Eat some cashews, I guess.

"BISSAUZINHO, Guinea-Bissau (Reuters) - The next time you grab a handful of cashew nuts at a party, think that you may be holding the economic heartbeat of one tiny West African state in the palm of your hand.
Cashew nuts are the main export of Guinea-Bissau, a former Portuguese colony wedged between French-speaking Senegal and Guinea. Its 1.6 million people are ranked among the third poorest in the world in development terms by the United Nations.
As world leaders chase solutions to the global crisis caused by soaring food and fuel prices that threaten millions with hardship, Guinea-Bissau's peasant farmers are looking to their cashew crop to see whether they will eat or go hungry this year.

...Last year, government pricing and commercialization blunders triggered a collapse in local producer cashew prices that caused a disastrous cashew harvest for poor local farmers, who found themselves struggling to afford food for big extended families.
..."Last year, we could only sell our cashews at 25-30 CFA francs (6/7 U.S. cents) a kilo. We suffered a lot and couldn't buy rice," said Chico, a teenage girl with tightly braided hair.
"Now a kilo of rice costs 500 CFA francs ($1.19), last year it was 250 CFA," Chico added, reflecting the squeeze on pockets and bellies that the global food crisis has inflicted in Africa" LINK

California's flora- headed out?

"Two thirds of California’s unique plants, some 2,300 species that grow nowhere else in the world, could be wiped out across much of their ranges by the end of the century due to rising temperatures and changing rainfall, according to a major new study.

Those plant species that cannot migrate fast enough to higher altitudes or cooler coastal areas could face extinction due to greenhouse gas emissions that are heating the planet, according to researchers.

California’s flora face a potential “collapse,” said David Ackerly, a plant ecologist at UC Berkeley, who was the senior author of the paper. “As the climate changes, many of these plants will have no place to go.”

Half of the plant species that are unique to the continental United States grow only in the Golden State, from towering redwoods to slender fire poppies. Under likely climate scenarios, many would have to shift as far as 93 miles from their current location — a difficult task given slow natural migration rates and obstacles presented by surburban sprawl." LINK

And an excellent response to the Why Bother? article by Michael Pollan

Reading the "Why Bother?" article, I got all worked up in my pathetic own way, and rushed out to buy lettuce, leek, and parsely seedlings, and a small but pricey darling little rosemary. Filled with good intentions and feeling clean in my soul, I thought, "yes- I will grow my own lovely tomatos! and be free of the eveil, consumer cycle!" I even thought how nice it would be to be able to get a damn tomato without having an existential crisis at the supermarket, where I can spend an easy 20 minutes reading labels on tomatos and feeling torn between my puny pocket and my puny concience. Is the local greenhouse tomato a more ethical purchase than the organic from Spain? Is the $1.99/lb washed out looking hulking tasteless thing even food anymore? Is there anyway I can justify (ethically or financially) buying the gorgeous little on-the-vine ruby red ones? And it usually ends with me realizing that my quick stop for some food has turned (once again) into a minute theater of the absurd, and I quickly get some, feel horror at the register, and then let the damn things shrivel in the fridge.

Yes, I thought, I shall grow my own.

But then...

I quite like to garden, you know. I like to plant, and I love seeing things come up. I am decent at keeping plants alive. I know about what many of them want, and at least always set out to provide them with what they need. But.

Full sun? Nope. Do I get home from work (the days I get home before 10 pm) filled with a wholesome urge to drag a hose around and hand-squish pests? Nope. Have I ever managed to grow enough tomatos to justify the amount of labor, expense, and sheer pain-in-the assness of it all? Nope.

So when I read Salon's Andrew Leonard's response to Pollard's article, I felt a great easing of the soul, in that maybe I am not alone in being The Worst Person Ever.

In Leonard's response, he points out that "growing your own food is work -- ask any peasant. To be able to enjoy it as play, or as an almost spiritual exercise that connects you more deeply to the earth and all living things (some of which you must kill: Die, all aphids and snails!) can be a tough call after a long day or week at the office. It can also be an affectation that is only accessible to those who spend their Sunday mornings working their way through the New York Times, before deciding where to put their snap pea trellis."

He even goes where Pollard not only feared to tread, but didn't even acknowledge was on the map- the "what-if-you-don't-have-a-back-yard class warfare morass... everyone is landed gentry, or at the very least, can plant basil in a windowbox." issue.

