Agromodernism

Years of Eavesdropping on Insect Sex Talk is Starting to Pay Off for Grape Growers

April 18, 2018 Guest Authors 0

Vineyards across the U.S. and Italy are being devastated by incurable diseases caused by bacteria hitching a ride on leafhoppers — a diverse group of plant-piercing insects closely related to cicadas. Now, thanks to some innovative research, scientists are using a technique called vibrational mating disruption to interrupt male-leafhopper courtship songs, preventing them from finding mates and slowing population growth.

The Dutch Weed Burger . . . Seaweed, that is.

June 1, 2017 Guest Authors 0

Five years ago, Kulsom and his colleague Lisette Kreischer founded a company called The Dutch Weed Burger after they shot a documentary about the role of seaweed as a future source of protein. Kulsom says the company’s mission is “to work on the acceptance of seaweed becoming a part of the new paradigm.”

Enter their first product: the weed burger.

At first, a seaweed burger seems like an unusual choice, but it begins to make sense after a while.

Ecosystems are Not Smart, We Are

February 6, 2017 Andrew McGuire 0

If nature has not been optimized by any process that we know of, and therefore consists of mostly random mixes of species dictated primarily by natural disturbances, then there is no reason to “follow nature’s lead.” But if we don’t, what are we left with?

We are left with an agriculture based on human ingenuity.

Don’t Mimic Nature on the Farm, Improve It

February 1, 2017 Andrew McGuire 1

Behind many efforts to make agriculture more sustainable is the idea that our farming systems need to be more like nature. in addition to being false, the whole idea of the “balance of nature” is misleading. From it has come the view that ecosystems are a highly complex, integrated system of interactions between species, complexity that is beyond our understanding. The evidence, however, points to different conclusions.

Tales of a Recovering Pollanite

November 18, 2016 Marc Brazeau 7

So I was a chef with left wing politics, a former union organizer and farm worker, and an armchair nutritionist when I started stumbling across various voices from the Food Movement some time around 2005. It’s hard to imagine someone better primed for a message of sustainable agriculture, grassroots activism, local economics, and low income community food security. Being a Massachusetts born union organizer who lived in cities but often worked in rural communities in the South has irrevocably scrambled my cultural allegiances in ways that would eventually play havoc with my loyalties in the debates the Food Movement had started. But I’m getting ahead of myself.