Red-shouldered hawks, split-tailed kites, and buzzards were riding the updrafts mid-day today.
You can also hear bluebirds and other birds keeping to the trees.
Here’s a video playlist. Continue reading
Category Archives: Okra Paradise Farms
GMOs: worse risk of ruin than nuclear power –Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Because Genetically modified crops risk widespread ruin, they should not be permitted without far greater scientific knowledge, for which the burden of proof falls on those proposing GMOs, not those opposing, say experts in risk and ruin.
Risk management or mitigation may work for localized harm,
but GMOs risk widespread systemic damage, which is ruin, and to prevent that
the precautionary principal is needed:
if an action or policy has a suspected risk of causing severe harm to the public domain (such as general health or the environment), and in the absence of scientific near-certainty about the safety of the action, the burden of proof about absence of harm falls on those proposing the action.
A paper by Nassim Nicholas Taleb and co-authors lays out Continue reading
Corn shuck disposal
Burning off corn shucks and adding a bit of pot ash to the soil.
Peter Clark Quarterman Jr. (1923-2015)
Cousin Clark; he will be missed. Obituary at Carson McLane of Valdosta:
Peter Clark Quarterman Jr., 91, of Valdosta passed away January 25, 2015 at Brooks County Hospital. He was born April 4, 1923 in Valdosta, GA to the late Dr. Peter Clark, Sr. and Kathryne Staten Quarterman. Mr. Quarterman was a veteran of WWII where he was a B-25 top turret gunner for the United States Army Air Corps. After the
war, he returned to Valdosta to become a farmer. He played string bass and was known for his fish-fry musical suppers held at Lake Octahatchee. A lifelong member of First Presbyterian Church, Mr. Quarterman sang bass in the choir and was an elder in the church.
Mr. Quarterman is survived by his wife, Muriel DeCarr Hancock Quarterman of Quitman, GA and several cousins and dear friends in South Georgia and at the Presbyterian Home in Quitman, GA. In addition to his parents, Mr. Quarterman was preceded in death by his sister, the Rev. Mrs. Helen Quarterman Fisher.
A graveside service will be held Continue reading
UGA Vegetable Growers Workshop 2015-01-30
How to grow your own vegetables for food and/or profit,
according to UGA Griffin, at the end of this month.
You can register by printing and mailing the
PDF form, or through the event
website. -jsq
University of Georgia Horticulture Presents:
Vegetable Growers WorkshopThis program will cover many aspects of how to grow your own Continue reading
Small organic farms can (already) feed the world
Research, including studies presented at the conference in Istanbul, is showing that organic agriculture can deliver reliably high yields ”and that organic fields thrive in the face of disaster and duress, where chemical-reliant crops falter. Organic fields, for example, fare significantly better than chemically managed ones in the face of extreme weather, such as droughts or floods.
Anna Lappe, for takepart, 4 November 2014, Yes, Organic Farming Can Feed the World, Continue reading
Minor food crops to consider for the hobby gardener or small scale farmer –Bret Wagenhorst @ SOGALO15
Chayote squash, feijoas,
bananas, Jerusalem artichokes, roselle, chestnuts and black walnuts,
kiwano melons, star fruit, grapefruit, Seminole pumpkins, papayas,
Japanese persimmons, and rice: all these can be grown in south Georgia,
says Bret Wagenhorst of Brighton Farms.
He will talk about those crops at
South Georgia Growing Local 2015, January 24, 2015, at Pine Grove Middle
School in Lowndes County north of Valdosta.
You can
register now.
There are many food crops that aren’t typically grown commercially in south Georgia/north Florida that can do well on a small scale. This talk will Continue reading
The new colonialists and local agriculture to shape our own local economy
This sums up both
Bill Gates’ sudden surge of
agricultural land purchases
and
the fossil fuel industry’s sudden surge of fracked methane pipelines:
“on a global scale, that the global problem, from the
perspective of European colonialists and European entrepreneurs, is
really how to transform the countryside.”
In both cases, we here in the southeast are just peasants
or backwards natives from the perspectives of the
the new colonialists as they try to transform our countryside.
So what if such transformation results in
dust storms
or
leaks, explosions, or
higher domestic natural gas prices?
The new colonialists would profit!
Jonathan Shaw wrote for Harvard Magazine November-December 2014, The New Histories: Scholars pursue sweeping new interpretations of the human past. Continue reading
Dr. Elsie Quarterman, Champion of the Cedar Glades and Natural Areas –Brian Bowen
Thanks to Kim Sadler for sending this.
Brian Bowen, for Tennessee Conservationist Magazine, Sep-Oct 2014, Remembering Dr. Elsie Quarterman, Champion of the Cedar Glades and Natural Areas,
Dr. Quarterman was a longtime member of the Natural Areas Association, the professional organization representing the interests of natural area professionals in the US. She received the NAA George Fell Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008 at the 35th Annual Natural Areas Conference in Nashville. In receiving the award, she humbly said that there “is no greater honor than to be recognized by my peers.” Her most significant legacy will be the thousands of acres of natural areas she helped to protect in Tennessee including the cedar glades and the once endangered Tennessee Coneflower.
(Tennessee Natural Areas Program Administrator Brian Bowen works in the Department of Environment and Conservation in Nashville.)
There’s much more in the article.
-jsq
Elsie was more than a biology professor and ecologist –Jonathan Ertelt, Community
Saying what many students think: “Students of all ages are thankful
that her appreciation of the plant kingdom and the world around her
touched them and made their lives.”
Jonathan Ertelt, Vanderbilt Magazine, Summer 2014 issue, Quarterman Was More Than a Biology Professor and Ecologist, Continue reading