Well, I have these little seedlings, and I will assuredly plant them, and I especially hope to enjoy the leeks, as leeks are my favorite veggie, but I don't really feel that in any way a little suburban vanity gardening is a solution.

I don't see a solution. When rice is being hoarded and wealthy governments are talking about rationing and poor governments are trying to hold back their starving masses, yeah- me growing some Brandywine heirloom tomatos really isn't going to make a fucking difference. They might be tasty, but that is all.

GM crops actually less productive!!! Lying lying bastards!

"Genetic modification actually cuts the productivity of crops, an authoritative new study shows, undermining repeated claims that a switch to the controversial technology is needed to solve the growing world food crisis.

The study – carried out over the past three years at the University of Kansas in the US grain belt – has found that GM soya produces about 10 per cent less food than its conventional equivalent, contradicting assertions by advocates of the technology that it increases yields." LINK

Fantastic fantastic article. Why bother?

This article made me cry it was that good and did, honestly, make me feel that there is maybe a tiny speck of hope- or at least of redemption. Maybe.

"Why bother? That really is the big question facing us as individuals hoping to do something about climate change, and it’s not an easy one to answer. I don’t know about you, but for me the most upsetting moment in “An Inconvenient Truth” came long after Al Gore scared the hell out of me, constructing an utterly convincing case that the very survival of life on earth as we know it is threatened by climate change. No, the really dark moment came during the closing credits, when we are asked to . . . change our light bulbs. That’s when it got really depressing. The immense disproportion between the magnitude of the problem Gore had described and the puniness of what he was asking us to do about it was enough to sink your heart.

But the drop-in-the-bucket issue is not the only problem lurking behind the “why bother” question. Let’s say I do bother, big time. I turn my life upside-down, start biking to work, plant a big garden, turn down the thermostat so low I need the Jimmy Carter signature cardigan, forsake the clothes dryer for a laundry line across the yard, trade in the station wagon for a hybrid, get off the beef, go completely local. I could theoretically do all that, but what would be the point when I know full well that halfway around the world there lives my evil twin, some carbon-footprint doppelgänger in Shanghai or Chongqing who has just bought his first car (Chinese car ownership is where ours was back in 1918), is eager to swallow every bite of meat I forswear and who’s positively itching to replace every last pound of CO2 I’m struggling no longer to emit. So what exactly would I have to show for all my trouble?" LINK

Some farmers giving up on growing oranic because of high grain prices, food prices escalating.

This whole article was very interesting, but some of these prices are jsut plain scary. "In some parts of the country, a loaf of organic bread can cost $4.50, a pound of pasta has hit $3, and organic milk is closing in on $7 a gallon."

"Organic prices are rising for many of the same reasons affecting conventional food prices: higher fuel costs, rising demand and a tight supply of the grains needed for animal feed and bakery items. In fact, demand for organic wheat, soybeans and corn is so great that farmers are receiving unheard-of prices.

But people who have to buy organic grain, from bakers and pasta makers to chicken and dairy farmers, say they are struggling to maintain profit margins, even though shoppers are paying more. The price of organic animal feed is so high that some dairy farmers have abandoned organic farming methods and others are pushing retailers to raise prices more aggressively.

...There has been no new surge of land going into organic,” said Lynn Clarkson, who buys organic grain as president of Clarkson Grain in central Illinois. “We are having to compete with this ethanol juggernaut,” he added, referring to the growing use of field corn for fuel.

...Doug Hartkopf, a dairy farmer in Albion, Me., said the high feed costs forced him to stop farming organically in December.

“Instead of paying $3,000 a month, I was paying $7,000,” he said. “It was a very tough decision. It was something we had to do.”

In all, at least 25 dairy farmers in the Northeast have retired early or stopped farming organically in the last six months, said Ed Maltby, executive director of the Northeast Organic Dairy Producers Alliance. He predicted that the shifts would continue unless farmers received a price increase of about 25 percent from milk processors." LINK

Eucalyptus, heading out? And taking koalas with it?

"The future of the koala, perhaps Australia's best-loved animal, is under threat because greenhouse gas emissions are making eucalyptus leaves – their sole food source – inedible.
Scientists warned yesterday that increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere were reducing nutrient levels in the leaves, and also boosting their toxic tannin content....

"What we're seeing, essentially, is that the staple diet of these animals is being turned to leather," said Bill Foley, a science professor at the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra. "This is potentially a very significant development for the future of some marsupial populations. Life is set to become extremely difficult for these animals."

