#Corn agriculture

[reasonsforhope]

"In response to last year’s record-breaking heat due to El Niño and impacts from climate change, Indigenous Zenù farmers in Colombia are trying to revive the cultivation of traditional climate-resilient seeds and agroecology systems.

One traditional farming system combines farming with fishing: locals fish during the rainy season when water levels are high, and farm during the dry season on the fertile soils left by the receding water.

Locals and ecologists say conflicts over land with surrounding plantation owners, cattle ranchers and mines are also worsening the impacts of the climate crisis.

To protect their land, the Zenù reserve, which is today surrounded by monoculture plantations, was in 2005 declared the first Colombian territory free from GMOs.

...

In the Zenù reserve, issues with the weather, climate or soil are spread by word of mouth between farmers, or on La Positiva 103.0, a community agroecology radio station. And what’s been on every farmer’s mind is last year’s record-breaking heat and droughts. Both of these were charged by the twin impacts of climate change and a newly developing El Niño, a naturally occurring warmer period that last occurred here in 2016, say climate scientists.

Experts from Colombia’s Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies say the impacts of El Niño will be felt in Colombia until April 2024, adding to farmers’ concerns. Other scientists forecast June to August may be even hotter than 2023, and the next five years could be the hottest on record. On Jan. 24, President Gustavo Petro said he will declare wildfires a natural disaster, following an increase in forest fires that scientists attribute to the effects of El Niño.

In the face of these changes, Zenù farmers are trying to revive traditional agricultural practices like ancestral seed conservation and a unique agroecology system.

Pictured: Remberto Gil’s house is surrounded by an agroforestry system where turkeys and other animals graze under fruit trees such as maracuyá (Passiflora edulis), papaya (Carica papaya) and banana (Musa acuminata colla). Medicinal herbs like toronjil (Melissa officinalis) and tres bolas (Leonotis nepetifolia), and bushes like ají (Capsicum baccatum), yam and frijol diablito (beans) are part of the undergrowth. Image by Monica Pelliccia for Mongabay.

“Climate change is scary due to the possibility of food scarcity,” says Rodrigo Hernandez, a local authority with the Santa Isabel community. “Our ancestral seeds offer a solution as more resistant to climate change.”

Based on their experience, farmers say their ancestral seed varieties are more resistant to high temperatures compared to the imported varieties and cultivars they currently use. These ancestral varieties have adapted to the region’s ecosystem and require less water, they tell Mongabay. According to a report by local organization Grupo Semillas and development foundation SWISSAID, indigenous corn varieties like blaquito are more resistant to the heat, cariaco tolerates drought easily, and negrito is very resistant to high temperatures.

The Zenù diet still incorporates the traditional diversity of seeds, plant varieties and animals they consume, though they too are threatened by climate change: from fish recipes made from bocachico (Prochilodus magdalenae), and reptiles like the babilla or spectacled caiman (Caiman crocodilus), to different corn varieties to prepare arepas (cornmeal cakes), liquor, cheeses and soups.

“The most important challenge we have now is to save ancient species and involve new generations in ancestral practice,” says Sonia Rocha Marquez, a professor of social sciences at Sinù University in the city of Montería.

...[Despite] land scarcity, Negrete says communities are developing important projects to protect their traditional food systems. Farmers and seed custodians, like Gil, are working with the Association of Organic Agriculture and Livestock Producers (ASPROAL) and their Communitarian Seed House (Casa Comunitaria de Semillas Criollas y Nativas)...

Pictured: Remberto Gil is a seed guardian and farmer who works at the Communitarian Seed House, where the ASPROL association stores 32 seeds of rare or almost extinct species. Image by Monica Pelliccia for Mongabay.

Located near Gil’s house, the seed bank hosts a rainbow of 12 corn varieties, from glistening black to blue to light pink to purple and even white. There are also jars of seeds for local varieties of beans, eggplants, pumpkins and aromatic herbs, some stored in refrigerators. All are ancient varieties shared between local families.

Outside the seed bank is a terrace where chickens and turkeys graze under an agroforestry system for farmers to emulate: local varieties of passion fruit, papaya and banana trees grow above bushes of ají peppers and beans. Traditional medicinal herbs like toronjil or lemon balm (Melissa officinalis) form part of the undergrowth.

