Aubrey Vaughn, Assistant Editor

Aubrey is the editor of the health beat and co-editor for all things nature related. Should you drop by the office and hear anyone expounding on the horrors of food additives or dissecting the latest environmental legislation, odds are you’ve found her. On the off-chance that it’s silent in the Mother Earth News habitat, she’s probably been distracted by a triple cream brie or some other cheesey delight — all in the name of research, of course, as she has recently been appointed to assist with food coverage.

Outside of the office, you’re most likely to find her exploring outdoors, practicing Iyengar yoga (favorite pose: headstand or salamba sirsasana), at the farmers market with friends or with her nose buried in a good book. For the purest doses of the out-of-doors, Aubrey farmsits for Ogden coworkers when they’re out of town — happy under the vaulted Kansas skies and losing hours out in the fields with the goats, sheep, donkeys and other critters.

Aubrey is particularly interested in helping people understand how inextricably linked we are to our environment and it to us — from the effects of the industrial food and manufacturing systems to the results of our individual daily choices. Everything we do leaves a mark on the environment, and once introduced into the ecosystem, the effects of our actions come back to visit us via the air we breath and the water we drink. In this cycle of interdependence mindful, conscientious stewardship is the surest route to a thriving planet and, in turn, a vibrant world for us to live in.

Along these lines, Aubrey is passionate about helping people rediscover nature and connect with our marvelous blue planet — the oceans, in particular, are a current obsession. She’s convinced that those who think they prefer the sterile indoors simply haven’t been properly introduced to their original native habitat, and that all they need to feel passionate about the environment is a taste of how miraculous it all is.

You can find Aubrey’s blog posts in Healthy People, Healthy Planet.

A few favorite articles, in no particular order:

15 Fun and Surprising Facts About the Earth’s Oceans
5 Fun and Educational Environmental Animations
Life on the Homestead, by Jenna Woginrich
Easy Cheesey: 4 Super-Simple Recipes, by Tabitha Alterman
How to Make Mustard 
Chocolate! The Best of the Best Organic, Fair Trade Chocolate, with Katherine Loeck
How to Make Butter and Buttermilk, by William Rubel
The Beauty of Wilderness: A Photo Essay from The Wilderness Society, by Ben Beach
Healing with Humor: Those Who Laugh, Last, by Michael Castleman
Vitamin D: Sunshine and So Much More, by Linda B. White, M.D.
Interview with the World's Best Weed Eater, by Megan Phelps
What Are Your Tips for Beating Insomnia and Sleeping Better? 
Delicious, Homemade Whole-grain Hamburger Buns, by William D. Adams