Native Gardening isn't always Sustainable

A nice post by The Garden Professors - reminding us that native plants aren't always the best choice for gardeners looking to maximize biodiversity and minimize resource usage.

h/t: Greensparrow Gardens

"We Are What Our Ancestors Ate"

Evolutionary biologists discussed the ideal human diet at a recent meeting.

Our ancestors enjoyed a range of diets - from generally omnivorous australopithecines, through Homo species that increasingly specialized in large game, to the incredible variety of diets that creative H. sapiens cultures have come up.

These regional diets have left imprints on their descendants. This article discusses how people of warm lowlands (e.g. the Pima of the American Southwest) may have developed slow metabolisms to withstand famine and heat while people from cold climates (e.g. the Saami of Norway or Quechua of Peru) may have developed fast metabolisms to convert fat to energy efficiently. All peoples suffer when exposed to the modern Western diet, but the extent to which they develop specific diseases (e.g. obesity, diabetes, high cholesterol or heart disease) depends on their biological history.

There's no shortage of debate over exactly what characterized the Paleolithic diet for humans in different times and places, but I guess there's consensus in the paraphrase:

"More meat, Fewer carbs, No milk."

I especially like how this article brings the academic discussion back down to Earth:

"Others noted that even if one paleodiet proves particularly healthy, it would be hard for people in different cultures to comply with it. "Food is identity," says Ungar. "You can't tell an Eastern European Jew to eat pork" or an Italian to skip pasta. The bottom line, says Leonard, is that although some diets are better than others, "there isn't a perfect diet that is the same for everyone. The nature of our success is to find and make a meal in virtually any environment. But our different responses are structured by the basic biology we bring to the table.""

h/t: John Hawks Weblog

Farming Brooklyn's Rooftops

I just discovered the blogs of Brooklyn Grange and Rooftop Farms.

I'll be keeping an eye on them!




h/t: the irresistible fleet of bicycles

Meat Consumption and Greenhouse Gasses

A study from UC Davis asserts that animal ag is not an important source of greenhouse gasses and decreasing meat consumption, therefore, is not an effective way to fight climate change.

"Mitloehner said leading authorities agree that, in the U.S., raising cattle and pigs for food accounts for about 3 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions, while transportation creates an estimated 26 percent."

h/t: Advocates for Agriculture

Virus Melts Caterpillar!

I recently saw a presentation on the molecular biology of baculoviruses and was blown away by the missed opportunity to discuss their ecology.
If the speaker had introduced this fascinating group of viruses properly, the audience would have been much more interested in what he had to say.

The lifecycle of a typical baculovirus begins when a caterpillar ingests virion particles while feeding on a leaf. The virus exists in two different forms - a tough protective structure that can survive the elements and an infective structure that travels quickly through the insect's body.

The former version of the virus can withstand harsh environmental conditions -heat, solar radiation and rain - but it breaks down in the incredibly alkaline environment of an insect's midgut (pH as high as 10 or 12!). This alkalinity (on par with ammonia!) dissolves the virion's protective matrix and allows the virus' nucleic acids to climb into the insect's gut cells. The virus then transforms to its latter form and spreads throughout the body by budding off each infected cell in little bubbles of cell membrane.

In Manduca sexta (pic.), this virus also seems to induce the caterpillar to wander up high into branches before it dies. This was noticed in Germany in the 1900s, where it was called "wipfelkrankeit," or, tree-top disease. At this point the virus enters its lytic phase, bursting cells and inducing the caterpillar's own cells to produce chitnases that digest the exoskeleton. The sick caterpillar literally melts, leaving only a black, virus-filled stain on the leaf. The slurrified caterpillar drips and falls down through the branches, contaminating every leaf it touches. Our very hungry caterpillar got infected by eating the liquefied corpse of another.

Because these virion particles are water soluble, they can likely be found on every land mass and in every body of water on Earth - and are certainly present on most of the fruits and veggies you eat! Luckily, they're harmless to us. In fact, they're so incredibly species-specific that they haven't been very useful as biopesticides since growers usually need to control more than one bug at a time. There are just a few commercial preparations, including one that the USFS uses to control gypsy moths. Baculovirus biopesticides (like many forms of biocontrol) are kinda tricky to use, and therefore expensive, but a few labs are working on discovering/engineering more effective viruses strains.

Urban Hunting

Yet another interesting foodie article from the NY Times: The Urban Deerslayer. They describe the recent appearance of urban hunting clubs that cater to novices who may never have so much as held a gun or carved a turkey.

I'm all for anything that gets people more involved in nature. People who interact intensively with nature understand it much better and make more meaningful efforts to conserve it. Some people like to watch birds, some like to climb mountains and some like to hunt - these are all valuable nature educations, plus the hunters (like gardeners!) learn something about where their food comes from.

Besides, the Midatlantic-Northeast deer herd is absolutely out of control. It's very satisfying how quickly our abandoned ag land has exploded with secondary forests in the past few generations but, lacking predators, the deer population has also exploded. I'd love to spend time in local woodlands that haven't had every sign of greenery within 6 feet of the ground scoured clean.

h/t: The World's Fair

Fake Flowers

I was just at the store and saw poinsettias covered in glitter.

Gross.