#increase plant yields

[puroxipurewater]

In a healthy greenhouse, you can increase plant yields, lengthen the growing season, care for delicate seedlings, and even grow plants that aren't usually compatible with your climate zone and humidity levels.  Here are some simplest ways to increase productivity if you're a greenhouse gardener looking for quick fixes to improve your greenhouse.  These pointers will help you get ahead of the curve and ease your life later on if you are just starting your greenhouse.

[yanderenightmare]

♡ TW: hybrid au, bullying, harassment

♡ GN reader

A sudden evolutionary change befalls the entire human race, turning everyone into hybrids…

And as your bully comes to terms with how much bulkier he's become, along with his new sharp teeth, stronger jaw, and round furry ears, as well as the little tassel he'd grown for a tail, he's also picturing you—his cute little classmate. 

At first, he caught himself thinking about what you'd look like if you were part bear like him, but then, when mulling over the fact that everyone had altered into some type of animal that seemed to complement characteristics they had already, he began wondering what animal characteristics best suited you, and what your bullyable body now looked like.

If he were to guess before seeing you, he'd think your meek nature must have gifted you with an animal equally as pathetic—like a little mouse.

But no, not exactly, though not far off either. 

There you are, in the classroom before anyone else, bright and early like always, as if you want him to catch you alone.

“Well, well, well… look what we have here,” he announces himself, placing one heavy foot before the other as he saunters over to your desk.

You jump up from your chair in a flurry, spooked by his voice. "Oh–hey," you greet, timidly like usual, maybe even more so, as you take in his new size, eyes widening as you do.

"Tch-" he scoffs, sharp eyes looking down at you, thinking you must have shrunk a whole head before remembering how his growth was probably half to blame. "Of course, the most useless person in the world turns into the most useless animal ever."

Your button nose wriggles, but you don’t dare negate his statement. "And you're a—" you start, but almost instantly regret it as obvious an observation as it is, "Bear."

He sneers, "Guess what they say about bunnies being dumb is true after all."

Your buck teeth peek forth as you bite into your lip, bowing your head. "Was there something you wanted?"

With his hands in his front pockets, he stands there for a moment—in silence that only seemed to increase in deadliness the longer it lasted, before stating his demand, "Show me your tail."

You look up at him at that. "W-why?"

He unpockets his paw and plants it on your desk, leaning in close. A grin spread on his lips—fangs and all. "'Cause I wanna see it. So turn around."

You shake your head pitifully. "N-no, that's embarrassing."

But he doesn’t care much about your refusal, only sighing heavily before grabbing your arm and pulling you forward until your chest met the solid surface of the desk, bent over it oh-so-prettily and ready for inspection.

"Come on, dont be difficult," he growls through a smirk, watching you wiggle a bit until settling down, all too quickly yielding under his mighty grip—a display that makes him lick his teeth before slolwy lifting your shirt, pulling it up your back, watching as the little tuft of fur waiting beneath it springs out of hiding for him to see.

He simpers at the sight, then eagerly goes to feel it. 

You whimper at his handling, but he ignores you. Feeling up the softness between his fingers. "Tch–so fluffy… no different from a stuffed animal."

His eyes pan to your face, looking at it cower, squished against the desk with knitted brows and eyes squeezed shut. You’re really just gonna lie there and let him do this, aren’t yah?

"Lop ears are a sign of domestication, y'know?" he says then, picking one of the floppy things up, giving it a rub that makes your whimpers turn into whines. 

"Yeah… if it wasn't clear enough before…” he chuckles. “You're as submissive as they come.”

♡ BNHA – Bakugou, Shigaraki, Dabi, Hawks, Shinso ♡ JJK – Sukuna, Geto, Gojo, Naoya, Toji ♡ HQ – Kyotani, Miya twins ♡ BLLK – Reo ♡ DS – Sanemi

♡ FEM x M INSERT masterlist ♡ GN x M INSERT masterlist

[reasonsforhope]

"In an unprecedented transformation of China’s arid landscapes, large-scale solar installations are turning barren deserts into unexpected havens of biodiversity, according to groundbreaking research from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The study reveals that solar farms are not only generating clean energy but also catalyzing remarkable ecological restoration in some of the country’s most inhospitable regions.

The research, examining 40 photovoltaic (PV) plants across northern China’s deserts, found that vegetation cover increased by up to 74% in areas with solar installations, even in locations using only natural restoration measures. This unexpected environmental dividend comes as China cements its position as the global leader in solar energy, having added 106 gigawatts of new installations in 2022 alone.

“Artificial ecological measures in the PV plants can reduce environmental damage and promote the condition of fragile desert ecosystems,” says Dr. Benli Liu, lead researcher from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. “This yields both ecological and economic benefits.”

The economic implications are substantial. “We’re witnessing a paradigm shift in how we view desert solar installations,” says Professor Zhang Wei, environmental economist at Beijing Normal University. “Our cost-benefit analysis shows that while initial ecological construction costs average $1.5 million per square kilometer, the long-term environmental benefits outweigh these investments by a factor of six within just a decade.” ...

“Soil organic carbon content increased by 37.2% in areas under solar panels, and nitrogen levels rose by 24.8%,” reports Dr. Sarah Chen, soil scientist involved in the project. “These improvements are crucial indicators of ecosystem health and sustainability.”

...Climate data from the study sites reveals significant microclimate modifications:

Average wind speeds reduced by 41.3% under panel arrays

Soil moisture retention increased by 32.7%

Ground surface temperature fluctuations decreased by 85%

Dust storm frequency reduced by 52% in solar farm areas...

The scale of China’s desert solar initiative is staggering. As of 2023, the country has installed over 350 gigawatts of solar capacity, with 30% located in desert regions. These installations cover approximately 6,000 square kilometers of desert terrain, an area larger than Delaware.

“The most surprising finding,” notes Dr. Wang Liu of the Desert Research Institute, “is the exponential increase in insect and bird species. We’ve documented a 312% increase in arthropod diversity and identified 27 new bird species nesting within the solar farms between 2020 and 2023.”

Dr. Yimeng Wang, the study’s lead author, emphasizes the broader implications: “This study provides evidence for evaluating the ecological benefit and planning of large-scale PV farms in deserts.”

The solar installations’ positive impact stems from several factors. The panels act as windbreaks, reducing erosion and creating microhabitats with lower evaporation rates. Perhaps most surprisingly, the routine maintenance of these facilities plays a crucial role in the ecosystem’s revival.

“The periodic cleaning of solar panels, occurring 7-8 times annually, creates consistent water drip lines beneath the panels,” explains Wang. “This inadvertent irrigation system promotes vegetation growth and the development of biological soil crusts, essential for soil stability.” ...

Recent economic analysis reveals broader benefits:

Job creation: 4.7 local jobs per megawatt of installed capacity

Tourism potential: 12 desert solar sites now offer educational tours

Agricultural integration: 23% of sites successfully pilot desert agriculture beneath panels

Carbon reduction: 1.2 million tons CO2 equivalent avoided per gigawatt annually

Dr. Maya Patel, visiting researcher from the International Renewable Energy Agency, emphasizes the global implications: “China’s desert solar model could be replicated in similar environments worldwide. The Sahara alone could theoretically host enough solar capacity to meet global electricity demand four times over while potentially greening up to 20% of the desert.”

The Chinese government has responded by implementing policies promoting “solar energy + sand control” and “solar energy + ecological restoration” initiatives. These efforts have shown promising results, with over 92% of PV plants constructed since 2017 incorporating at least one ecological construction mode.

Studies at facilities like the Qinghai Gonghe Photovoltaic Park demonstrate that areas under solar panels score significantly better in environmental assessments compared to surrounding regions, indicating positive effects on local microclimates.

