Author: Jeremy Cherfas

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A menu of political diversity

“Traditional” usually means indigestible or overcooked. “Organic” means it costs more.

I’m not going to fall into the trap of taking satire seriously enough to correct misapprehensions. ((Actually, I am; indigestible is a good thing, if by that you mean a lower glycemic index, which confers all manner of health benefits. And organic needn’t cost more, especially if externalities are properly internalised.)) But that’s a tiny snippet from a very entertaining piece on The Economist’s Europe View. It explains menu items such as Cutlet Carpathian Style ((You’re halfway through eating it when the Ukrainians take it away and say the rest belongs to them.)) and other gems. What I want to know is, could we do the same for traditional, neglected and underutilised species?

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Nibbles: Agroforestry, Forecasts, Coffee, Pigs, GIS, Potatoes

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Beer diversity on tap

Dock Street Brewery … announces the release at the West Philadelphia brewery and restaurant of Sudan Grass Sorghum Ale, a draft-only beer “inspired by the traditional fermented sorghum beverages found in Africa”. And that ain’t all.

Tony Knipling of Vecenie Distributing notes that the Millvale distributor has several interesting new brews, including “Pittsburgh’s first Slovenian import,” Lasko Club; Brasserie Pietra brews from Corsica, one brewed with chestnuts and another with with myrtle, strawberry, rockrose and spices; Scottish craft brews (including one made with guarana, kola nuts and poppy seeds) from Brew Dog; and Sah’tea, described as a “modern update of Finnish beer” brewed with black tea, juniper berries and other spices and hot river rocks, from Delaware’s always-edgy Dogfish Head.

Hot river rocks? Luigi will be sampling in due course.

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Diversification of livelihoods

A 10-year study of Tanzanaia’s Kagera region concludes that:

  • households that have diversified their farming activities, growing food crops for their own consumption, cash crops for sale, and keeping livestock, have found it easiest to escape from poverty
  • households involved in business and trade have also been successful, though this option has only been open to households in better-connected villages with initial endowments of land and other wealth
  • good health and extensive trust networks have helped households move out of poverty
  • illness and agricultural shocks have important negative effects on everyone, except the most well-off

Good news, you might have thought, unless you were loaded for vampire.