"This suggests that in areas where nutrient levels are inadequate, animals will not be able to reproduce successfully," she said. "What follows are extinctions of wildlife populations. It's pretty scary stuff." LINK

Spring in England- headed out?

For some reason, as a child, I was obsessed-ish with the books of Noel Streatfield. One of them, Traveling Shoes, made repeated references to the poem Home Thoughts, from Abroad by Robert Browning, that I (obsessively) memorized. I can't imagine why I did this, but it left a deep imprint on my psyche.

Home Thoughts, from Abroad by Robert Browning

O, TO be in England

Now that April 's there,

And whoever wakes in England

Sees, some morning, unaware,

That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf

Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf,

While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough

In England—now!

And after April, when May follows,

And the whitethroat builds, and all the swallows!

Hark, where my blossom'd pear-tree in the hedge

Leans to the field and scatters on the clover

Blossoms and dewdrops—at the bent spray's edge—

That 's the wise thrush; he sings each song twice over,

Lest you should think he never could recapture

The first fine careless rapture!

And though the fields look rough with hoary dew,

All will be gay when noontide wakes anew

The buttercups, the little children's dower—

Far brighter than this gaudy melon-flower!

Now, I had some reason to feel a connect with this, but I don't want to make this personal. All I want to emphasize is that Spring, in England, is magnificent. And it's heading out- or at least moving fast away from April. Robert Browning wouldn't know what to think.

"According to documented observations throughout 2007 and 2008, events in the natural world that used to be key spring indicators, from the blooming of flowers to the appearance of insects, are now increasingly happening in what used to be thought of as mid-winter, as Britain's temperatures steadily rise.

Although many people may see the changes as quaint or charming – butterflies certainly brighten up a January day – they are actually among the first concrete signs that the world is indeed set on a global warming course which is likely to prove disastrous if not checked...

It is happening so quickly, and without people realising its true significance, because, in Britain, the major effects of climate change are initially being felt as less cold winters, rather than as hotter summers.

Those are substantial rises. Although there is always natural variation in temperatures, recent winters taken together show a remarkable warming trend.
It has meant that many of what used to be thought of as the traditional signs of spring are happening very much earlier, causing primroses, for example, spring flowers par excellence, to bloom in some parts of the country as early as November. Other traditional spring plants, such as dog's mercury and the lesser celandine (a favourite of Wordsworth's) can be seen in January rather than March.
And in what is perhaps an even more vivid change, dandelions and daisies, which used to come into flower in spring on lawns (where they were permitted), now flower in many places all winter long. " LINK

Even the freaking trees are running away.

"Forty years ago, this part of the mountain would have been blanketed with cold-loving red spruce and balsam fir trees. But today, warmer-loving northern hardwoods such as sugar maples and American beech are taking over.

...in the transition zone, where northern hardwoods quickly give way to the dark spruce-fir forest, the change was dramatic.

...a study published earlier this month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that found that the boundary between northern hardwoods and colder-loving trees shifted about 350 feet uphill in the last 40 years in response to warming temperatures." LINK

Grain, grain everywhere and not a kernel to eat.

"Everywhere, the cost of food is rising sharply. Whether the world is in for a long period of continued increases has become one of the most urgent issues in economics.
“Everyone wants to eat like an American on this globe,” said Daniel W. Basse of the AgResource Company, a Chicago consultancy. “But if they do, we’re going to need another two or three globes to grow it all.”
Rising food prices in the United States are already helping to fuel inflation reminiscent of the 1970s.
And the increases could become an even bigger problem overseas. The increases that have already occurred are depriving poor people of food, setting off social unrest and even spurring riots in some countries.
In seven of the last eight years, world wheat consumption has outpaced production. Stockpiles are at their lowest point in decades.
Around the world, wheat is becoming a precious commodity. In Pakistan, thousands of paramilitary troops have been deployed since January to guard trucks carrying wheat and flour. Malaysia, trying to keep its commodities at home, has made it a crime to export flour and other products without a license.
In the United States, the price of dry pasta has risen 20 percent since October, according to government data. Flour is up 19 percent since last summer. Over all, food and beverage prices are rising 4 percent a year, the fastest pace in nearly two decades."
LINK

More problems with biofuels.

