about us

Planet Earth Observatory is a 501 (c )3 non-profit organization that encourages experiential-based learning for a healthy planet. We collaborate in established gardens with students, teachers, urban gardeners, scientists, artists and makers to observe nature to observe nature, grow healthy food, heal the planet and ourselves.

Summers in Los Angeles are getting longer and hotter. All that heat affects the food we grow because edible plants grow best within a certain temperature range. Too much heat and the process of photosynthesis breaks down. Crop yields suffer, and  even crop losses can result. The nutritional value of plants also suffers under these conditions, having a particular impact on children’s health.  What can we do locally to mitigate the effects of climate change in our food gardens and farms?  We can start by “growing” healthy soil. Healthy soil not only increases to the nutritional value of crops, it also conserves water and helps reduce levels of greenhouse gasses.

Climate Change in a Hungry World, is our data-driven field experiment that promotes healthy soil practices carried out in school, community and other gardens and farms around Metropolitan Los Angeles.  Initial funding for the project came in 2018 from a NOAA's Planet Stewards Grant and the Community Science Academy at Caltech. Subsequent support has come from Cal Poly Pomona's College of Agriculture.  
Participating institutions (some temporarily halted by Covid-19) have included: Cal Poly Pomona, the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens, Pomona College, Whittier College, Jack London Continuation School, Grant Senior High School and Cal State Northridge, Pasadena Community Garden, a front yard demonstration garden run by Girl Scouts and Pasadena City College.   We are also partnering with 

To get the word out, we are partnering with Cal State Chico on a citizen science project growing fava beans as a cover crop to improve soil health.