There is simply no way to summarize Willie Smits‘ Ted Talk. It is a masterful description of putting the complexity in an agricultural ecosystem to work to solve the problems of humans and orang-utans. Just astonishing. And so much more intellectually satisfying than a simplified system. Luscious.
花見
And while on the subject of spring, what could be more redolent of Nature’s awakening after winter’s torpor than hanami (花見) — flower watching? You can do it in Washington DC, Brooklyn or Skopje. But the best place to follow the sakurazensen — the cherry blossom front — is clearly Japan. You’ve still got a few more weeks if you live in Hokkaido.
Nouvelle cuisine
Idaho’s Treasure Valley Farmer-Chef Collaborative sounds like a really cool idea. It brings producers — including producers of some fairly unusual things for Idaho — together with the area’s top restaurateurs. The former get a lucrative market, the latter some interesting new ingredients with which to attract customers. Everybody wins. And speaking of interesting new ingredients, how about goat meat? Apparently, New Yorkers have just discovered it. Fuggedaboutit.
Nibbles: Gas, Gas, Conference, Food systems, Food systems, Food systems, Food systems, Coconuts, Sugar
- Who really cares about cow farts anyway when we have coal fired power plants to deal with? We do.
- On the other hand … “Agriculture has been missing in the run-up talks to Copenhagen“
- Visit Puglia, study Food Law & Policy. What’s not to like?
- Jane Jacobs, Manchester, Birmingham and more robust food systems.
- On the other hand … Pig City is the most provocative concept at “Carrot City”
- Tienes hambre? All about Mexican food.
- Fishing for glass eels in Japan. Yummie.
- Rainfall predicts coconut yield in Sri Lanka.
- Another use for agave.
Barking up the right tree
The new NWFP-Digest is out. That’s only if you get it by email, however. It’ll be on the website ((FAO’s link is dead.)) in a couple of days. As ever, lots of interesting links, but the one that really caught my eye was an article on the success of Ugandan bark cloth on the international fashion scene. It was named a “masterpiece of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity” by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 2005. Called lubugu, it is made from the bark of Ficus natalensis. Interestingly, this species is an invasive in Hawaii. Elsewhere in the Pacific, they make bark cloth — tapa — from Broussonetia papyrifera, but the dyes come from a Ficus, among other species.