"In 2005, America used 15% of its corn crop to replace just 2% of its gasoline. Two new studies say use of biofuels will leave the world a warmer and hungrier place.
We are witnessing the beginnings of one of the great tragedies of history," Lester Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute, said in a written statement. "The United States, in a misguided effort to reduce its oil insecurity by converting grain into fuel for cars, is generating global food insecurity on a scale never seen before."" LINK

English climate out of whack- but it's not all just flowers and barbecues. Rats and discombobulated amateur photographers abound too!

"Barbecues and sunbathing were the order of the day when Britain enjoyed some of its hottest-ever February weather at the weekend.

The English hawthorn is expected to flower by the end of the month, more than eight weeks before it normally would. Crocuses opened 11 days in advance of the past decade’s average.

...Britain is facing a plague of rats because of changing weather. Online inquiries to Rentokil have risen by 300 per cent, with reports of more and larger rodents." LINK

All this early blooming is throwing off photographers too.

"Photographers could miss out on capturing pictures of spring flowers because they have appeared much earlier this year than in 2007, warns Kew Gardens in Surrey. " LINK

2008 bringing flowers- in January. In England. Yup. Start of a great year.

"Britain may still be in the grip of grey mid-winter, but that hasn't stopped dozens of sunny wild daffodils springing up months earlier than usual in time for the dawn of New Year.

Yesterday this was the glorious blaze of colour in Cornwall, where row upon row of bright yellow flowers burst forth on a dark winter's day.

At the Royal Botanical Gardens in Kew, which monitors 100 plant species, at least two thirds of plants have shifted their flowering patterns.

There, lilacs which are supposed to flower in May have come into life already this winter and another traditional spring flower, camelias have also blossomed.

And months ahead of schedule, primroses have been seen flourishing in Sussex, crab apples in Nottingham and wild strawberries in Cardiff. "

LINK

hell is other people

ARSON

Photo:

Santiago Fire from Qual Hill
by Irvine Resident
Your News, SoCal Fire Photos

Link to photo

Hey, lawn daddies, there's a new kudzu in town. Look out for this stuff in the south.

"One of the world's worst weeds is thriving in the southern summer and it's not kudzu. It's called cogongrass. The invasive weed has already infested about a million acres in the southeast and continues to spread....If the grass is not contained, experts say the weed could eventually turn the southeast into a grassy savanna devoid of all native species. "

LINK to story

No rain, no grain.

"From the mountains and desert of the West, now into an eighth consecutive dry year, to the wheat farms of Alabama, where crops are failing because of rainfall levels 12 inches lower than usual, to the vast soupy expanse of Lake Okeechobee in southern Florida, which has become so dry it actually caught fire a couple of weeks ago, a continent is crying out for water.

In the south-east, usually a lush, humid region, it is the driest few months since records began in 1895. California and Nevada, where burgeoning population centres co-exist with an often harsh, barren landscape, have seen less rain over the past year than at any time since 1924. The Sierra Nevada range, which straddles the two states, received only 27 per cent of its usual snowfall in winter, with immediate knock-on effects on water supplies for the populations of Las Vegas and Los Angeles."
LINK

the bees- wtf? scary stuff

"Several researchers, including entomologist Diana Cox-Foster of Penn State and Dr. W. Ian Lipkin, a virologist at Columbia University, have been sifting through bees that have been ground up, looking for viruses and bacteria.

"We were shocked by the huge number of pathogens present in each adult bee," Cox-Foster said at a recent meeting of bee researchers convened by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.The large number of pathogens suggested, she said, that the bees' immune systems had been suppressed, allowing the proliferation of infections.

The idea that a pathogen is involved is supported by recent experiments conducted by VanEngelsdorp and USDA entomologist Jeffrey S. Pettis.One of the unusual features of the disorder is that the predators of abandoned beehives, such as hive beetles and wax moths, refuse to venture into infected hives for weeks or longer.

According to the Apiary Inspectors of America, 24% of 384 beekeeping operations across the country lost more than 50% of their colonies from September to March. Some have lost 90%."
LINK

Climate change + flower shows = "unprecedented challenges"

"Last month's record temperatures mean that spring is up to a month in advance of its normal period over much of the country - and as a result, the flowers being carefully nurtured for Chelsea, which opens a week on Monday, have been blooming far too early.

A panoply of gardening tricks is having to be employed by growers to hold back the march of nature and keep prize specimens from "going over" before the Royal Horticultural Society's flagship annual event, one of the world's premier gardening festivals. Those tricks range from cold stores and dark tunnels, to constant movement of plants in and out of light and warmth, repeated deadheading - and even individual "straitjackets" for flower buds.