As the world grapples with dual climate and biodiversity crises, China’s desert solar experiment offers a compelling model for sustainable development. The findings suggest that renewable energy infrastructure, when thoughtfully implemented, can serve as a catalyst for environmental regeneration, potentially transforming the world’s deserts from barren wastelands into productive, life-supporting ecosystems.

“This is no longer just about energy production,” concludes Dr. Liu. “We’re witnessing the birth of a new approach to ecosystem rehabilitation that could transform how we think about desert landscapes globally. The next decade will be crucial as we scale these solutions to meet both our climate and biodiversity goals.”"

-via Green Fingers, January 13, 2025

[allthecanadianpolitics]

A proposal to stop labelling carbon dioxide as a pollutant and instead celebrate it as a "foundational nutrient for all life on Earth" will be up for debate at the United Conservative Party's (UCP) annual general meeting(opens in a new tab) in November. The resolution, which includes abandoning Alberta’s net-zero targets, flies in the face of the scientific consensus(opens in a new tab) that carbon dioxide emissions created by humans burning fossil fuels is one of the primary drivers of global warming.  The increased temperatures, in turn, cause more frequent and extreme weather(opens in a new tab) like wildfires, floods, heat waves, storms and droughts.  A study published in Nature (opens in a new tab)found the deadly 2021 heat dome in BC that killed more than 619 people was amplified by climate change, and that other events like the fires that tore through Jasper this summer are made more likely and exacerbated by climate change.  The policy resolution put forward by the Athabasca-Barrhead-Westlock and Red Deer South constituency associations says the carbon cycle is a biological necessity and "The earth needs more CO2 to support life and to increase plant yields, both of which will contribute to the health and prosperity of all Albertans."

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @newsfromstolenland @abpoli

[afriblaq]

african.echo

Two Years of President Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso: A Report Since Assuming Leadership of the Nation 1. Burkina Faso’s GDP rose from around $18.8 billion to $22.1 billion. 2. He declined loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, stating, “Africa doesn’t need the World Bank, IMF, Europe, or America.” 3. He cut the salaries of ministers and parliamentarians by 30% while raising civil servants’ salaries by 50%. 4. He cleared Burkina Faso’s domestic debts. 5. He established the country’s first-ever tomato processing plants. 6. In 2023, he launched a modern gold mine to strengthen local processing capacity. 7. He halted the export of unrefined gold from Burkina Faso to Europe. 8. He constructed Burkina Faso’s second cotton processing plant, adding to the single existing one. 9. He inaugurated the National Support Center for Artisanal Cotton Processing, the first of its kind, to aid local cotton farmers. 10. He prohibited the use of British legal wigs and gowns in local courts, replacing them with traditional Burkinabé attire. 11. He prioritized agriculture by distributing over 400 tractors, 239 tillers, 710 motor pumps, and 714 motorcycles to enhance production and support rural communities. 12. He facilitated access to improved seeds and other agricultural inputs to maximize farming yields. 13. Tomato production grew from 315,000 metric tonnes in 2022 to 360,000 metric tonnes in 2024. 14. Millet production increased from 907,000 metric tonnes in 2022 to 1.1 million metric tonnes in 2024. 15. Rice production rose from 280,000 metric tonnes in 2022 to 326,000 metric tonnes in 2024. 16. He banned French military operations in Burkina Faso. 17. He prohibited French media from operating in the country. 18. He expelled French troops from Burkina Faso. 19. His government is building new roads, expanding existing ones, and converting gravel roads into paved surfaces.

[anneapocalypse]

So this may not be news to others, but this is the first I've come across it! According to Leonesaurus, who uploaded this capture:

Urianger was being roleplayed by a Square-Enix dev and interacting with players for his first appearance in-game before they implemented him into the story as an actual character. This took place at Camp Horizon on the old Selbina/Ridill server in 2011. Urianger would give players who visited him a 10 min buff for Quickened, Regen, HP and MP increase! Arcanist powers galore! Speaking of Arcanist, you can see on his back the original Arcanist weapon that was intended by the old FF XIV 1.0 team before Yoshida took over and retconned them into wielding books instead from ARR onward.

And here's the key dialogue:

Outside the Adventurer's Guild in Ul'dah:

Alfgar: Hearken adventurers of Eorzea! Ware you the venomous words of false prophets! Alfgar: Adventurer! I ask that you heed not the foul lies of those claiming knowledge of future happenings! Player Character: Who are these false prophets? Alfgar: They appear near aetheryte camps, bedraped in shadowy robes, preaching their untruths to any and all who will listen. Keep your distance, traveler, lest you become tangled in their web of deceit. PC: Are we in any danger? Alfgar: We are all in danger, for fear can drive a man to terrible deeds, and it is seeds of fear that these farls prophets wish to plant in our hearts and our minds. They are not the Archons of legend. They are not our saviors. They only foster unrest.

At Camp Horizon:

Urianger Augurelt: A shadow hangeth o'er the realm, growing blacker with each passing day!

Urianger Augurelt: Darkness descendeth, but surrender not to despair! For the future is forged in the flames of the present!

Urianger Augurelt: I am a mere messenger, entrusted with words of prophecy.

Urianger Augurelt: Awoken but recently to the truth, I come to stir those yet aslumber.

Urianger Augurelt: Ne'er till land consumes sun can sea bear moons. Heavens spew crimson fire, hells seep black dooms.

Urianger Augurelt: The senary sun yields the septenary moon - expelling the Astral, beckoning the Umbral. So saith the eternal wisdom of Mezaya Thousand Eyes.

Urianger Augurelt: Open thine eyes, ye seekers of truth! Stand and bear witness to the path that must be trod!

Urianger Augurelt: Awoken but recently to the truth, I come to stir those yet aslumber.

Urianger Augurelt: To spread word of the coming darkness and stoke the flames in your hearts, that they may light the way.

[probablyasocialecologist]

Although the benefits of diverse forest systems are well known, many countries' restoration commitments are focused on establishing monoculture plantations. Given this practice, an international team of scientists has compared carbon stocks in mixed planted forests to carbon stocks in commercial and best-performing monocultures, as well as the average of monocultures.

Their work is published in Frontiers in Forests and Global Change.

"Diverse planted forests store more carbon than monocultures—upwards of 70%," said Dr. Emily Warner, a postdoctoral researcher in ecology and biodiversity science at the Department of Biology, University of Oxford, and first author of the study. "We also found the greatest increase in carbon storage relative to monocultures in four-species mixtures."

[...]

Accordingly, the researchers were able to show that diversification of forests enhances carbon storage. Altogether, above-ground carbon stocks in mixed forests were 70% higher than in the average monoculture. The researchers also found that mixed forests had 77% higher carbon stocks than commercial monocultures, made up of species bred to be particularly high yielding.

"As momentum for tree planting grows, our study highlights that mixed species plantations would increase carbon storage alongside other benefits of diversifying planted forests," said Dr. Susan Cook-Patton, a senior forest restoration scientist at The Nature Conservancy and collaborator on the study. The results are particularly relevant to forest managers, showing that there is a productivity incentive for diversifying new planted forests, the researchers pointed out.

[arinzechukwuture]

Two Years of President Ibrahim Traoré 🇧🇫: A Report Since Assuming Leadership of the Nation

1. Burkina Faso's GDP rose from around $18.8 billion to $22.1 billion.

2. He declıned loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, stating, "Africa doesn’t need the World Bank, IMF, Europe, or America."

3. He cut the salaries of ministers and parliamentarians by 30% while raising civil servants' salaries by 50%.

4. He cleared Burkina Faso's domestic debts.

5. He established the country's first-ever tomato processing plants.

6. In 2023, he launched a modern gold mine to strengthen local processing capacity.

7. He halted the export of unrefined gold from Burkina Faso to Europę.

8. He constructed Burkina Faso’s second cotton processing plant, adding to the single existing one.

9. He inaugurated the National Support Center for Artisanal Cotton Processing, the first of its kind, to aid local cotton farmers.

