as the thin belt of naturally irrigated, fertile soils depletes and diminishes, we will probably get re-used to other grains, such as buckwheat and millet, which get short shrift, as do barley and quinoa, to name just four.
much to the benefit of our health, imo. The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person doing it. Chinese Proverb.
As a staple, corn is not the most nutritious crop, and it is particularly ill-suited to cropland where good rainfall is not reliable. It requires a significant amount of rain at a particular time in the growing cycle, or the crop will fail. It's particularly sad in Africa given that it's an introduced crop and was not the staple of anybody's diet until this last few generations. Some leaders (like Banda in Malawi) encouraged people to "modernize" by embracing a maize-based diet and turning away from more traditional foods. Nowadays, many people don't consider anything else to be "real food."
I know a few folks who have been out preaching diversification, trying to convince people that they can grow corn and other crops like millett, barley, sorghum, etc. I've also met a few young people who've been trying to convince their families to diversify their crops as an act of self-preservation, but unfortunately it's difficult work for them.
An absolutely amazing woman named Dolores runs this restaurant in Swaziland that is based entirely on the idea that Swazi traditional food is not only good, but also the country's best hope against hunger. I went there for the first time while there was a food shortage in Swaziland and 40 percent of the population was being fed by the World Food Programme. She refuses to advertise, routinely rejects tour groups or invitations to the royal palace. She doesn't grant interviews to the media. Dolores doesn't want to reach foreigners, she wants to reach Swazis.
Thus, entire Midwest is one Eatus Muchas beetle or Killus Plantus virus infestation away from complete crop failure.
Dwarf wheat, the mainspring of the Green Revolution, is grown everywhere in the world. It shares the situation as US corn only doubled, redoubled, and in No Trump.
In the EU locally developed, historic, cultivars are illegal to grow for purchase. That's why most of your veggies taste like sawdust, in comparision. The US relies on the Invisible Hand of the Marketplace© to deliver crappy tasting veggies to the consumer. In both places, the Beefsteak-like tomato was selected for its ability to survive being dropped 3 feet (one meter) onto a concrete surface without the skin breaking.
Which brings-up an interesting question: Just exactly how often are the little buggers dropped onto concrete floors anyway? Perhaps there are some things we really don't want know about our food supply. A doo run-run-run, a doo run-run
Do you have a reference to this? Seems like a natural thing to lobby the European Commission and Parliament on. Can the last politician to go out the revolving door please turn the lights off?
Can't give an exact quote or page number as locating my copy would require a major archeological expedition into the dim recesses of my pile of book boxes. (I'm under the delusion my little remodeling task will end and we'll actually get to move at some point in my life.) IIRC look in the chapter about vegetable gardening, but don't hold me to that!
A doo run-run-run, a doo run-run
A couple of weeks ago, I went to buy some fruit trees. I travelled to the world's most unprepossessing centre of biodiversity: Langley, on the outskirts of Slough. In the first half of the 20th century, most of London's fruit and vegetables were grown round there. The farms were supplied by specialist nurseries, which ensured that Britain possessed a wider variety of temperate fruit trees than any other nation. Two weeks ago, only one of them was left. In the 1940s, JC Allgrove's kept 1000 varieties of apple trees. It is still listed in the directories as one of Britain's great growers. But I was among its last customers. Since the owner died two years ago, the business has been run by a volunteer, Nick Houston. "There are bits of ground here where no one's been for 20 years," he told me. Recently, scrabbling beneath the ivy which now covers the orchards, he found a fruit he had never seen before. It was a Baumann's Reinette: the horticultural equivalent of a Faberge egg. "But I had no idea which bloody tree it had fallen off". Somewhere in the nursery there should be two varieties - King Harry and St Augustine's Orange - which even the national fruit collection doesn't possess, but he hasn't been able to find them yet. The land is to be sold. Nick will salvage what he can and run a business of his own, under the old name, to try to keep the rare breeds growing. He gave a one-word answer when I asked him what had happened to the business. "Supermarkets". Today the apples they buy are landing three miles from JC Allgrove's. Heathrow's first runway was built on strawberry farms and orchards. From the air, you can still see derelict greenhouses and the parallel lines on the land where fruit trees once grew. Richard Cox, the man who bred the world's favourite apple, is buried beside St Mary's Church in Harmondsworth, which will be flattened if a third runway is built at Heathrow.
Since the owner died two years ago, the business has been run by a volunteer, Nick Houston. "There are bits of ground here where no one's been for 20 years," he told me. Recently, scrabbling beneath the ivy which now covers the orchards, he found a fruit he had never seen before. It was a Baumann's Reinette: the horticultural equivalent of a Faberge egg. "But I had no idea which bloody tree it had fallen off". Somewhere in the nursery there should be two varieties - King Harry and St Augustine's Orange - which even the national fruit collection doesn't possess, but he hasn't been able to find them yet. The land is to be sold. Nick will salvage what he can and run a business of his own, under the old name, to try to keep the rare breeds growing.
He gave a one-word answer when I asked him what had happened to the business. "Supermarkets". Today the apples they buy are landing three miles from JC Allgrove's. Heathrow's first runway was built on strawberry farms and orchards. From the air, you can still see derelict greenhouses and the parallel lines on the land where fruit trees once grew. Richard Cox, the man who bred the world's favourite apple, is buried beside St Mary's Church in Harmondsworth, which will be flattened if a third runway is built at Heathrow.
[Anger management techniques employed: I am calm. I am rational. Breathe deeply & let it go ... let it go.]
[profanity laced rant excised]
Gosh.
That's unfortunate.
But I suppose it's more important to have a new runway at Heathrow than saving cultivars developed over a thousand years.
Please excuse me. I would like to go outside and scream for a wee bit. A doo run-run-run, a doo run-run
It's called The Anglo Disease. Can the last politician to go out the revolving door please turn the lights off?
do not try this at home, kids.
that's also why you don't see ripe hayden mangoes or strawberry papayas around yurp much.
they don't make it over the net too often The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person doing it. Chinese Proverb.
