Not surprising. I remember reading that (some of) the ancestors of Home sapiens sapiens in East Africa first started regularly using fire about 400,000 years ago... to cook starchy tubers. Apparently that population didn't start eating animals for another ~300,000 years, and others didn't even leave the forest and start using fire until ~250,000 years ago or later. History is not an ethical guide in any case...
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In a land where monkeys are seen as pests, Sri Lanka’s white langurs are winning hearts
(news.mongabay.com)
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Whales and dolphins at risk as report reveals ecological decline in Gulf of California
(news.mongabay.com)
If Iceland can grow bananas, then oil palms don't seem like much of a stretch. But whether they are grown outdoors in the lowland tropics or in a greenhouse somewhere else, that's land that cannot be native forest. At least in the tropics, it's possible to implement an agroforestry system that includes both oil palms and native trees, but in a greenhouse somewhere cold... nope. Even if the yield would be greater than that of more cold-tolerant oil crops, more energy would be needed for heating in the winter, so intuitively, it doesn't seem practical except where there would be large amounts of "waste" heat anyway, like near geothermal vents or power plants.
Fortunately, palm oil is not essential for nutrition, and many industrial applications could use (e.g.) hemp oil if palm oil is not available, so it's not necessary to increase production of palm oil. About half of world production goes to "livestock" feed anyway.
Solving world hunger, improving banana access... In practice, it's largely the same thing. But yeah, if there were crops that grew well year-round in Iceland, then that would be great. But if that were the case, then they probably wouldn't be building geothermal banana greenhouses in the first place.
When asked why he doesn’t irrigate his crops to increase yields, Dr. Johnson simply replies: “Well, then what would we pray for?” Hopi farming is a testament to his faith. And faith is tied directly to water. That’s what makes Hopi agriculture so resilient–it’s faith-based. This means it can withstand droughts, seasons with minimal growth, and the cycles of life. It's important to Dr. Johnson to continue this practice, and part of that practice means not bringing man-made lines to irrigate crops. Hopi seeds, or what he refers to as “hardy” seeds, would not know what to do with all the extra water. They have been adapted to grow within an unmanipulated environment—a quintessential trait of Hopi farming: raising crops to fit the environment, rather than manipulating the environment to fit the crops.
I'm all for rational and scientific approaches to agriculture and to engineering problems in general, but these faith-based farmers who have learnt to grow and eat the crops that do well in their environment make the people growing bananas in Iceland look pretty foolish. Imagine what could be achieved with a scientific approach to working with natural systems instead of trying to overcome them. (And imagine what could be achieved if those banana growers in Iceland simply moved to the tropics.)
a berry pie without any sugar but what’s already in the berries shouldn’t be too bad.
Wolves have been observed to subsist on almost exclusively blueberries during the height of the season in Yellowstone, so I'd say the glyphosate residue in the flour is much more of a risk than whatever fruit is in the middle.
THIS is the actual definition of Veganism, directly from the people who coined the term:
That definition is from 1988, so it's questionable whether it came "directly from the people who coined the term" in 1944. Here is a re-publication of the 1951 Leslie Cross definition:
“The object of the Society shall be to end the exploitation of animals by man” and “The word veganism shall mean the doctrine that man should live without exploiting animals.”
Allegedly someone read The World Peace Diet (by Will Tuttle) to Donald Watson on his deathbed, and Donald Watson said that the book encompassed everything that he intended when he founded the Vegan Society. Make of that what you will.
Probably 'Silk', AKA Latundan, from the Philippines.
Not all, but yes, some components are inevitably lost in the drying process. There's a reason that dried fruit is often treated with sulphur dioxide as a preservative. Of course, preserving the colour doesn't prevent the loss of large amounts of essential nutrients like vitamin C. Fresh is best whenever possible.
Convert the pasture lands to syntropic food forests and native forests, and then the birds and other native animals will have a place to live again.
Yes absolutely, though I find it a difficult spectrum between pure conservationism vs ecology. I want to plant as many natives as possible, but perfect is the enemy of good, and ultimately I believe creating habitat and restoring a functional ecosystem takes precedence over trying to wind back the clock on colonisation.
Reforesting with plenty of fruiting plants, both natives and non-natives that aren't too invasive, probably achieves the most reasonable balance. The land gets reforested, and you also get food, meaning that you don't need to buy produce that was grown by deforesting somewhere else.
Does your eco-community have any online presence?
Let us not forget that this is primarily due to deforestation, whether directly (due to loss of tree cover for moisture retention) or indirectly (due to climate change).
Sounds like you've got a great thing going! Maintaining fertility by mulching with cut vegetation and composting "waste" is really important. How big is your fruit forest? Do you plan to diversify further and fill up the field? How small do you plan to keep the trees? I've found that pruning tall trees with a pole saw is really tedious and exhausting. Do you have a particular method that's easier?