10. He prohibited the use of Britısh legal wigs and gowns in local courts, replacing them with traditional Burkinabé attire.

11. He prioritized agriculture by distributing over 400 tractors, 239 tillers, 710 motor pumps, and 714 motorcycles to enhance production and support rural communities.

12. He facilitated access to improved seeds and other agricultural inputs to maximize farming yields.

13. Tomato production grew from 315,000 metric tonnes in 2022 to 360,000 metric tonnes in 2024.

14. Millet production increased from 907,000 metric tonnes in 2022 to 1.1 million metric tonnes in 2024.

15. Rice production rose from 280,000 metric tonnes in 2022 to 326,000 metric tonnes in 2024.

16. He bąnned French milıtary operations in Burkina Faso.

17. He prohıbited French media from operating in the country.

18. He expęlled French troops from Burkina Faso.

19. His government is building new roads, expanding existing ones, and converting gravel roads into paved surfaces.

[dandelionsresilience]

Dandelion News - November 15-21

Like these weekly compilations? Tip me at $kaybarr1735 or check out my Dandelion Doodles! (sorry it's slightly late, the links didn't wanna work and I couldn't figure it out all day)

1. Wyoming's abortion ban has been overturned, including its ban on abortion medication

“Wyoming is the second state to have its near-total abortion ban overturned this month[…. Seven other states] also approved amendments protecting the right to an abortion. A lawsuit seeking to challenge the [FDA]’s approval of abortion medication recently failed when the Supreme Court refused to hear it[….]”

2. Patches of wildflowers in cities can be just as good for insects as natural meadows – study

“This study confirmed that small areas of urban wildflowers have a high concentration of pollinating insects, and are as valuable to many pollinators as larger areas of natural meadow that you would typically find rurally.”

3. Paris could offer new parents anti-pollution baby 'gift bags' to combat 'forever chemicals'

“The bag includes a stainless steel baby cup, a wooden toy, reusable cotton wipes, and non-toxic cleaning supplies as part of a "green prescription". […] The city will also have 44 centres for protecting mothers and infants that will be without any pollutants[….]”

4. Indigenous guardians embark on a sacred pact to protect the lowland tapir in Colombia

“The tapir is now the focus of an Indigenous-led conservation project[… A proposed “biocultural corridor”] will protect not only the populations and movements of wildlife such as tapirs, but also the cultural traditions and spirituality of the Inga and other neighboring Indigenous peoples[….]”

5. Denmark will plant 1 billion trees and convert 10% of farmland into forest

“[…] 43 billion kroner ($6.1 billion) have been earmarked to acquire land from farmers over the next two decades[.… In addition,] livestock farmers will be taxed for the greenhouse gases emitted by their cows, sheep and pigs from 2030, the first country to do so[….]”

6. The biggest grid storage project using old batteries is online in Texas

“[Element operates “used EV battery packs” with software that can] fine-tune commands at the cell level, instead of treating all the batteries as a monolithic whole. This enables the system to get more use out of each cell without stressing any so much that they break down[….]””

7. Durable supramolecular plastic is fully ocean-degradable and doesn't generate microplastics

“The new material is as strong as conventional plastics and biodegradable, [… and] is therefore expected to help reduce harmful microplastic pollution that accumulates in oceans and soil and eventually enters the food chain.”

8. Big Oil Tax Could Boost Global Loss and Damage Fund by 2000%

“[… A] tax on fossil fuel extraction, which would increase each year, combined with additional taxes on excess profits would […] generate hundreds of billions of dollars by the end of the decade to assist poor and vulnerable communities with the impact of the climate crisis[….]”

9. Rooftop solar meets 107.5 pct of South Australia’s demand, no emergency measures needed

“[T]he state was able to export around 658 MW of capacity to Victoria at the time[….] The export capacity is expected to increase significantly as the new transmission link to NSW[…] should be able to allow an extra 150 MW to be transferred in either direction by Christmas.”

10. Light-altering paint for greenhouses could help lengthen the fruit growing season in less sunny countries

“[Scientists] have developed a spray coating for greenhouses that could help UK farmers to produce more crops in the future using the same or less energy[… by optimising] the wavelength of light shining onto the plants, improving their growth and yield.”

November 8-14 news here | (all credit for images and written material can be found at the source linked; I don’t claim credit for anything but curating.)

[fatehbaz]

Despite its green image, Ireland has surprisingly little forest. [...] [M]ore than 80% of the island of Ireland was [once] covered in trees. [...] [O]f that 11% of the Republic of Ireland that is [now] forested, the vast majority (9% of the country) is planted with [non-native] spruces like the Sitka spruce [in commercial plantations], a fast growing conifer originally from Alaska which can be harvested after just 15 years. Just 2% of Ireland is covered with native broadleaf trees.

Text by: Martha O’Hagan Luff. “Ireland has lost almost all of its native forests - here’s how to bring them back.” The Conversation. 24 February 2023. [Emphasis added.]

---

[I]ndustrial [...] oil palm plantations [...] have proliferated in tropical regions in many parts of the world, often built at the expense of mangrove and humid forest lands, with the aim to transform them from 'worthless swamp' to agro-industrial complexes [...]. Another clear case [...] comes from the southernmost area in the Colombian Pacific [...]. Here, since the early 1980s, the forest has been destroyed and communities displaced to give way to oil palm plantations. Inexistent in the 1970s, by the mid-1990s they had expanded to over 30,000 hectares. The monotony of the plantation - row after row of palm as far as you can see, a green desert of sorts - replaced the diverse, heterogenous and entangled world of forest and communities.

Text by: Arturo Escobar. "Thinking-Feeling with the Earth: Territorial Struggles and the Ontological Dimension of the Epistemologies of the South." Revista de Antropologia Iberoamericana Volume 11 Issue 1. 2016. [Emphasis added.]

---

But efforts to increase global tree cover to limit climate change have skewed towards erecting plantations of fast-growing trees [...] [because] planting trees can demonstrate results a lot quicker than natural forest restoration. [...] [But] ill-advised tree planting can unleash invasive species [...]. [In India] [t]o maximize how much timber these forests yielded, British foresters planted pines from Europe and North America in extensive plantations in the Himalayan region [...] and introduced acacia trees from Australia [...]. One of these species, wattle (Acacia mearnsii) [...] was planted in [...] the Western Ghats. This area is what scientists all a biodiversity hotspot – a globally rare ecosystem replete with species. Wattle has since become invasive and taken over much of the region’s mountainous grasslands. Similarly, pine has spread over much of the Himalayas and displaced native oak trees while teak has replaced sal, a native hardwood, in central India. Both oak and sal are valued for [...] fertiliser, medicine and oil. Their loss [...] impoverished many [local and Indigenous people]. [...]

India’s national forest policy [...] aims for trees on 33% of the country’s area. Schemes under this policy include plantations consisting of a single species such as eucalyptus or bamboo which grow fast and can increase tree cover quickly, demonstrating success according to this dubious measure. Sometimes these trees are planted in grasslands and other ecosystems where tree cover is naturally low. [...] The success of forest restoration efforts cannot be measured by tree cover alone. The Indian government’s definition of “forest” still encompasses plantations of a single tree species, orchards and even bamboo, which actually belongs to the grass family. This means that biennial forest surveys cannot quantify how much natural forest has been restored, or convey the consequences of displacing native trees with competitive plantation species or identify if these exotic trees have invaded natural grasslands which have then been falsely recorded as restored forests. [...] Planting trees does not necessarily mean a forest is being restored. And reviving ecosystems in which trees are scarce is important too.

