successful farms are well-funded, well-staffed. Everyone does better with clear expectations, clear budgets, and then also the community knows what it is they’re getting.” The post What Happens When a Neighborhood Is Built Around a Farm? appeared first on Reasons to be Cheerful.

BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM In the natural world, plants are often thought of somewhat as competitors, out there jostling for sunlight, nutrients, and space. But new research suggests they may also be surprisingly cooperative, especially when environmental stress hits. A recent study, published as a preprint on bioRxiv, found that when plants physically touch one another, they activate a kind of early warning system, sharing signals that make them more resilient to stress. The team behind the discovery, led by plant scientist Ron Mittler at the University of Missouri, demonstrated that this physical contact helps plants better tolerate intense light, an increasingly common stressor in a warming climate. “We demonstrated that if plants touch each other, they are more resilient to light stress,” said Mittler in an interview with New Atlas. “If you stimulate or stress one plant, it will send a signal to all the other plants that it touches, and they all become more tolerant.” Building a plant-to-plant warning system The researchers used Arabidopsis thaliana, a small flowering plant commonly used in genetic studies, to test their hypothesis. They created two groups: one in which the plants’ leaves physically touched, and another where each plant grew in isolation. Both groups were then exposed to high-intensity light, simulating the kind of stress that might occur during a heatwave or under direct sunlight. The researchers measured ion leakage from the leaves, a biological marker of damage, as well as the accumulation of anthocyanins, plant pigments that increase under stress. The findings were clear: plants in physical contact showed significantly less damage and fewer stress markers than those grown alone. In other words, the touch group was more resilient. To dig deeper, the researchers turned to genetically modified plants that couldn’t transmit typical chemical signals. They created a three-plant chain: a transmitter, a middle “mediator,” and a receiver. Then, they swapped in signal-deficient mutant plants in the middle. This resulted in the receiver plant losing its resilience, confirming that communication was broken. Further analysis revealed that hydrogen peroxide, a common chemical messenger in plants, plays a central role in this signaling process. Cooperation, not just competition While it’s long been known that plants communicate underground through root systems and mycorrhizal fungi, above-ground communication, especially through touch, is less understood. Mittler’s findings suggest a kind of plant cooperation that’s been overlooked. “Typically, we view plants as competitors,” said Mittler. “But if you grow under harsh conditions, you better grow in a group. If you grow under really ideal conditions—with no predators, with no stressors—then you better grow individually.” This speaks to a broader evolutionary trade-off: plants in challenging environments may gain a survival advantage by forming dense clusters and physically connecting. Piyush Jain, a plant biologist at Cornell University and co-author of the paper, praised the approach. “The authors of this paper propose a thoughtful and clever experimental design to better understand the still underexplored pathways of aboveground plant-to-plant communication,” he said. Jain noted the importance of the study in addressing “a longstanding question: whether chemical signaling and electrical signaling are responsible for increased resilience to excessive light stress.” Why this matters This study opens new avenues for understanding how plants adapt to climate stress, especially as environmental conditions grow increasingly extreme. With prolonged heatwaves and intense sunlight becoming more common, insights like these could inform agricultural practices, crop density strategies, and even how we design urban green spaces. Though the study has yet to be peer-reviewed, it adds to a growing body of research challenging the perception of plants as passive organisms. Instead, they may be more interactive and socially responsive than we realize, capable of forming their own networks through simple physical contact. Source study: bioRxiv—United we stand: Plants that physically touch each other are more resilient to excess light stress     Did this solution stand out? Share it with a friend or support our mission by becoming an Emissary.The post How plant “touch” boosts resilience: new research reveals surprising stress response first appeared on The Optimist Daily: Making Solutions the News.

BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Joy is often framed as a constant state we’re supposed to reach and maintain, as if feeling good were a personal achievement or a public performance. A quick scroll through social media reinforces the idea that joy should be visible, upbeat, and uninterrupted. When it isn’t, it can feel like a personal failure. Psychology tells a very different story. Joy is not something we summon through effort or positive thinking alone. It’s a natural nervous system response that emerges when we feel safe, resourced, and connected. Like any biological capacity, it can be strengthened, but not through pressure or denial. A more useful way to think about joy is as something similar to muscle tissue. Muscles grow when the right conditions are present: enough challenge to stimulate change, enough rest to recover, and enough nourishment to sustain the system. Joy works much the same way. It’s not an attitude we adopt on command, but a response our minds and bodies generate when conditions allow. With that in mind, here are three evidence-based ways to expand your capacity for joy without forcing gratitude or pretending everything is fine. 1. Help your nervous system feel safe with joy One of the most overlooked barriers to joy is not sadness or stress, but discomfort with positive emotion itself. Just as people vary in how much distress they can tolerate, they also differ in how much pleasure, ease, and excitement their nervous systems can safely hold. For people who grew up with emotional unpredictability, chronic criticism, or neglect, feeling good may not feel safe. Joy can register as vulnerable or fleeting, triggering thoughts like “this won’t last” or “something bad is about to happen.” These reactions aren’t character flaws; they’re protective reflexes developed by a nervous system that learned early on to stay guarded. Research supports this. Large studies show that people with higher levels of adverse childhood experiences report lower happiness in adulthood, not only because they feel more distress, but because their emotional systems are less able to process and sustain positive emotion. They’re more likely to suppress emotions and less likely to use strategies like cognitive reappraisal, both of which are linked to lower well-being. The goal, then, is not to chase more joyful experiences, but to increase your capacity to stay with them when they arise. One simple, research-supported practice is positive affect savoring: deliberately lingering with a pleasant sensation for a few seconds longer than usual. That might mean pausing after a sip of coffee you enjoy, letting a kind comment fully land, or noticing how your shoulders soften during a moment of ease. Holding your attention on a positive sensation for just ten to fifteen seconds helps strengthen neural pathways associated with safety and reward. Over time, joy begins to last a little longer, because your nervous system learns that feeling good does not require immediate shutdown. 2. Quiet the mental noise that crowds out joy Joy also struggles to take hold when the mind is busy narrating, planning, or worrying. You might be in the middle of a pleasant moment while another part of your brain is already rehearsing what’s next or revisiting what went wrong earlier. Joy requires presence, and presence requires some mental quiet. This isn’t just a philosophical idea. In fact, it shows up clearly in research. In a randomized controlled trial with university students, just two weeks of daily mindfulness practice led to significant reductions in anxiety, stress, and negative emotion. More strikingly, reductions in rumination continued to strengthen even three months later. The intervention didn’t remove stressors; it changed how much mental noise surrounded them. When rumination decreases, well-being often rises on its own. Joy doesn’t need to be added, it simply needs space. One accessible way to create that space is through monotasking. Choose one small activity each day to do without multitasking: eating without scrolling, walking without listening to anything, or showering without mentally planning the day. When the constant inner commentary softens, even briefly, the nervous system can register what’s already happening. Often, something good is present, but we’re just too distracted to feel it. 3. Give your brain something good to look forward to Interestingly, the brain’s reward system responds most strongly not when pleasure arrives, but when it’s anticipated. Dopamine pathways light up during the act of looking forward to something enjoyable. Anticipation creates momentum and helps organize the mind around the future. Studies show that when people imagine future activities along with how they expect to feel emotionally, their motivation increases more than when they imagine the same activities in neutral, factual terms. This process, which is sometimes called affective forecasting, helps the brain lean toward engagement and well-being. Modern life, however, offers plenty of instant access and very little anticipation. When pleasure is always immediately available, the reward system gets overstimulated but undernourished. Joy flattens into mild distraction. A simple antidote is to create small, predictable sources of future pleasure. These might include a weekly coffee ritual, a favorite show reserved for certain evenings, a standing walk with a friend, or a creative project you return to each weekend. These rituals aren’t dramatic, but they give the brain something to simulate and look forward to. Over time, this steady anticipation can shift your emotional baseline. The future begins to feel less like a series of demands and more like a sequence of invitations. A quieter, more sustainable joy Joy doesn’t arrive through force or performance. It grows when the nervous system feels safe, when the mind has room to be present, and when there’s something gentle to look forward to. By staying with small moments of pleasure, reducing mental clutter, and cultivating meaningful anticipation, joy becomes less fleeting and more durable. Rather than something to chase, joy becomes something you slowly make room for. That, in the long run, is far easier to sustain.     Did this solution stand out? Share it with a friend or support our mission by becoming an Emissary.The post 3 science-backed ways to build more joy into everyday life first appeared on The Optimist Daily: Making Solutions the News.

An 8-year-old Maryland girl and her dad have made history with an album that’s the musical equivalent of sunshine. Aura V. and her father, whose recording name is Fyütch, won a Grammy this month for Best Children’s Music Album for their LP Harmony. The triumph makes Aura the youngest Grammy winner in the organization’s history, […] The post 8-Year-Old Maryland Girl Becomes Youngest Grammy Winner Ever with Daddy-Daughter Album appeared first on Good News Network.

Princess Lilibet is growing up fast, and she’s starting to look just like her dad, Prince Harry, according to a recent social media post. On Valentine’s Day, Meghan Markle shared a new photo of her four-year-old daughter on Instagram. In it, she’s dressed like a tiny ballerina, and Prince Harry is embracing her. He looks at her with pure love in his eyes as she holds a bouquet of red balloons. While we can only see part of her face, we can see that she looks a lot like her famous father. And she definitely got his hair. View this post on Instagram “These two + Archie = my forever Valentines,” Meghan captioned. Meghan Markle and Prince Harry said “I do” on May 19th, 2019, and had two children together. Princess Lilibet’s brother, Prince Archie, is six. The couple broke ties with the royal family in 2020, despite their royal titles. They now live in Montecito, California. This story’s featured image is by Kristina Bumphrey/Variety via Getty Images.