Another problem has been a plague of pests. Jekka McVicar, who is growing organic herbs at Alveston, near Bristol for her Chelsea exhibit, has found so many greenfly on plants such as lettuce and mint that she has had to brush them off with a dry paint brush (not being able to use pesticides as an organic grower). "It's very time-consuming," she said.

Chris Beardshaw, who is recreating an Edwardian country house garden, said that columbines, for example, which had already flowered, were having to be replaced with achilleas. "Normally you would not expect achilleas to flower until late June or even early July," he said." LINK

No more Aussie wines? We're doomed. No, seriously, this is scary stuff. Australian agriculture- heading out?

This is unbelievable. Where the hell are they going to buy food, China? yeah, sad joke, I know, but seriously.... probably, yeah. American farmers are going nuts planting corn to burn up in our cars. Christ what a world we've made. And me too- I should have thought about it, I should have wondered why the 'sunburnt country' was making such good inexpensive wine. Unsustainable irrigation, that's why. Add a major major drought, maybe some general temperature rise, and, well, it's out.

"The Murray-Darling basin in south-eastern Australia yields 40 per cent of the country's agricultural produce. But the two rivers that feed the region are so pitifully low that there will soon be only enough water for drinking supplies. Australia is in the grip of its worst drought on record, the victim of changing weather patterns attributed to global warming and a government that is only just starting to wake up to the severity of the position.

The Prime Minister, John Howard, a hardened climate-change sceptic, delivered dire tidings to the nation's farmers yesterday. Unless there is significant rainfall in the next six to eight weeks, irrigation will be banned in the principal agricultural area. Crops such as rice, cotton and wine grapes will fail, citrus, olive and almond trees will die, along with livestock.

A ban on irrigation, which would remain in place until May next year, spells possible ruin for thousands of farmers, already debt-laden and in despair after six straight years of drought."
LINK

Bees, headed out. Can you hear me now?

I have posted about bees before, but this is extra grim. Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) has spread through Europe and is now affecting England.

"...[CCD] has now hit half of all American states. The West Coast is thought to have lost 60 per cent of its commercial bee population, with 70 per cent missing on the East Coast.

CCD has since spread to Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece. And last week John Chapple, one of London's biggest bee-keepers, announced that 23 of his 40 hives have been abruptly abandoned."

A new theory for the losses is that "radiation from mobile phones interferes with bees' navigation systems," but who knows. "No one knows why it is happening. Theories involving mites, pesticides, global warming and GM crops have been proposed, but all have drawbacks."

LINK to Independent article, 15 April 2007

These are other recent posts mentioning "bees"
Weird weather pounding US economy
I've blogged about a lot of these issues before, but there are some new industries being affected that haven't been talked about yet. Poor bees. And I was wondering about the maple syrup!"Business scrambles to cope with weird weatherFrom Maine to California, temperature extremes hit the bottom line...
Make hay while the sun shines- because the bees need you to. And we need bees!
... played a major role in the decline of the bumble bee, according to new research. The big drop in haymaking and the rise of silage is driving out the bees, whose numbers have declined by 60 per cent since 1970." LINKThis is scary too- apparently, bees don't like GM crops: "Wild Bees Reject Genetical...
Heatwave in Bulgaria.
... e freakish weather is starting to take its toll.The flu has been particularly vicious this year due to the warm and moist weather across the country; bees are looking for flowers and bears are wide awake searching for food." LINKin the last 50 years the domesticated honeybee population”which most fa...
The bees are dying. Warning: very sad and scary.
Bees, one of the key factors in sustaining agriculture as we know it, are dying. Colony Collapse Disorder- the bee equivalent of, oh, Boston dying suddenly, is spreading."STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - A mysterious illness is killing tens of thousands of honeybee colonies across the country, threatening honey...
bees- headed out?
"Colonies are going down. The bees aren't dead in the box or aren't out front," says Jerry Bromenshenk, a bee researcher at the University of Montana. "They've just disappeared. Just vanished."Bromenshenk is leading a team of bee researchers looking for a cause. He's even listening to hives for sign...
Bees. Without them, we all die. The bees are dying. Yup.
Thanks to B. for sending this link to the Daily Kos's coverage of the awful, unspeakable, horrible things that are happening to the bees, and what that means for us. (Hint: we're all DOOMED.)"Other types of pesticides allow bees to return home, and then die inside the hive. This type of poisoning is...