Food & Water

Food & agriculture – Aug 22

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A modest proposal for sustainable eating (Slow Food)
Saudi Arabia: Feeding its own people more cheaply
Food price rises push 14m to the brink of starvation
Charles’s fantasy farming won’t feed Africa’s poor
6 ways mushrooms can save the world
Costs spiral for cigar-leaf farms

Oxen power for family farms

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We read in the Bible of war-horses; of horses drawing chariots. But we never find an allusion to horses employed in the tillage of the land; for which by their gentleness, by the nature of the food which they require, by their great docility, oxen seem to have been formed by nature.

Holiday in UK shows Peak Oil decline is well on its way

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Ex-pat Steve holidays in England, only to find signs of the effects of peak oil everywhere. Over the period of two weeks a number of newspaper articles confirm that the perfect post-peak storm is brewing in this land, once a proud net exporter of oil.

Down, down, down on the farm – Aug 17

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Mexico sugar output may fall 3.1% on fertilizer prices
Honeybee deaths reaching crisis point
Fuel costs are eating farmers’ profits
Corn bonanza won’t cut food prices
Fertilizer, feed costs pinch dairies
Wheat residue too valuable for fuel, scientist says

Seed Saving and the Heirloom Vegetable Garden

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How serious is the problem of annual vegetable variety erosion? Very! Thousands of varieties have already been lost. Kent Whealy, founder of Seed Savers Exchange, figures that only 20 percent of the pea varieties once in cultivation are still available…Home gardeners have benefited from hybrids that are more disease resistant, more vigorous and higher yielding, but the cost has been high. Not collecting seeds means buying seeds and being dependent on seed companies, which means fewer options for home growing.