Growing Wild

In a landmark two-year review, the Health Council of the Netherlands—the country’s highest scientific advisory body—has delivered its verdict on gender affirming care for transgender youth. The council’s conclusions were universally positive for gender-affirming care: it endorsed the treatments as careful, lawful, and effective, framed quick access as a matter of the right to health, warned that “doing nothing” is harmful, cast aside the Cass Review as not applicable to Dutch care, reported zero cases of regret among trans youth patients, and called the reduction of the country’s years-long wait times “morally urgent.” In doing so, the Netherlands becomes the latest in a series of European countries to reaffirm and strengthen care for transgender youth, refuting a right-wing talking point in the United States that Europe is “pulling back.” The review was commissioned in May 2024 in the wake of the Cass Review. The Health Council’s committee ran systematic literature searches and consulted outside clinical experts chosen for their differing perspectives on the care—a list that included Hilary Cass herself. The panel was chaired by Olaf Dekkers, a Leiden University Medical Center professor of internal medicine whose academic specialty is research methodology, and seated professors of health law and medical ethics alongside practicing physicians and psychiatrists. From that foundation, the committee dismantled the argument at the center of the American campaign against this care—that the evidence is too weak to justify treatment—answering that the evidence quality for trans youth care is in line with the norm across pediatric medicine, and that doing nothing carries documented harms of its own, pointing specifically to harms produced by America’s own care bans. The committee concluded that the care is lawful and careful, and that it works as intended, stating in its summary: "The committee concludes that somatic treatment for young people with gender dysphoria fits within the health law framework. It further finds that scientific research shows the intended physical effects are achieved, that there are indications of some improvement in mental outcomes, and that the number of cases of regret is low. In the committee's view, the current data on unintended physical and mental effects are not cause for concern." The advisory also rejected the framing that treating transgender youth is a risky intervention while not treating them is a neutral default. Delaying care, the review found, carries its own harms: youth develop unwanted and often irreversible physical changes—some of which can only be undone later with surgery—while mental health suffers in the meantime, and some young people locked out of careful care turn to unregulated hormones on their own. The committee's answer, in a passage aimed directly at that framing, calls the reduction of wait times a moral imperative: "Non-treatment is therefore not a neutral option. In the public debate, treating is often presented as intervening, while waiting is treated as self-evident. From the perspective of autonomy it becomes clear that delaying or withholding care also has consequences for young people's lives and their developmental possibilities—and that those consequences are morally relevant. From that perspective, shortening the waiting times is morally urgent."

It's called frost irrigation and contrary to its looks it is an active protection system for delicate buds!

Overhead water sprinklers spray the tree during freezing temperatures. As water turns to ice, it releases latent heat, maintaining plant tissue right at the freezing threshold ie 0°C shielding buds and blossoms from severe cold damage.

It works on the principle of latent heat which is released during the phase change from water to ice and physically locking plant temperature safe.

A constant slush or water-ice mixture acts as a thermal blanket around sensitive continuously releasing the latent heat.

The system is turned on before temperature is expected to drop to 0°C ie around 1C and the water flow is continuous until temperatures rise above 0c again. Stopping early causes evaporative cooling and worse damage!

During mid-winter dormancy, fully hardened apple flower buds are actually really hardy and can survive extreme cold down to about to -40°C. However, as winter ends and buds begin to swell or open in early spring, their cold tolerance drops sharply, making them vulnerable to light frosts.

Swollen/Silver Tip: Buds survive down to roughly -9°C.

Green Tip: Temperatures dropping to -8°C) can cause minor (10%) damage.

First Pink / Bloom: Tolerance weakens significantly -2°C) kills 10%, -4°C can destroy 90% of blossoms.

Photo credit Andre Kupa.

When you have multiple types of the same pumpkin species all mixed together, it can be really hard to keep track of who's who once your vines start meandering all over the place. It always helps me to start noticing characteristics of the vines themselves, not just the fruit, to distinguish them at a glance. The differences are extremely subtle in most cases, but I can at least tell these neighboring Pipsqueak and Kakai vines apart easily.

Spiny Ant (Polyrachis armata), family Formicidae, Malaysia

FROM ROOF TO TABLE - ROB STEPHENSON

Link to the CONFEDERATED TRIBES OF THE COLVILLE RESERVATION donation page

LINK TO THE OFFICIAL DONATION PAGE FOR THE CONFEDERATED TRIBES AND BANDS OF THE YAKIMA NATION

Above: Various leaves in my garden and the snack they mysteriously turned into on July 2, 2025

Below: Tetragonia salad (because my lettuce died in the heatwave) and a (katydid? baby grasshopper?) hiding under a leaf on July 22, 2026

While this isn't news to anyone who works in this space, it is useful to have this water-is-wet research to affirm that Indigenous knowledge and land management are extremely effective at storing carbon and protecting biodiversity.

I want to draw special attention to this part of the article:

‘Cockroach Movement’ Forces Out India’s Education Minister

"Indian Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan resigned on Saturday amid mounting pressure from the “Cockroach Movement,” which demanded major government reforms—starting with his departure. Student activists accused Pradhan of failing to safeguard a competitive medical school exam, the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET), after authorities concluded that its contents had been leaked online. ...

Without accepting fault, [Education Minister Pradhan] explained that he had agreed to step down in order to prevent “anti-national forces” from exploiting the upheaval. 

Abhijeet Dipke, the founder of the CJP, celebrated the resignation with fellow protesters in New Delhi on Saturday.

“It's a victory for the people of India,” Dipke said to the crowd. He later posted an image of India’s Constitution on social media, with the caption: “Thank you.” ...

On the advice of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Indian President Droupadi Murmu appointed Pralhad Joshi—who already oversees the ministries of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, along with New and Renewable Energy—to oversee the Ministry of Education “in addition to his existing portfolio,” which is a typical arrangement in India following a Cabinet vacancy and does not preclude a later permanent appointment...

CJP Spokesperson Saurav Das said in an interview with local media ANI following the president’s announcement that the party members will be meeting the new education minister “very soon.” ...

What Comes Next for the CJP?

The CJP established its list of demands on May 16. In addition to calling for Pradhan’s resignation, the CJP asked for compensation of 10 million rupees ($104,000) for each student who died by suicide following the leak. 

They also sought greater legislative oversight of the educational system, gender equity in government roles, a fully independent media, and certain reforms to the electoral and political system—such as creating a 20-year ban on politicians switching parties before seeking election.

Adding to those mandates, the CJP last week asked that the central government drop any potential charges against protesters, after claiming that several had been “illegally detained” by police. 

Following Pradhan’s resignation, representatives from the CJP met with officials from the Indian government to discuss the rest of the party’s demands. In a press conference following the meeting, Das said on Saturday that the negotiations had been successful.

"All our demands have been accepted,” he said, without elaboration. “We request the protesters to withdraw immediately and return home peacefully."

The CJP added during the press conference on Saturday that representatives from the movement would meet with officials again in four weeks to work on broader reforms. Its spokesperson told local media that the fight for a transparent educational system is far from over. 

He said that members of the CJP conveyed to officials that if the issues are not addressed, the protesters will reconvene “and demand accountability.”

(Source) August 2nd, 2026.

A mini zine I made about the importance of bats in agriculture.