Text by: Dhanapal Govindarajulu. "India was a tree planting laboratory for 200 years - here are the results." The Conversation. 10 August 2023. [Emphasis added.]

---

Nations and companies are competing to appropriate the last piece of available “untapped” forest that can provide the most amount of “environmental services.” [...] When British Empire forestry was first established as a disciplinary practice in India, [...] it proscribed private interests and initiated a new system of forest management based on a logic of utilitarian [extraction] [...]. Rather than the actual survival of plants or animals, the goal of this forestry was focused on preventing the exhaustion of resource extraction. [...]

Text by: Daniel Fernandez and Alon Schwabe. "The Offsetted." e-flux Architecture (Positions). November 2013. [Emphasis added.]

---

At first glance, the statistics tell a hopeful story: Chile’s forests are expanding. […] On the ground, however, a different scene plays out: monocultures have replaced diverse natural forests [...]. At the crux of these [...] narratives is the definition of a single word: “forest.” [...] Pinochet’s wave of [...] [laws] included Forest Ordinance 701, passed in 1974, which subsidized the expansion of tree plantations [...] and gave the National Forestry Corporation control of Mapuche lands. This law set in motion an enormous expansion in fiber-farms, which are vast expanses of monoculture plantations Pinus radiata and Eucalyptus species grown for paper manufacturing and timber. [T]hese new plantations replaced native forests […]. According to a recent study in Landscape and Urban Planning, timber plantations expanded by a factor of ten from 1975 to 2007, and now occupy 43 percent of the South-central Chilean landscape. [...] While the confusion surrounding the definition of “forest” may appear to be an issue of semantics, Dr. Francis Putz [...] warns otherwise in a recent review published in Biotropica. […] Monoculture plantations are optimized for a single product, whereas native forests offer [...] water regulation, hosting biodiversity, and building soil fertility. [...][A]ccording to Putz, the distinction between plantations and native forests needs to be made clear. “[...] [A]nd the point that plantations are NOT forests needs to be made repeatedly [...]."

Text by: Julian Moll-Rocek. “When forests aren’t really forests: the high cost of Chile’s tree plantations.” Mongabay. 18 August 2014. [Emphasis added.]

[lucarionite9364]

titan havik…titan havik and his silly stupid ridiculous arrogant attitude being a TEASE !!!

Chat, lemme cook for a second-- (this idea is great and so are you!)

Magnificent Maelstrom

Titan Havik x fem! reader

WC: 2,645

CW: SMUT! Mentions of violence, blood, bodily harm. Oral (M & F receiving), bitingg, scratching, creampie :3, uhhhh Havik is the warning tbh.

AN: Thank you Tan for the request,, I had fun writing this. <3

“VICTORY IS MINE!” You hear crowds cheering out as you roar your triumph in the pit. You throw your arms up as you circle around your dead opponent. Many of the Havik clones are throwing their arms at you in applause. Only one Havik catches your eye in particular though.

Lord Havik, the man he is. You hold his gaze on you. That crazed look he has on his face just looking at you covered in your foes blood is wild. It’s like lightning shooting through your veins. He knows exactly what drives you crazy for him. 

With a final show of glory, you turn to your deceased enemy and plant your foot firmly on his back, yanking your greatsword out from his side. You throw your sword into the air and watch as it lands mere inches away from your Lord. He doesn’t flinch. You know whether you strike him or not, he is never afraid. 

Climbing the wall of the arena, you take your spot next to Lord Havik. Takeda comes up to slap you on the back. “Nice job in the ring! I knew you’d win.” He laughs to himself as Kenshi comes up. “He bet on the other guy.” Takeda looks offended that his father would rat him out so easily. You elbow him in the side. Maybe a little harsher than expected, but he deserved it. 

“Oh please, as if I’d lose to the nobodies they give us in the ring.” This might have turned into petty squabbles had Havik not interrupted. He lightly traced his hand around your neck making you shiver. “You did well, my little hurricane.” 

He growled that last part in your ear, making your knees grow weak. Totally not the fact you just kicked ass in the ring. “Perhaps I should reward you.” The rasp in his voice never ceases to send heat straight to your core. Your mind couldn’t wander very far before you heard your telepathic friends stifle a cough. You glare at him, “How many times have I told you not to read my mind Takahashi.” 

You could punish him, but he’s already being punished enough by Takeda’s insistent pestering about what he heard in your mind.

You roll your eyes and turn your attention back to the ring where a significant increase in severed limbs has occurred. Everyone’s focus was on the ring as the next fight was to begin. You’d like to think Lord Havik knew that you want to keep your relationship on the down low. So why did you feel his fingernails creep up your back? Trying to keep your composure while he massages your neck slowly is more difficult than it sounds. 

You swiftly move to catch his wrist, in doing so he lets out a low huff of amusement. You lean over toward him so you can keep your voice quiet. “I’m starting to think you do this on purpose to test me.” Your mind clouds once more as you feel his breath creep down your face. 

“Your reactions fuel me, my dear.” You don’t even have to look to know he has that arrogant smile on his face. Not that he can make any other face. It’s the intention that counts you suppose. 

“The chaos in the ring should intrigue you more, shouldn’t it, My Lord?” “Oh yes, but the madness you yield has far more interest to me.” You feel him gently squeeze your ass from behind. You can only stifle your groan and hope neither of the other two heard you. 

You feel a presence prod at your mind. Since you can feel that it’s there, it must be Takeda. “That’s it.” You break free from Havik’s grasp and yank your greatsword from the stone ground. “Takeda, you’re a deadman!” 

You hear him laughing hysterically as he runs, and you chase after him. 

Kenshi and Lord Havik can only watch in amusement as Takeda uses his ropes to swing away from you. You tried throwing your sword at him only to narrowly miss. 

. . . . . 

Later, you enter the Citadel. The room with seemingly no beginning or end. There were fragments of cobblestone pathways everywhere. In the sky, or down below, there were walkways and obstacles in every part of the room. Is it even a room? A dimension? That doesn’t matter as you approach the man you’ve been looking for.

Titan Havik is observing a reverse waterfall with great interest. He always does, it seems to calm him, even if ‘calm’ is the opposite of his whole being. He held his mace on his shoulder. He was rarely seen without the sharp object in hand, you thought. His attention diverted as he heard your approach. He gazed upon you with pure arrogance, like he knew you would come crawling to him eventually. 

His bludgeon dissipated into the air as he made his way toward you. He reached out an arm to touch your face, but you swerved under his hand going behind him. His expression dropped slightly. “My Lord, you have been such a tease today,” you keep walking backward. “Do you really think I’d give you what you want after that performance?” Your smirk rivals that of which he wore earlier.

“Would you really deny me? Your ruler?” His voice is almost husky enough to make you give up then and there. You remained strong. His words, however, did bring a smile to your lips. “If you want me, come and get me.” At that, you took your last step off the edge of the walkway. 

Falling, you can’t see the nigh primal look in his eyes as he licks his teeth in anticipation for the chase. You quickly grab a floating stone to break your fall. You land on the path underneath just in time to see Havik break through the path above to get to you. 

“My hurricane, you can’t run from me in here.” You feign a pout, “Oh? But it makes my day that much more fun.” Expecting you to run away from him, you surprise him by heading straight for him. You slide between the gap in his legs and spring off the edge of the platform and leap on the larger floating rocks to move upward. 

Due to your many games of cat and mouse, you knew it was only a matter of time before he played dirty. As you jumped to the next stone, you didn’t see that he threw his arm at your leg until you tripped. Now in free fall, you see Havik follow you stone path to catch you in the air. He firmly lands on the next platform, but not without a sickening crunch indicating he broke his leg. 

