- How cool is it that a descendant of Charles Darwin is working on wild tomatoes on the Galapagos?
- More on the Brazilian “Economic Miracle.”
- Let my people plant trees on farmland!
- Trouble for Syrian agriculture.
- “The D. Landreth Seed Company has sold seeds to every president from George Washington to FDR.” And Obama?
- Views on the durian.
Itadakimasu!
Just before digging in, whether it be a seven-course dinner or a sample at a supermarket, it’s polite to say “itadakimasu” (I will receive).
In Japan that is. But does it really just mean “I will receive”? According to my source on all things Japanese a fuller rendering would in fact be:
Thank you to everything and everyone involved in providing this food to me — the sun and the earth and the water for making it possible, the plants and animals that grew to be the food, the farmer who grew them and the person who took it to market and the person who sold it in the market and the person who bought it and the person who prepared the food and the person who laid the table, and everyone who enabled these people to play their part.
Does any other culture heap praise on the whole food system in this way at every snack and meal?
Nibbles: More khat, Rice
- The Leaf of Allah.
- Japan invests US$6 million in rice research in Uganda.
Nibbles: Biochar, Breeding, Ag exports
- Is biochar the answer for ag? asks the headline. No, but it might be an answer, we reply.
- The Toad points us to a video on Organic Plant Breeding in Denmark.
- Guess where China gets loads of its soybeans. And cotton. And nuts.
Avant garde fungi
Ok, so who knew that John Cage was also “an avid mycologist, collector and consumer of mushrooms“?