Tag Archives: foraging

Gardens for wildlife

Posted on June 1, 2014 by argylesock

Here in Britain the gardening season looks good so far. Here’s an article about gardening for bees and other wildlife. Untidy gardeners like me are good gardeners for wildlife. It’s now a year since hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus) bred in my … Continue reading →

Posted in ecology, horticulture, miniculture | Tagged apiculture, arthropod, breeding, bumblebee, clover, conservation, ecosystem, Europe, flower, foraging, fruit, garden, gardener, green manure, hedgehog, herb, hibernation, honeybee, hymenopteran, insect, invertebrate, leaf, mammal, nest, plant_dicot, rat, salad, vegetable, vertebrate, weed, wild bee, wild food, wild pollinator, wildlife | Leave a comment

Is the GM crops war over? What’s next?

Posted on May 31, 2014 by argylesock

GM (genetically modified, genetically engineered) crops are a fact of life by now. In our interconnected world (remember the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, TTIP, which might be finalised soon) I think that people who oppose GM crops may have … Continue reading →

Posted in agriculture, fish, food, horticulture, miniculture, money and trade | Tagged Africa, America, aquaculture, Asia, biodiversity, biotechnology, Bt crop, commodity crop, crop diversity, development, Dow, entomoculture, Europe, evolution, farmer, feed, finfish, fisher, foraging, genetic modification, hunting, insect, International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications, invertebrate, Monsanto, neglected crop, pesticide resistance, plant_dicot, plant_monocot, population, Roundup Ready crop, shellfish, soya, staple food, superbug, superweed, Swaminathan_Monkombu, trade, tradition, Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, vertebrate, wild food | 10 Comments

Biodiversity to feed the world

Posted on February 20, 2014 by argylesock

When people say that the world needs more food, often they’re quoting the United Nations’ (UN’s) Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). In 2012 FAO predicted that by the middle of this century, the world’s farmers will need to produce 60% … Continue reading →

Posted in food, knowledge transfer | Tagged biodiversity, crop, food, food security, food sovereignty, foraging, fungus, Green Revolution, history, neglected crop, plant_dicot, plant_monocot, population, wild food | 5 Comments

Why not eat insects?

Posted on November 25, 2013 by argylesock

Marcel Dicke asks us in this entertaining lecture, Why not eat insects? Good question. In fact, as he says, we’re already eating insects and we’re going to have to eat more of them. The posh word for eating insects is … Continue reading →

Posted in ecology, food, knowledge transfer, miniculture | Tagged arthropod, conservation, development, entomoculture, entomophagy, food, food safety, food security, foraging, hunting, insect, knowledge, microlivestock, research, sustainable, wild food | Leave a comment

Insects could be the future of food

Posted on November 23, 2013 by argylesock

In many cultures, insects are delicacies. Mostly people are eating beetles (Coleoptera) and caterpillars (Lepidoptera). People also eat bees, wasps and ants (Hymenoptera), cicadas (Hemiptera), locusts and crickets (Orthoptera), dragonflies (Odonata) and flies (Diptera). Eating insects is called entomophagy. Those … Continue reading →

Posted in food, knowledge transfer, miniculture | Tagged coleopteran, dipteran, entomoculture, entomophagy, food, foraging, harvest, hemipteran, hunting, hymenopteran, lepidopteran, odonatan, orthopteran, wild food | 6 Comments

Seeking sustainable crops

Posted on October 22, 2013 by argylesock

Elisabeth Braw at the Guardian tells us about the search for sustainable crops. She says that we in the rich world focus too much on a tiny number of staple food species. But ‘at one time during the past 10,000 … Continue reading →

Posted in agriculture, food, knowledge transfer | Tagged African Biofortified Sorghum, banana, biodiversity, biofortification, bioprospecting, biotechnology, breeding, crop, crop variety, domestication, enset, farmer, food, food security, foraging, genetic modification, Iron Rich Pearl Millet, millet, neglected crop, nutrition, pearl millet, plant_dicot, plant_monocot, selective breeding, smallholder, sorghum, staple food, sustainable, wild food | 5 Comments

Q&A: Traditional forest knowledge is not folklore, but a resource for change

Posted on June 22, 2013 by argylesock

argylesock says… Here’s discussion of knowledge transfer from people who live in the Amazon forest. These people know what they’re doing. Around the world forest people, desert people, island people and other ‘uncivilised’ people know many things that people in … Continue reading →

Posted in ecology, food, knowledge transfer | Tagged arthropod, conservation, ecosystem, entomophagy, food, foraging, forest, fungus, hunting, insect, knowledge, plant_dicot, plant_monocot, wild food, woodland | 3 Comments

5,000 years ago, before the domestication of rice, ancient Chinese got starch from palms…

Posted on May 18, 2013 by argylesock

Originally posted on anthropogen:
From Science World Report: China wasn’t known for its agriculture until domesticated rice was introduced. Yet now, archaeologists have made an intriguing find. They’ve discovered that people in subtropical China may have practiced agriculture 5,000 years…

Posted in horticulture | Tagged carbohydrate, domestication, foraging, grain, history, nutrition, palm, plant_monocot, rice, starch, tree, wild food | Leave a comment

Forests and insects for food security

Posted on May 17, 2013 by argylesock

Originally posted on One Billion Hungry: Can We Feed the World?:
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation has recently brought attention to two neglected areas of food security: forests and insects. On the 13th to 15th May 2013 the…

Posted in food, knowledge transfer, miniculture | Tagged agroforestry, arthropod, conservation, crop, entomoculture, entomophagy, fibre, food, food security, foraging, forest, hunting, insect, knowledge, neglected crop, plant_dicot, plant_gymnosperm, plant_monocot, poverty, textile, tree, wild food, wood, woodland | Leave a comment

Dandelions control and allelopathy

Posted on May 5, 2013 by argylesock

Originally posted on changinglifestyleblog:
Although where ever possible I am not a user of herbicides, dandelions could be considered an exception. Even the smallest fragment of root will regenerate and with the production of hundreds of seeds from each plant the…

Posted in horticulture | Tagged allelopathy, allotment, dandelion, flower, foraging, garden, glyphosate, herbicide, landscape, leaf, Monsanto, perennial, pesticide, plant_dicot, root, Roundup, seed, seed dispersal, taproot, weed, wild food | 4 Comments