You hear the limb snap back into place and his skin sealing itself together. As you're in his broad arms, you start nibbling on his exposed neck. He openly groans into your touch. “Now who’s being a tease?” He tilts his head toward you and leans to start licking your face. 

His unusually long tongue makes its way to your lips and parts them with ease. As your tongues dance around each other, he sets you back on your feet, roughly grabbing onto your chest. You moan into the sloppy makeout session. As he exits your mouth to give you air, saliva covers your lower face. 

You smirk and wipe your face on your unsleeved arm. You let your hands roam across his broad chest as you kiss your way down his torso. He looks down on you as you get on your knees before him. His hand makes its way to your hair to caress the soft strands as you start undoing the cloth surrounding his pants. His hand balls up into a fist, pulling deliciously on your hair. 

“Now will you serve me?” He asks, already knowing the answer. “Yes, My Lord.” You purr as you pull down his pants. You’ve seen him before, but his size still marvels you everytime. 

You grab the base with one hand and slowly lick a stripe up his shaft. The fist in your hair tightens as he groans. Wanting to tease him one last time, you swirl your tongue around his tip, occasionally dipping into the slit. “Your cruelty knows no limits, you maelstrom.” He grits his teeth as you lower your mouth on him.

You suction your mouth on him as you bob your head up and down. Just for added measure, you cup his balls and gently squeeze. You look up to see his dazed expression as his tongue lolls out from his mouth. 

You know you’re doing good when he plants his feet and thrusts all the way down your throat. You gag around him which makes him want to thrust harder. He grabs the back of your head with both hands and sets his own pace, using your face as his fucktoy. He knows you love it though. 

As much as you can’t breathe, you want to pleasure him. You hollow out your throat to allow for more room to take in air between the onslaught. You roughly grab onto his thighs and drag your nails down his leg in desperation. Clawing at anything to keep you grounded. 

You can feel his pace grow erratic as his hips stutter. He roughly pulls out and you heave in a large breath. As you regain your focus, you see blood creeping down his chiseled thigh from where you grabbed onto him.

You could feel yourself soaking through your pants from how wet you were. He pushed you to your back on the ground, laughing lightly as he could see your arousal. He knelt down over you, rubbing the spot between your legs that felt oh so good. But the little friction you got from that is nowhere near enough. 

You squirm as you undo the top of your pants, allowing him to pull them off of you with a harsh tug. You kept wiggling as you saw him stroking himself. You only wanted him inside you at that moment, but he had other plans. It seems like being a tease would bite you in the ass. Literally.

He dips his lead lower and puts a bite mark right on the inside of your thigh. You yelp in surprise. He has to pin your hips down, but not before ripping your panties off you. You shiver as the oddly cold air of the Citadel hits your lips. 

“Look at me, my dear,” He glares into your eyes as he says one more word. “Payback.” His tongue dives straight to like a thick line up your slit. Being the worst tease he is, he harshly sucks on your clit.

You can’t help but moan out as his teeth hit your sensitive bundle of nerves too. “Ahh, Havik!” You barely whimper his name, but to your surprise he stops. His gaze soured into a stern expression as he brought two fingers to gather your slick. “That is not my title.” You realize your mistake and quickly correct yourself. 

“I’m sorry My Lord! Please, don’t stop.” You have a pleading tone in your voice. He seems to like your answer as he pries you open with his two digits. Moving them in and out, scissoring them open to loosen you up. 

Your breathing increases in intensity. You feel the knot in your stomach tighten as he continues to suck your clit and finger you. You tangle your fingers in his hair, surprisingly soft, and tug on it. He growls out into your pussy as he keeps up the pace. 

“Lord Havik, I’m. . . I’m gonna–” “Let it out.” He commands, and you do as you're told. You yank his hair tighter as you shove your pussy into his face. Feeling your slick and release mix with his saliva as he continues to lick every last inch of you. You let go of his hair, but he doesn’t stop licking you, helping you ride out your orgasm. 

After he is done, he leans up to give you a sloppy kiss. You can taste yourself on his mouth as you bring your hands to wrap around his neck. You feel his still hard cock bumping your leg. Even after that strong orgasm, you still can’t help but want more. Want him. Need him.

He pulls away from the kiss and looks down on your disheveled form as he positions himself at your entrance. He pushes into you only to miss and slide up your soaked cunt. The tip nudged your clit sending a bolt of pleasure up your spine. 

Growing frustrated, he repositions himself and pushes all the way into you in one thrust. You can feel the breath being knocked out of you. You moan out at the intrusion, never being fully ready to take him. The stretch was a little painful, but the pleasure overtook that feeling as he pulled out and pushed back in with force. 

He started with a harsh pace, not giving you any time to adjust to his large size. You can feel yourself squeezing his shaft and you get impossibly wetter as he abuses your sopping cunt. He takes one of your nipples in his calloused fingers and pinches it while teething on the other. 

The thought that someone can find you splayed open underneath your Lord never crossed your mind as you moan every time he thrusts into you. He brings his unoccupied hand down to rub circles into your clit. His thrusts falter for a moment as you rake your sharp nails down his muscular back. Leaving bloody trails in its wake.

He loved the scars you left on his body. He wore them just as proudly as his battle scars. Letting people see the things you do to him, whether they knew it was from you or not. His thrusts lost their pattern and became erratic. He was close, and you were too. However, he was dead set on making you go first. 

He bit into the sweet spot on your neck. That coupled with his endless thrusts and toying with your clit cause you to let go for a second time. Your juices came gushing out all over his lower abdomen. He stopped playing with your clit, but his thrusts picked up till he finally threw himself over the edge. 

You locked your legs around his back to make sure he couldn’t leave. Your body heat rose three times as his hot cum was shot into your womb. He lost control of his groans as the bite on your neck drew blood. He had his hands holding your hips in such a grip you thought it might bruise as he finished spilling into you. 

You almost blanked as the please was too much. Were it not for the fact he’s holding you up, you would have slumped over already. He stayed inside you for a little longer. Growling out into your ear, “You drive me mad. You are the anarchy I crave.” You feel warm tears well up in your eyes. You can’t tell if it’s because you’re overstimulated or his words meant more than he realized. 

You breathlessly confess, “You are the disorder to my disarray. Nothing is better than the great turmoil you bring to my life.” You plant one more kiss on his exposed teeth before you groan as he pulls out of you. You shudder as you feel his cum drip out of your spent cunt. An idea, good or bad, sparks your hand into motion. You make a show of scooping his cum from between your legs and bringing your fingers to your mouth. 

You made sure we watched every second of your display. His voice drops to a growl as he speaks, “We have time before the next battle in the arena.”

[reasonsforhope]

"Marginal improvements to agricultural soils around the world would store enough carbon to keep the world within 1.5C of global heating, new research suggests.

Farming techniques that improve long-term fertility and yields can also help to store more carbon in soils but are often ignored in favor of intensive techniques using large amounts of artificial fertilizer, much of it wasted, that can increase greenhouse gas emissions.

Using better farming techniques to store 1 percent more carbon in about half of the world’s agricultural soils would be enough to absorb about 31 gigatons of carbon dioxide a year, according to new data. That amount is not far off the 32 gigaton gap between current planned emissions reduction globally per year and the amount of carbon that must be cut by 2030 to stay within 1.5C.

The estimates were carried out by Jacqueline McGlade, the former chief scientist at the UN environment program and former executive director of the European Environment Agency. She found that storing more carbon in the top 30 centimeters of agricultural soils would be feasible in many regions where soils are currently degraded.

McGlade now leads a commercial organization that sells soil data to farmers. Downforce Technologies uses publicly available global data, satellite images, and lidar to assess in detail how much carbon is stored in soils, which can now be done down to the level of individual fields.

