We watched "Sunday Morning" today, and one of the interesting pieces was about milkweed. It seems scientists are "discovering" it may be useful as a commercial product and Vermont and Quebec farmers are experimenting with best ways to grow and harvest the pods.
     I was particularly interested because back in the 1940s during World War II, I went out with other kids in my school to pick the pods on our fairly abundant milkweed plants along roadsides. I remember how important we felt knowing we were going to be aiding the war effort. We were told it was to be used to fill life preservers and possibly could be spun into parachute material. 
     After seeing the presentation this morning, I was curious to know if I had imagined the milkweed importance all those years ago, and if not, why is this now being brought up like it's a new discovery? I found an article written in 2008 - and I'm happy to say I was not imagining. It was real - although parachute material was not mentioned. 
     Only a few years ago, people were being encouraged to preserve milkweed as a way to assist the Monarch butterfly as the flowers are an important source of food for the Monarchs. Looks like this fragrant but normally pesky weed could become farmers' newest way of diversification. 
     Another interesting bit from this morning's show - China has stopped taking much of our plastic waste material and that is forcing some companies in U. S. to figure out ways to better sort and then re-process that waste ourselves. Turns out we can probably do it cheaper and better. Sunil Bagaria, co-founder of GDB International in New Jersey, says more money can be made by processing the "contaminated plastic" China will no longer accept, rather than shipping it overseas. He says combined with bans on certain types of plastics and packaging, and working with corporations who manufacture and use those, things can turn around. His comment was, "This China problem is a blessing in disguise." 
     Like a lot of other problems we humans create for ourselves, someone, somewhere is going to solve it - it's what humans do. Here's a LINK to that segment of this morning's show.