Old cookbooks are a great way of documenting changes in taste, eating habits and diets, but I wonder if they’ve ever been used in a systematic way to track changes in biodiversity in a country’s landscape, or agricultural biodiversity — either at species or genetic level — on its farms. Such thoughts are prompted by news of an exhibition of historic Australian cookbooks, with their recipes for things like parrots and kangaroo brains. Beer is a crucial complement to much Aussie grub, of course, and I hope the hop procurement problems being encountered by the brewing industry in the US are not being experienced Down Under.