“Outside the farming sector, people do not understand how important soils are to the climate,” said McGlade. “Changing farming could make soils carbon negative, making them absorb carbon, and reducing the cost of farming.”

She said farmers could face a short-term cost while they changed their methods, away from the overuse of artificial fertilizer, but after a transition period of two to three years their yields would improve and their soils would be much healthier...

Arable farmers could sequester more carbon within their soils by changing their crop rotation, planting cover crops such as clover, or using direct drilling, which allows crops to be planted without the need for ploughing. Livestock farmers could improve their soils by growing more native grasses.

Hedgerows also help to sequester carbon in the soil, because they have large underground networks of mycorrhizal fungi and microbes that can extend meters into the field. Farmers have spent decades removing hedgerows to make intensive farming easier, but restoring them, and maintaining existing hedgerows, would improve biodiversity, reduce the erosion of topsoil, and help to stop harmful agricultural runoff, which is a key polluter of rivers."

-via The Grist, July 8, 2023

[fox-bright]

Distracting myself from the world outside my yard, as much as I can, by planning out the seed-starting which will begin this weekend.

Usually my garden planning doesn't feel as grim as this. But there's still some joy in it, even if I'm plotting out just how much of our food is going to have to come from the garden this year, and maybe for the next half-decade or so.

I keep trying to write cheerful beginning-of-the-season garden posts, and they come out of my fingers like this:

Forty percent of our nation's homegrown produce is harvested by undocumented immigrants. Another fifteen or so percent is harvested by documented immigrants with work visas, not that ICE is treating them any differently in their raids (nor citizens, for that matter, scooped up indiscriminately as long as they're brown). During the last Trump administration, crops rotted in the fields because there was no one to harvest them; this time around, it's going to be worse. That is true regardless of whether or not RFK gets to institute the "wellness drug rehabilitation farms" that he's talked about in interviews (which, to be clear, would be concentration camps full of Undesirables such as people who use drugs, protestors, and queers). I do not attempt to put my need to eat over the humanity of the people who provide my food. This is a double-fisted problem, here--the Republicans took something that wasn't a problem and made it into their voters' boogeyman, and now it's going to become an actual nightmare for anyone involved, and *everyone* is involved. Hunger is the most singleminded need there is. A starving person can only think about food.

Sixty percent of the fresh fruit eaten in the States, and forty or so percent of the vegetables, are imported, largely from Mexico and Canada, though we get plenty from SE Asia and other places. Tariffs and our generally being increasingly xenophobic, racist assholes is going to take a measurable toll on agricultural imports.

And we've already spent the last couple of years in a Trump-mediated Age of Listeria; that's sure to get considerably worse as even more regulations (and regulators, and inspectors) are eliminated. A person who can't even trust their food won't trust anything else.

I get this far and then I put the pen down, and I return my gaze to the sheets and sheets of handwritten seed inventory lists with their columns of variety types and days-to-maturity, 55 days, 65 days, 80 days from planting out to fruit, and I take a couple of breaths, and I start writing again.

I'm increasing the size of the garden. I had a whole series of posts planned about it, about building the new beds and setting up trellises and beanpoles, fixing the fence as best I can, building new steps off of the low back porch so that I don't have to carry every baby plant out the kitchen door. I need to find about seven or eight hundred dollars for trucked-in soil for raised beds; I'd really thought in the Autumn that I would have a full year to sort this out, and I don't, so I'm trying to figure out a way to fund-raise. Sell some handmade semiprecious gem jewelry? Open a garden blog Patreon? I dunno. Everything is tight for everyone, and that is not shortly to improve. Leave it to the side. Not important tonight.

Eyes back on the blue-lined page. Amish Paste, Black Krim, Black Plum, Brandywine. So many varieties. Enough to share, if I plan my plantings carefully. Beans, grown for green eating and pickling, even now it doesn't make sense to grow dry beans, not with how many pounds a year this household consumes. Sweet potatoes, this year, slips ordered online for the first time, and I find I'm a little nervous about them. I've never grown a sweet potato before, but people say they're easy, and they're high in a lot of nutrients, and they keep.

Next page. Flowers. Marigolds, nasturtiums, violas.

I try to put a flower in the ground every time I transplant a vegetable. Doing so increases the vegetable yield, since it improves pollinator coverage, but also it's just nice for my soul to be able to clip flowers and bring them in to present to my husband, to have on the counter when I'm frying eggs for breakfast, to stick haphazardly behind my ear and wear on my daily walk. So tonight I'm sitting here with a pen and paper, deciding what I want to grow for food this year, deciding how much energy I can devote to flowers. Nasturtiums, marigolds, bachelor's buttons and borage and cosmos are all edible, and common in my vegetable garden; I'm doing a bunch of zinnias this year as usual, but I'll probably be direct-sowing those this year. Won't have room in the seedling closet when I've got to start so much more food than before. But I can devote *some* energy to the flowers, and I know they'll give me back what I give to them.

There's a clatter off the roof, ice sliding down to collide with whatever it can hit. We've got a wintry mix happening outside right now, little pats of slush falling from the sky to freeze hard on my trellises, and summer now seems far away, but it isn't. It's a very brief time before Last Frost and things will need to get into the ground, and I know that no matter how bleak I feel right now, and how much harder things are likely to be by then, bright-faced zinnias will be a joy when they bloom. Every source of energy is a source of energy. No one can function entirely on rage.

One foot ahead of the other. Seedling mix into my seed trays, tomorrow, and water; the day after I'll sow seeds, and put the trays under the lights. Step by step and in the summer there will be tomatoes and chard, asparagus beans and watermelons and nasturtiums. One foot ahead of the other.

[alexanderwales]

Polyculture is the agricultural practice of having two or more crops growing together to benefit both of them, as opposed to monoculture, which is when you have only a single crop.

Polyculture is just ... so awesome? It's legitimately one of my favorite things.

This is a fish-rice system, where the flooded rice paddy is home to a bunch of fish. The fish act as pesticides (eating bugs that are attracted to the rice) and herbicides (eating weeds) and fertilizer (by pooping). And then you can eat the fish!

But there's actually a third polycultural element here, which is invisible in most picture: rice paddies are home to cyanobacteria, which provides nitrogen fixing. The nitrogen cycle was unknown to humans for most of human history, but they had figured out that this goop was increasing yields, so they mixed mud from different fields to promote the growth of cyanobacteria, and planted some plants that had symbiosis with it.

You can also do this polyculture with other things too. Partly for cultural reasons and partly because of the water, it's done more often with rice than other crops, and you can add in some ducks to the fish. There are places that have shrimp instead of fish, and apparently a few examples of turtles being raised in the rice fields, but I haven't been able to find a picture of that.

I grew up in the Midwest, around what felt like endless fields of corn and soybeans. I worked on a farm in high school and learned how to drive a tractor. But I always hated how it looked, how sterile and samey it was.

The reason that monoculture has mostly won out, even as we understand biology and ecology better, is that our crops are largely planted and harvested by machine, and that's always going to be easier to do if you're monocropping. There are some forms of intercropping where you can still use machines, but there are expenses associated with it. Besides, all the things you'd use polyculture for like pesticide, herbicide, and fertilizer can be sprayed over the crops using standardized machines.

But things like this, marigolds used as pest repellant for coconut trees, just makes me wish that somehow it made sense to weave crops together:

[datapacks]

So here's the idea for how to utilize the portals in the Ancient City without making them just lead to another dimension. I've had this idea for a while, but only just started to seriously think about how it would work, but make it so that when the player crosses the portal, they gain a new ability of sorts- they can see the secret machinations of the world, a spirit world.