Today, 25 families are involved in sharing, storing and commercializing the seeds of 32 rare or almost-extinct varieties.

“When I was a kid, my father brought me to the farm to participate in recovering the land,” says Nilvadys Arrieta, 56, a farmer member of ASPROAL. “Now, I still act with the same collective thinking that moves what we are doing.”

“Working together helps us to save, share more seeds, and sell at fair price [while] avoiding intermediaries and increasing families’ incomes,” Gil says. “Last year, we sold 8 million seeds to organic restaurants in Bogotà and Medellín.”

So far, the 80% of the farmers families living in the Zenù reserve participate in both the agroecology and seed revival projects, he adds."

-via Mongabay, February 6, 2024

[mesopelagic-zone]

will grain

this is my corn

[ahsokatanoe]

sydney shaking her head and richie beginning to smile wider after he points at her means everything to me

[noosphe-re]

Nixtamalization is the process of adding an alkali solution to dried corn kernels in order to transform them into nixtamal, a product that is more workable, tasty, and nutritious than it would be otherwise. Nixtamalization is native to Mexico, where corn is one of the staple foods. The exact history of nixtamalization is unknown, but it has been used by native Mesoamericans for millennia. In fact, nixtamal is derived from two words in the indigenous Mexican language, Náhuatl: nextli, meaning ashes, and tamale, meaning corn dough.

Mackenzie Stratton, What is Nixtamalization

[mindblowingscience]

The discovery offers plant breeders a new tool to develop desirable dwarf varieties that could enhance the crop’s resilience and profitability. A team of scientists spent years working to pinpoint the functions of the gene ZmPILS6. Now, they have been able to characterize it as an important driver of plant size and architecture, a carrier for an auxin hormone that helps govern growth in roots below ground and shoots, or stalks, above ground. Their findings are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Continue Reading.

[economicsresearch]

page 564 - okay, I can't let it go yet because it is all just churn, like the cutaway of this popular rapid in the Adirondack Mountains of north-east America.

I'm too annoyed with myself to actually explain my thinking here, so I'll just leave some breadcrumbs for you to figure out the metaphor.

-AI

-consumption and regurgitation

-ouroboros

-diminishing returns

-diminished humanity

-swim in an innocuous river

-pulled into a faster current

-no matter how hard you swim the shore is out of reach

-trapped in the churning water gasping for breath whenever you break the surface for a frantic second

-smashed against rocks having your skin gouged and peeled from your body as your blood flows into the river's roiling waters the world goes grey then black because you've swallowed too much water and not enough oxygen

-diminished individual

[stone-cold-groove]

Cover illustration detail from The Saturday Evening Post magazine - October 1948.

[shrub-jay]

The New Arrival (Danny Kent)

CW: Body horror, teeth

TL;DR: The Kents take in another alien.

-------

The American Southwest has some of the highest found-meteorite density regions. New Mexico has a found meteorite rate of 1.9 per 1,000 square miles. Kansas trails with 1.8. A single farm in Smallville, Kansas, at just under 800 acres, has reported 23. One Dr. Kent reported iron meteorities landing in June, following northwesterly winds and a low chance of precipitation, over the course of several decades. It was an idle curiosity among Kansas meteorologists. A bizarre coincidence.  

“How big you think this one’s gonna be?” Jonathan Kent mused as he eyed the streak of green in the sky, leaning on a pitchfork. The still-young corn crop rustled in the breeze. 

“Not too big, or Clark would already be here,” his wife, Martha, mused from the porch. She looked up from Bubble Wubble Blast 2 on her phone. “Sweetie, you’ve gotta stop holding the pitchfork like that. I’m not ready for people to start comparing us to American Gothic.” Jonathan grumbled before leaning it against the porch railing, whistling sharply. 

“Shelby! Come here, girl!” A rambunctious golden retriever mix trotted around the corner, tail wagging. The streak in the sky had faded, disappearing behind the barn.  “Shelbs and I are going to go check it out on the four wheeler.” Martha perked up.

“And don’t forget to–”

“Log the coordinates, you’ve taught me well,” Jonathan finished, waving his hand dismissively and sending her a smile. The ATV engine roared to life, and he was off. It rumbled to a stop in front of a smoking crater. A head popped up, and two large eyes blinked back. Jonathan’s phone flash went off as he snapped a picture.

