If you’ve never heard of a tagua nut, you’re not alone. The seed of the South American tagua palm isn’t well-known in the 21st century, but in the early 20th century, it was all the rage. Though edible at certain stages of development, it’s not primarily used as food. Rather, it served as an eco-friendly alternative and precursor to plastic and ivory.

In fact, it was plastic that caused the decline in demand for the tagua nut, also known as “vegetable ivory.” The scientific name for it translates as “plant elephant,” which makes sense considering how similar the solid form of the nut is to ivory from elephant tusks.

In fact, according to clothing expert The Iron Snail, the only real difference in useful qualities between tagua and ivory is density. But even by that measure, they’re pretty close.

So why were so many people in the 1920s wearing tagua? The nut was apparently a great material for making buttons. There were metal and wood buttons, of course, but tagua nut buttons served as the precursor to the now ubiquitous plastic button.

Tagua nut buttons are also called corozo buttons. Though they used to be made out of necessity, today they are a sustainable, eco-friendly, high-quality alternative to plastic. Some people collect vintage and antique tagua buttons, but companies still make them today, largely in South America.

Tagua is also used to make jewelry, as well as small artistic sculptures and musical instrument parts, as it can be carved the same way ivory can.

How is it edible if it’s nearly as hard as ivory, one might wonder? Like a coconut, the tagua nut is liquid inside during the early stages of maturation. At one point, the inside that will later turn white and hard is a clearish jelly that people can eat. Only after it fully matures and hardens in the sun can it be used as a carving material.

Tagua nuts are not the only plant-based ivory out there, either. In fact, Weird Explorer shared three fruits and seeds that can claim the “vegetable ivory” moniker. Tagua may be the most well-known of the three, but apparently the Hyphaene genus of palm fruit and the Metroxylon palm fruit also have ivory-like qualities.

Today, tagua often shows up in modern-day artisan jewelry. Creators from countries like Ecuador and Colombia make colorful beads, earrings, and other jewelry from the seed. The fact that the seed pods fall from the tree when fully ripened means the trees are not harmed during harvesting. Fair-trade nonprofit retailer Ten Thousand Villages shares that tagua is considered a renewable resource. The process of transforming it into jewelry or other art, however, isn’t easy. Artists work meticulously and arduously to prepare the seed for jewelry production, including special dyeing processes.

Don’t you feel a smidge smarter now? If you see tagua jewelry, you know exactly what it is. And if you want to impress (or annoy) your friends, find a 100-year-old suit and tell them what the buttons are made of.

A single door can open up a world of endless possibilities. For homeowners, the front door of their house is a  gateway to financial stability, job security, and better health. Yet for many, that door remains closed. Due to the rising costs of housing, 1 in 3 people around the world wake up without the security of safe, affordable housing. 

Since 1976, Habitat for Humanity has made it their mission to unlock and open the door to opportunity for families everywhere, and their efforts have paid off in a big way. Through their work over the past 50 years, more than 65 million people have gained access to new or improved housing, and the movement continues to gain momentum. Since 2011 alone, Habitat for Humanity has expanded access to affordable housing by a hundredfold. 

A world where everyone has access to a decent home is becoming a reality, but there’s still much to do. As they celebrate 50 years of building, Habitat for Humanity is inviting people of all backgrounds and talents to be part of what comes next through Let’s Open the Door, a global campaign that builds on this momentum and encourages people everywhere to help expand access to safe, affordable housing for those who need it most. Here’s how the foundation to a better world starts with housing, and how everyone can pitch in to make it happen. 

Globally, almost 3 billion people, including 1 in 6 U.S. families, struggle with high costs and other challenges related to housing. A crisis in itself, this also creates larger problems that affect families and communities in unexpected ways. People who lack affordable, stable housing are also more likely to experience financial hardship in other areas of their lives, since a larger share of their income often goes toward rent, utilities, and frequent moves. They are also more likely to experience health problems due to chronic stress or environmental factors, such as mold. Housing insecurity also goes hand-in-hand with unstable employment, since people may need to move further from their jobs or switch jobs altogether to offset the cost of housing. 

Affordable homeownership creates a stable foundation for families to thrive, reducing stress and increasing the likelihood for good health and stable employment. Habitat for Humanity builds and repairs homes with individual families, but it also strengthens entire communities as well. The MicroBuild® Initiative, for example, strengthens communities by increasing access to  loans for low-income families seeking to build or repair their homes. Habitat ReStore locations provide affordable appliances and building materials to local communities, in addition to creating job and volunteer opportunities that support neighborhood growth. 

Everyone can play a part in the fight for housing equity and the pursuit of a better world. Over the past 50 years, Habitat for Humanity has become a leader in global housing thanks to an engaged network of volunteers—but you don’t need to be skilled with a hammer to make a meaningful impact. Building an equitable future means calling on a wide range of people and talents.Here’s how you can get involved in the global housing movement:

Speaking up on social media about the growing housing crisis 

Volunteering on a Habitat for Humanity build in your local community

Travel and build with Habitat in the U.S. or  in one of 60   countries where we work around the globe

Join the Let’s Open the Door movement and, when you donate, you can create your own personalized door 

Shop or donate at your local Habitat ReStore

Every action, big and small, drives a global movement toward a better future. A safe home unlocks opportunity for families and communities alike, but it’s volunteers and other supporters, working together with a shared vision, who can open the door for everyone. 

Visit habitat.org/open-door to learn more and get involved today. 

Anyone who’s worn jeans (and if you don’t fall into this category…how?) has seen those odd little metal buttons around the pockets. While those metal bits might seem like meaningless decoration upon first glance, in truth, they are an amazing feat of engineering and ingenuity. 

In a now-viral video by content creator Fineas Jackson, we go back in time 150 years to the late 1870s, when laborers—the original denim trendsetters—kept tearing through their jeans while working. 

Usually this damage wasn’t a result of long-term wear and tear, but of premature rips made by a single motion. Crouch down to hammer a railroad spike, tear. Push a saw back and forth for lumber, tear. You get the idea. 

Tired of making endless repairs to jean rips, Reno-based tailor Jacob Davis became determined to find a solution. Davis just so happened to make horse blankets and tents as well, which were fortified with copper metal rivets. It dawned on him that the same studs could be used to strengthen certain stress points in jeans. The pockets, the waistband, the crotch area, etc. And so, he began replacing the stitches in those areas with rivets using a hammer. 

Et voilà: impenetrable pants. 

From quick fix to global staple

However, this was only part of the puzzle. Davis needed to protect his idea, and to do so, a patent was needed. Being unable to fund it himself, he reached out to his fabric supplier, Levi Strauss. Yes, the Levi behind Levi jeans. 

By 1873, Strauss and Jacobs received their patent for “fastening pocket-openings,” as they were called, ushering in the ever-enduring era of blue jeans. 

Today, the rivets we see in modern jeans look almost exactly the same as those in the late 1800s…except the crotch area and back pockets. 

For the former, you can thank cowboys lamenting about their nether regions heating up and getting accidentally branded by the campfire, explained Jackson. 

And for the latter, they were removed after customers complained that they scratched up furnishings like chairs, saddles, and so........

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