When a mob attempts to spawn, it will first check to see if there are any spirits nearby. To the average player, these spirits will be intangible and invisible; placing a block over one will simply prompt it to move to a different location. For players who have been through the ancient city portal, though, they could intentionally move (or remove) these spirits, making a way to reasonably stop mob spawns in total darkness, or even intentionally boost mob spawns in certain locations. This would apply to hostile, neutral, and even passive mobs.

When a block attempts to age (oxidization, crops growing, trees sprouting, grass spreading, etc), as it stands right now, this uses the RandomTick system. RandomTick could be set locally though, again using these spirits. To the average player, this would rarely have any impact on the game, aside from certain areas seeming to grow crops slightly faster- to players who have been through the portal, they would have the option to move these spirits around to increase their farm yields, or even to stop crop growth altogether.

These spirit entities, for the most part, would effectively be particle spawner entities, rather than individual entities; while the individual spirits move freely from the source, that would make the source entity itself much easier to pin down and move. Otherwise, there could even be entire new hostile mobs that only appear to (and only attack) players who have been through the portal.

There could reasonably be entire structures that the player cannot see nor interact with unless they've been through the portal, but players who have can break these blocks, placing them wherever they would like. To players who haven't been through the portal, it could seem like players who have are simply walking across air. There could be entire swathes of decorative blocks & plants that could be crafted with echo shards to make them visible to the naked eye, or to otherwise make it so that an unassuming location becomes beautiful to those able to see it.

One final addition I would want to add is Solar Eclipses; during a solar eclipse, some of these spirits would be visible (though still not necessarily tangible) to the naked eye. This would be a way to ensure that players at least know about their existence, if they haven't been through the portal.

Removing the effect could be as simple as dying, like any other status effect in the game. To regain it, players would simply have to go through the portal once again.

We already have multiple instances of blocks specifically that only certain players can see under certain circumstances (barriers, light blocks), as well as the particle system allowing particles to be per-player, so if this tech was expanded to support block collision and entities, it would work out pretty well I think. This would add an insane amount of customization to the mechanics of minecraft, & I think any one of these features would be a really fun addition to play with. Imagine going through the gateway and seeing an entire city's worth of spectral villagers that have been in the ancient city this whole time.

[najia-cooks]

[ID: A circle of overlapping semi-circular bright pink pickles arranged on a plate, viewed from a low angle. End ID]

مخلل اللفت / Mukhallal al-lifit (Pickled turnips)

The word "مُخَلَّل" ("mukhallal") is derived from the verb "خَلَّلَ"‎ ("khallala"), meaning "to preserve in vinegar." "Lifit" (with diacritics, Levantine pronunciation: "لِفِتْ"), "turnip," comes from the root "ل ف ت‎", which produces words relating to being crooked, turning aside, and twisting (such as "لَفَتَ" "lafata," "to twist, to wring"). This root was being used to produce a word meaning "turnip" ("لِفْتْ" "lift") by the 1000s AD, perhaps because turnips must be twisted or wrung out of the ground.

Pickling as a method of preserving produce so that it can be eaten out of season is of ancient origin. In the modern-day Levant, pickles (called "طَرَاشِيّ‎" "ṭarāshiyy"; singular "طُرْشِيّ" "ṭurshiyy") make up an important culinary category: peppers, carrot, olives, eggplant, cucumber, cabbage, cauliflower, and lemons are preserved with vinegar or brine for later consumption.

Pickled turnips are perhaps the most commonly consumed pickles in the Levant. They are traditionally prepared during the turnip harvest in the winter; in the early spring, once they have finished their slow fermentation, they may be added to appetizer spreads, served as a side with breakfast, lunch, or dinner, eaten on their own as a snack, or used to add pungency to salads, sandwiches, and wraps (such as shawarma or falafel). Tarashiyy are especially popular among Muslim Palestinians during the holy month of رَمَضَان (Ramaḍān), when they are considered a must-have on the إِفْطَار ("ʔifṭār"; fast-breaking meal) table. Pickle vendors and factories will often hire additional workers in the time leading up to Ramadan in order to keep up with increased demand.

In its simplest instantiation, mukhallal al-lifit combines turnips, beetroot (for color), water, salt, and time: a process of anaerobic lacto-fermentation produces a deep transformation in flavor and a sour, earthy, tender-crisp pickle. Some recipes instead pickle the turnips in vinegar, which produces a sharp, acidic taste. A pink dye (صِبْغَة مُخَلَّل زَهْرِي‎; "ṣibgha mukhallal zahri") may be added to improve the color. Palestinian recipes in particular sometimes call for garlic and green chili peppers. This recipe is for a "slow pickle" made with brine: thick slices of turnip are fermented at room temperature for about three weeks to produce a tangy, slightly bitter pickle with astringency and zest reminiscent of horseradish.

Turnips are a widely cultivated crop in Palestine, but, though they make a very popular pickle, they are seldom consumed fresh. One Palestinian dish, mostly prepared in Hebron, that does not call for their fermentation is مُحَشّي لِفِتْ ("muḥashshi lifit")—turnips that are cored, fried, and stuffed with a filling made from ground meat, rice, tomato, and sumac or tamarind. In Nablus, tahina and lemon juice may be added to the meat and rice. A similar dish exists in Jordan.

Turnips produced in the West Bank are typically planted in open fields (as opposed to in or under structures such as plastic tunnels) in November and harvested in February, making them a fall/winter crop. Because most of them are irrigated (rather than rain-fed), their yield is severely limited by the Israeli military's siphoning off of water from Palestine's natural aquifers to settlers and their farms.

Israeli military order 92, issued on August 15th, 1967 (just two months after the order by which Israel had claimed full military, legislative, executive, and judicial control of the West Bank on June 7th), placed all authority over water resources in the hands of an Israeli official. Military order 158, issued on November 19th of the same year, declared that no one could establish, own, or administer any water extraction or processing construction (such as wells, water purification plants, or rainwater collecting cisterns) without a new permit. Water infrastructure could be searched for, confiscated, or destroyed at will of the Israeli military. This order de facto forbid Palestinians from owning or constructing any new water infrastructure, since anyone could be denied a permit without reason; to date, no West Bank Palestinian has ever been granted a permit to construct a well to collect water from an aquifer.

Nearly 30 years later, the Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip (also called the Oslo II Accord or the Taba Agreement), signed by Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1995, officially granted Israel the full control over water resources in occupied Palestine that it had earlier claimed. The Argreement divided the West Bank into regions of three types—A, B, and C—with Israel given control of Area C, and the Palestinian Authority (PA) supposedly having full administrative power over Area A (about 3% of the West Bank at the time).

In fact, per article 40 of Annex 3, the PA was only allowed to administer water distribution in Area A, so long as their water usage did not exceed what had been allocated to them in the 1993 Oslo Accord, a mere 15% of the total water supply: they had no administrative control over water resources, all of which were owned and administered by Israel. This interim agreement was to be returned to in permanent status negotiations which never occurred.

The cumulative effect of these resolutions is that Palestinians have no independent access to water: they are forbidden to collect water from underground aquifers, the Jordan River, freshwater springs, or rainfall. They are, by law and by design, fully reliant on Israel's grid, which distributes water very unevenly; a 2023 report estimated that Israeli settlers (in "Israel" and in the occupied West Bank) used 3 times as much water as Palestinians. Oslo II estimations of Palestinians' water needs were set at a static number of million cubic meters (mcm), rather than an amount of water per person, and this number has been adhered to despite subsequent growth in the Palestinian population.

Palestinians who are connected to the Israeli grid may open their taps only to find them dry (for as long as a month at a time, in بَيْت لَحْم "bayt laḥm"; Bethlehem, and الخَلِيل "al-khalīl"; Hebron). Families rush to complete chores that require water the moment they discover the taps are running. Those in rural areas rely on cisterns and wells that they are forbidden to deepen; new wells and reservoirs that they build are demolished in the hundreds by the Israeli military. Water deficits must be made up by paying steep prices for additional tankards of water, both through clandestine networks and from Israel itself. As climate change makes summers hotter and longer, the crisis worsens.