The figure recoiled, hissing. Ghostly white hair flickered around their face like fire, and a green sheen swirled across the wet surface of their eyes like rainbows on the surface of a bubble. Green tinged skin stretched across their features, and huge, wrinkled ears angled themselves back cautiously. Their dark nose twitched as Shelby approached the edge of the crater. A series of clicking noises rang out before their long, slender limbs collapsed beneath them like scaffolding.

Shelby darted forward.

“Woah girl, you don’t want to scare ‘em,” Jonathan whisper-shouted, hastily dismounting. It was too late. Shelby was already weaving joyfully between the new arrival’s arms, tail going a mile a minute. They obliged the dog with gentle scratches, and Jonathan smiled. “Looks like Clark might be getting a new sibling.”

It wasn’t hard to get them to follow. It was disconcertingly easy, in fact. Jonathan texted Martha to scrounge up some of the leftovers from their early dinner. He wasn’t sure if their new charge ate, given that he hadn’t seen a mouth. Perhaps they could photosynthesize like Clark, if the green hued skin was a clue. 

“How do you think they eat? If they eat at all?” Martha murmured, leaning forward on an elbow. Their guest prodded inquisitively at a gently warmed plate of food. The skin beneath their nose was taut and seamless. “I can never believe how lucky we got with Clark.” 

“Hell if I know,” Jonathan responded, tucking into his own plate of food. The smell of shepherd’s pie always whet his appetite. Their company watched him carefully. Jonathan gestured with his fork with ‘cheers’ motion before relishing the forkful of luscious potato, mouth already watering from the well browned beef. 

Jonathan Kent was a man who sometimes wondered if the point of life was to hear food sizzle while cooking. Cracking fresh eggs and wiping freshly minced garlic from the slightly tacky blade of a knife were simple tasks and simple joys. He wondered if Clark was eating well. 

He was pulled from his thoughts by a sharp crack and a soft gasp. The figure’s pointed chin had lowered, the muscles of a jaw straining into visibility. Where their mouth would be, the skin stretched tighter still, before caving in like the hollow of a cheek. They emitted a high pitched, painful whine, eerie as a theremin, limbs tangling around their head like a self imposed cage. Martha lurched forward in concern.

The skin began to split. Fibrous layers burst forth, as if they had only been held together by tension. Their face bloomed like a roll of tissue shredded by a cat's claws. Pieces began to flake and fall off, and the whine intensified as something began to protrude. 

A tooth. A startlingly human looking incisor. Jonathan’s fork clattered onto his plate, and he winced in commiseration. They began to claw at the flaking skin, slowly excavating a set of pearly whites. When they finished, piles of white flakes littered the room. They sneezed, shaking their head, rubbery ears slapping against their face.

They gnashed their newly grown pair of human teeth with apparent glee. 

“It seems like they might be able to fit in just fine.”

[peace-and-awe]

glass gem corn

insta: readytorach

[ttrpg-smash-pass-vs]

It's been a while since i was last on this blog, besides the interesting Plasmoid race that's giving me ideas, what other unique races are there?

Also what is your opinion on potatoes? 🥔🎀✨️

You actually caught me in a moment where I haven't been paying the most attention, just went from near a month of 12 hour workdays to trying to refill the queue decimated in that time XD In general we've been doing the loser's bracket of Mordenkeinen's monsters and all the PC species. So we've had a good amount of the weirder monsters lately, like the star spawns and hags. I got a lot of entertainment out of the war over the demon lords when some main tournament bits posted out of turn (didn't have time to refresh queue with the right monsters).

Things are about the heat up as we launch into the main tournament though, and PF2e monsters in a few weeks! I'm especially excited about the PF2e stuff, and have spent my last 2 days prepping like 50 of them.

