FanFare

This week.... Governor Kristi Noem of South Dakota spoke at a NRA forum, claiming that it wasn't just a bunch of old white guys, to a crowd composed almost entirely of old white guys. Texas judge Kacsmaryk suspended the FDA's approval of a key component of medication abortions 23 years after the fact, using terrible reasoning to do so (MeFi). And Now: Did You Know Action News' Robert Grant Has A Fucking Dairy Allergy? Main story: Farm workers (Youtube, 25 minutes), most of whom in the US are foreign-born and undocumented, are badly treated, work in dangerous conditions, are woefully paid, and can legally be as young as twelve, and yet are incredibly essential to agriculture, which is messed up. The closing segment (of a parody "Farming Simulator 2023") was narrated by Nick Offerman. [more inside]
posted by JHarris on Apr 17, 2023 - 2 comments

A 2016 documentary about the world of show chickens and the people who love them. Three participants breed, raise, and care for many varieties of chickens as they prepare to compete in a US national poultry show.
posted by brainwane on Jul 5, 2022 - 3 comments

Humans and their immediate ancestors were successful hunter-gatherers for hundreds of thousands of years, but in the last fifteen thousand years humans have gone from finding food to farming it, from seasonal camps to sprawling cities, from a few people to hordes. Drawing on her own fieldwork in the Mediterranean, Africa, Asia, and beyond, archeologist Brenna Hassett explores the long history of urbanization through revolutionary changes written into the bones of the people who lived it. For every major new lifestyle, another way of dying appeared. From the "cradle of civilization" in the ancient Near East to the dawn of agriculture on the American plains, skeletal remains and fossils show evidence of shorter lives, rotten teeth, and growth interrupted. The scarring on human skeletons reveals that getting too close to animals had some terrible consequences, but so did getting too close to too many other people. Each chapter of Built on Bones moves forward in time, discussing in depth humanity's great urban experiment. Hassett explains the diseases, plagues, epidemics, and physical dangers we have unwittingly unleashed upon ourselves throughout the urban past--and, as the world becomes increasingly urbanized, what the future holds for us. In a time when "Paleo" lifestyles are trendy and so many of us feel the pain of the city daily grind, this book asks the critical question: Was it worth it?
posted by Homo neanderthalensis on Oct 30, 2019 - 3 comments

The true adventures of David Fairchild, a late-nineteenth-century food explorer who traveled the globe and introduced diverse crops like avocados, mangoes, seedless grapes—and thousands more—to the American plate. In the nineteenth century, American meals were about subsistence, not enjoyment. But as a new century approached, appetites broadened, and David Fairchild, a young botanist with an insatiable lust to explore and experience the world, set out in search of foods that would enrich the American farmer and enchant the American eater. [more inside]
posted by Homo neanderthalensis on Jun 4, 2019 - 1 comment

“Stewarding our own land, growing our own food, educating our own youth, participating in our own healthcare and justice systems,” Penniman writes, “this is the source of real power and dignity.” [more inside]
posted by aniola on Mar 1, 2019 - 4 comments

What's worse than a magical, murdering beast? A magical, murdering beast who sings. Julia turns to an old enemy, while the gang looks for help from a tricky Pixie and some cacodemons, continuing to pull in elements from the books for inspiration. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief on Feb 2, 2017 - 3 comments

What's worse than a magical, murdering beast? A magical, murdering beast who sings. Julia turns to an old enemy, while the gang looks for help from a tricky Pixie and some cacodemons.
posted by filthy light thief on Feb 2, 2017 - 7 comments