New Agriculturist focuses on livestock feed and fodder systems.
Archaeo-agrobiodiversity discoveries highlighted
Squash seeds and chickens feature among the Top Ten discoveries of 2007, according to Archaeology Magazine. I believe we linked to both of these stories when they first appeared. The article on Polynesian breakthroughs also mentions work on pigs that we blogged about.
Agriculture illuminates Art illuminates Agriculture
Artists do the darndest things. From WorldChanging, a report on several art projects that involve agriculture as their theme. I was particularly intrigued by three of them. The Acorn Pig asks how long a region famed for its bacon can live on its laurels. Milk maps the movements of links along the chain that turns milk into cheese. And F.R.U.I.T. uses fruit to open the eyes of urban consumers. Each is great fun and a fine time waster, if that’s what you need. But each also has serious points to make about the nature of agriculture and eating today. I just wish artists would do their art and leave writers to write; things might be a lot easier to comprehend.
Hamming it up
Jamon iberico finally gets a visa.
Canadian fish in trouble
Two separate pieces in EurekAlert in the past couple of days point to something being decidedly rotten in the state of Canadian fisheries. First, evidence that parasitic sea lice from salmon farms are spreading to nearby wild populations and may wipe them out within a few years. ((Can anyone think of a similar thing happening with a crop and its wild relatives? I can’t.)) And the historic American eel fishery is also in trouble, possibly as a result of pollution in Lake Ontario. Bad luck, or something more?