Oh, and potatoes are some of the finest things known to our species, the Inca should be celebrated worldwide for thier contribution to humanity! They have gotten me through the toughest times. Did you know they have all the carbs and nutrients needed for our survival except proteins, fatty acids, calcium, selenium, fibre and vitamins A, B12, E, K. Cycle in some beans occasionally to cover half of what remains, some vitamins (or better, some veggies) and milk (or leafy veggies like spinach or turnip greens) for a cheap and tasty way to stay perfectly healthy on little money. That + some occasional cheap meats or bones begged from the local butcher kept me alive for a while! Hell, Potatoes+Zucchini/Squash+cheap cuts of meat+leafy greens+beans are most of what I eat NOW

[katiajewelbox]

November is National Native American Heritage month in the USA! Did you know that many of the UK’s favourite kitchen garden plants were originally domesticated by indigenous peoples in the Americas? The Native Americans’ domesticated plants now feed most of the world and have become an integral part of cuisines in Europe, Africa, and Asia.

1. Potato: Potato (Solanum tuberosum) was domesticated by indigenous Americans in the Andes at least 10,000 years ago. Genetic studies indicate hybridization of different wild potato varieties in the species Solanum brevicaule in Southern Peru produced the original domesticated potato. Today, indigenous people in Peru have over 4000 varieties of potato, each with their culinary and cultural significance. The Chuño potato can be preserved for up to 15 years, making it an important food source during lean times in the days of the Inca Empire.

2. Corn: Indigenous Americans domesticated corn (Zea mays) from the wild grass Teosinte (Zea mays parviglumis) of southwestern Mexico approximately 9,000 years ago. The wild Teosinte is a miniature corn, with ears containing only 5-12 hard seeds. From the initial domestication in Mexico, corn spread north and south to become the iconic food plant of indigenous America. Native American corn differs from the familiar sweetcorn because it was selectively bred to be dried and preserved rather than eaten fresh. Native American corn varieties can be a kaleidoscope of beautiful colours and are either flint corn (dried for preservation and then soaked for food purposes), flour corn (processed into masa harina flour), or popcorn.

3. Beans: Our familiar kitchen garden beans all come from indigenous American agriculture. The fresh green beans and most of the dried beans belong to the same species, the Common Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) which was domesticated via hybridization of several wild species in Mesoamerican around 4,000 years ago. The Lima Bean (Phaseolus lunatus) was domesticated in South America around 4,000 years ago and spread north of the Rio Grande by the 1300’s.

[probablyasocialecologist]

Vargas is among farmers in Mexico who’ve been holding on to heirloom strains for generations, against a flood of industrially produced white corn. They’re finding a niche but increasing market among consumers seeking organic produce from small-scale growers and chefs worldwide who want to elevate or simply provide an authentic take on tortillas, tostadas and other corn-based pillars of Mexican food. Corn is the most fundamental ingredient of Mexican cuisine, and it’s never far from the national conversation. Amid President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s move to ban the importation of genetically modified corn and his imposition of a 50% tariff on imported white corn, some scientists, chefs and others are advocating for the value of the old varieties in an increasingly drought-stricken world. Heirloom varieties make up far less than 1% of total domestic corn production in Mexico. But for the first time in years, Vargas and others are hopeful about the crop. Some in the academic and public sectors hope to increase its production.

[...]

Across Mexico, about 60,000 tons of heirloom corn is produced annually. It’s a tiny fraction of the 23 million tons of white corn grown on an industrial scale to meet domestic demand for human consumption and the 16.5 million tons of yellow corn that Mexico imported last year — mostly from the U.S. — for industrial and animal feed use.

[lockhartandlych]

seeing people utterly fucking abuse corn makes me feel like im going insane

PEOPLE WILL GET THREE DINKY LITTLE CORN PLANTS AT THE GARDEN STORE, BURY THEM IN LIFELESS POTTING SOIL AND THEN ACT SURPRISED WHEN THEY START STRUGGLING

LIKE DUDE

DUDE

DUDE

CORN WAS NEVER A SOLITARY PLANT

IT'S BEEN CAREFULLY BRED AND DOMESTICATED OVER THOUSANDS OF YEARS TO HAVE A SYMBIOTIC RELATIONSHIP WITH ITS SISTERS AND YOU ARE DEPRIVING IT OF THAT AND THEN ACTING SURPRISED WHEN IT CANT GROW

PLEASE. IM BEGGING YOU. IM ON MY FUCKING KNEES. YOU HAVE COLONIST BRAINWORMS. STOP IT WITH THE MONOCULTURES.

PLANT SOME FUCKING BEANS AND SQUASH!!!!

AND STOP PLANTING THEM SO CLOSE TOGETHER.

[yz]

Indiana / Illinois. Corn.