By contrast, Israeli settlers use water at will. Israel, as the sole authority over water resources, has the power to transfer water between aquifers; in practice, it uses this authority to divert water from the Jordan River basin, subterranean aquifers, and بُحَيْرَة طَبَرِيَّا ("buḥayrat ṭabariyyā"; Lake Tiberias) into its national water carrier (built in 1964), and from there to other regions, including the Negev Desert (south of the West Bank) and settlements within the West Bank.

Whenever Israel annexes new land, settlers there are rapidly given access to water; the PA, however, is forbidden to transport water from one area of the West Bank to another. Israel's control over water resources is an important part of the settler colonial project, as access to water greatly influences the desirability of land and the expected profit to be gained through its agricultural exports.

The result of the diversion of water is to increase the salinity of the Eastern Aquifer (in the West Bank, on the east bank of the Jordan River) and the remainder of the Jordan that flows into the West Bank, reducing the water's suitability for drinking and irrigation; in addition, natural springs and wells in Palestine have run dry. In this environment, water for drinking and watering crops and livestock is given priority, and many Palestinians struggle to access enough water to shower or wash clothing regularly. In extreme circumstances, crops may be left for dead, as Palestinian farmers instead seek out jobs tending Israeli fields.

Some areas in Palestine are worse off in this regard than others. Though water can be produced more easily in the قَلْقِيلية (Qalqilya), طُولْكَرْم (Tulkarm) and أَرِيحَا ("ʔarīḥā"; Jericho) Districts than in others, the PA is not permitted to transfer water from these areas to areas where water is scarcer, such as the Bethlehem and Al-Khalil Districts. In Al-Khalil, where almost a third of Palestinian acreage devoted to turnips is located [1], and where farming families such as the Jabars cultivate them for market, water usage averaged just 51 liters per person per day in 2020—compare this to the West Bank Palestinian average of 82.4 liters, the WHO recommended daily minimum of 100 liters, and the Israeli average of 247 liters per person per day.

As Israeli settlement גִּבְעַת חַרְסִינָה (Givat Harsina) encroached on Al-Khalil in 2001, with a subdivision being built over the bulldozed Jabar orchard, the Jabars reported settlers breaking their windows, destroying their garden, throwing rocks, and holding rallies on the road leading to their house. In 2010, with the growth of the קִרְיַת־אַרְבַּע (Kiryat Arba) settlement (officially the parent settlement of Givat Harsina), the Jabars' entire irrigation system was repeatedly torn out, with the justification that they were stealing water from the Israeli water authority; the destruction continued into 2014. Efforts at connecting and expanding Israeli settlements in the Bethlehem area continue to this day.

Thus we can see that water deprivation is one tool among many used to drive Palestinians from their land; and that it is connected to a strategy of rendering agriculture impossible or unprofitable for them, forcing them into a state of dependence on the Israeli economy.

Turnips, as well as cabbage and chili peppers, are also grown in the village of وَادِي فُوقِين (Wadi Fuqin), west of Bethlehem. In 2014, Israel annexed about 1,250 acres of land in Wadi Fuqin, or a third of the village's land, "effectively [ruling] out development of the village and its use of this land for agriculture." Most of this land lies immediately to the west of a group of settlements Israel calls גּוּשׁ עֶצְיוֹן ("Gush Etzion"; Etzion Bloc). Building here would link several non-contiguous Israeli settlements with each other and with القدس (Al-Quds; "Jerusalem"), hemming Palestinians of the region in on all sides (many main roads through Israeli settlements cannot be used by anyone with a Palestinian ID). [2] PLO executive committee member Hanan Ashrawi said that the annexation, which was carried out "[u]nder the cover of [Israel's] latest campaign of aggression in Gaza," "represent[ed] Israel’s deliberate intent to wipe out any Palestinian presence on the land".

This, of course, was not the beginning of this strategy: untreated sewage from Gush Etzion settlements had been contaminating crops, springs, and groundwater in Wadi Fuqin since 2006, which also saw nearly 100 acres of Palestinian land annexed to allow for expansion of the Etzion Bloc.

All of this has obviously had an effect on Palestinian agriculture. A 1945–6 British survey of vegetable production in Palestine found that 992 dunums were devoted to Arab turnip production (954 irrigated and 38 rain-fed; no turnip production was attributed to Jewish settlers). A March 1948 UN report claimed that "[i]n most districts the markets are well-supplied with all the common winter vegetables—cabbages, cauliflowers, lettuce and spinach; carrots, turnips and and beets; beans and peas; green onions, eggplants, marrows and tomatoes." By 2009, however, the area given to turnips in Palestine had fallen to 918 dunums. Of these, 864 dunums were irrigated and 54 rain-fed. This represents an increase in unirrigated turnips (5.8%, up from 3.9%) that is perhaps related to difficulty in obtaining sufficient water.

Meanwhile, Israel profits from its restriction of Palestinian agriculture; it is the largest exporter of turnips in West Asia (I found no data for turnip exports from Palestine after 1922, suggesting that the produce is all for local consumption).

The pattern that Ashrawi called out in 2014 continued in 2023, as Israel's genocide in Gaza occurs alongside the continued and escalating killing and expulsion of West Bank Palestinians. The 2014 annexations, which represented the largest land grab for over 30 years and which appeared to institute a new era of state policy, have been followed up in subsequent years with more land claims and settlement-building.

Israeli military and settler raids and massacres in the West Bank, which had already killed 248 in 2023 before the حَمَاس (Hamas) October 7 offensive had taken place, accelerated after the attack, with forced expulsions of Palestinians (including Bedouin Arabs), and harassment, raids, kidnappings, and torture of Palestinians by a military armed with rifles, tanks, and drones. This violence has been opposed by armed resistance groups, who defend refugee camps from military raids with strategies including the use of improvised explosives.

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[1] 918 dunums were devoted to turnips according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) report for 2009; the 2008 PCBS report attributes 253 dunums of turnip cultivation to Al-Khalil ("Hebron") for 2006–7.

[2] Today, Gush Etzion is connected to Al-Quds by an underground road that runs beneath the Palestinian Christian town of بَيتْ جَالَا (Bayt Jala).

Ingredients:

Makes 2 1-liter mason jars.

500g (4 medium) turnips

1 beetroot

1 medium green chili pepper (فلفل حار خضرة), halved

2 small cloves garlic, peeled

1 liter (4 cups) distilled or filtered water

25g coarse sea salt (or substitute an equivalent weight of any salt without iodine)

Some brining recipes for lifit call for the addition of a spoonful of sugar. This will increase the activity of lactic-acid-producing bacteria at the beginning of the fermentation, producing a quicker fermentation and a different, sourer flavor profile.

Instructions:

1. Clean two large mason jars thoroughly in hot water (there is no need to sterilize them).

2. Scrub vegetables thoroughly. Cut the top (root) and bottom off of each turnip. Cut each turnip in half (from root end to bottom), and then in 1 cm (1/2") slices (perpendicular to the last cut). Prepare the beetroot the same way.

If you need your pickles to be finished sooner, cut the turnips into thinner slices, or into thick (1/2") baton shapes; these will need to be fermented for about a week.

3. Arrange turnip and beet slices so that they lie flat in your jars. Add garlic and peppers.

4. Whisk salt into water until dissolved and pour over the turnips until they are fully submerged. Seal with the jar's lid and leave in a cool place, or the refrigerator, for 20–24 days.

The amount of brine that you will need to cover the top of the vegetables will depend on the shape of your jar. If you add more water, make sure that you add more salt in the same ratio.