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Pagan News Beagle: Earthy Thursday, May 28

Food, glorious food! After water it's easily the most vital resource we utilize (except perhaps for air). But in a world that's growing ever larger and where land fertility is under threat it can be a struggle to find new solutions to feed the hungry. Among the other stories we've gathered today, this week's Earthy Thursday talks about the different and creative ways by which people are trying to create new and plentiful food sources, from seaweed farms to insects. Continue below to learn more about these future possibilities.

Insects. The idea of eating these creepy crawlies sends a shiver down the spine for many of us in the West. But in other parts of the world, eating these land-based relatives to critters like shrimp and lobster isn't so unusual. This story form from grist talks about the values of entomophagy, aka "eating bugs."

When people talk about aquaculture they're usually talking about raising farm-bred salmon, domesticated shrimp, or some other form of marine animal. But animals aren't the only edible things in the sea. Down in South Korea there's a booming industry for commercially growing seaweed, as this article from mother nature network details.

Is it more environmentally friendly to live in cities or suburbs? More and more research seems to be showing its the former that's greener. The secret, it seems, is population density.

You've probably heard a lot about declining bee populations by now. Considering how vital bees are for pollination of domesticated crops their decline could have a massive impact on the world's agricultural industry. How then can we help the bees? This piece has a few suggestions.

Many people have an uneasy feeling associated with genetically-modified organisms or "GMOs." A lot of that arguably has to do with the fact that they're "unnatural" and sci-fi inspired visions of mutant plants gone mad. But as this article from io9 describes, there are a lot of potential benefits to the use of genetic engineering, including the possibility of feeding a starving world.


Top image by Dennis Jarvis.

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Aryós Héngwis (or the more modest Héngwis for short) is a native of the Pontic-Caspian steppe, born some 5000 years ago, near the village of Dereivka. In his youth he stood out from the other snakes for his love of learning and culture, eventually coming into the service of the local reǵs before moving westward toward Europe. Most recently, Aryós Héngwis left his home to pursue a new life in America, where he has come under the employ of BBI Media as an internet watchdog (or watchsnake, if you will), ever poised to strike the unwary troll.

Comments

  • Greybeard
    Greybeard Friday, 29 May 2015

    GMO crops already keep half the world population alive. If GMO food was not available something like 3 billion humans would soon die of starvation, or would have died already if GMO food wasn't there to feed them. Many pagans have an irrational fear of GMO food, without knowing or caring what each particular modification does to double food production. We live in an age where obesity rather than starvation is our major concern. Our pagan ancestors never had it so good. And yet many of us make war against that which feeds us. We ought to have more sense.

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