Medical detectives in western Uganda recently discovered that the wrong culprit had been blamed for an outbreak of crippling elephantiasis — legs so swollen that they resemble those of an elephant.
As it turned out, one rare, neglected tropical disease had been mistaken for another.
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How Ants figured out Farming Millions of years before Humans- April 12, 2017
We humans think we’re pretty smart because we invented farming. But we didn’t.
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A Woman’s Death sorting Grapes Exposes Italy’s Slavery- April 11, 2017
After months of investigation, this year the authorities arrested six people, accusing them of using their recruiting and transportation agencies to extort wages from women so poor and desperate they dared not speak up and worked under extreme conditions.
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A Staten Island Urban Farmer- NY Times Mar 10, 2017
Formerly farmers at Happy Acres Farm in Sherman as Empress Greens. Very happy to read that they are doing well in Staten Island:
Zaro Bates operates and lives on a 5,000-square-foot farm on Staten Island, which may make her the city’s only commercial farmer-in-residence. But instead of a shingled farmhouse surrounded by acres of fields, Ms. Bates lives in a second-floor studio in a midrise apartment complex built on the site of a former naval base overlooking New York Bay. Read more here.
Got Almond Milk? Dairy Farms Protest Milk Label on Nondairy Drinks, Feb. 13, 17, New York Times
If milk comes from a plant, can you still call it milk?
Not according to the dairy industry. Facing growing competition from dairy alternatives like almond, soy and coconut milk, the nation’s dairy farmers are fighting back, with an assist from Congress. Their goal: to stop companies from calling their plant-based products yogurt, milk or cheese. Dairy farmers say the practice misleads consumers into thinking that nondairy milk is nutritionally similar to cow’s milk.
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Goats, Alpacas and (of Course) a Hen: Life on a Hobby Farm, Feb. 11, New York Times
They sometimes earn a small profit — though they mostly just break even — by selling some of their herd, along with the soft alpaca fleece and fleece products that Ms. Conn learned to knit and crochet. “I’m not in it to make money,” she explained. “I’m in it because I like the lifestyle. It’s a fun lifestyle.”
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As School Gardens Spread, so do Teaching Moments- Dec. 7, 2016, Washington Post
Some lessons are obvious, such as the biology of growing a radish from seed. But the garden offers insights that go far beyond the brass tacks of cultivation. Geology, hydrology, poetry, music, ecology, cooking and microbiology all find a home in this arena we call a garden, as well as dozens of other subjects beyond most people’s imagination. Read more here.
Most Primate Species Threatened with Extinction, Scientists Find- Jan. 18, 2017, New York Times
Primates are threatened by the wholesale destruction of forests to make way for agriculture. In the Amazon, the jungle is being converted to cattle ranches and soybean fields, while in Madagascar, rice paddies are taking the place of lemur forests. Read more here.
Life on the Farm Draws Some French Tired of the Rat Race- Jan. 17, 2017, New York Times
More younger people are making lives as small-scale farmers in France, drawn in some cases by idealistic notions of tilling the land and of getting away from the rat race of the cities. They often leave behind well-paid jobs, as well as relatively comfortable lives that they nonetheless find unfulfilling.
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Hawaii’s last working sugar mill, in Puunene, Maui, produced its last harvest last month.
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