New travel and cooking shows valorize the very practices destroying frogs and other living things 4

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1. 

   Whiskerfish Posted 6:59 am
   03 Feb 2009

   thanks biodfor reminding us how gross TV can be!
   Why don't you start a campaign against the show?
   Whiskerfish

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2. 

   mrdavidbarrie Posted 5:17 am
   05 Feb 2009

   snobby...Why be so snobby about such shows? Few in the Western world give half a thought as to what they eat and where their food comes from. And it's shocking how a foodie culture so devoted to local, seasonal and authentic food experiences turns so culturally hoighty-toighty about what other cultures eat and call local, seasonal and authentic. We should thank our lucky stars that the slow but sure drip drip of this media product is starting to slowly but surely encourage more and more people to take a greater understanding of what they eat. No one pretends that it's more than entertainment so maybe best to take it on its own terms?

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3. 

   Ted Clayton Posted 8:03 am
   05 Feb 2009

   Eating aboI live on the North Olympic Peninsula part of Biodiversivist's Pacific Northwest, working mostly in the brush & outdoors.  I've been hearing of the red-legged frog concern for years.  My informal brush & outdoors experience has been that in some locales frogs are very visible, while in other settings I don't notice them.
   But in spring, every reliable puddle & pond in my part of the county is just roaring with frogs croaking.  I don't doubt the ability of biologists to determine whether a particular locale has the expected frog population or not, but scientific sampling is of course limited to small areas - and egg-laying sites.
   If the frogs are having a problem on a patchy or quilt-work basis (my impression), this could point to a very specific issue, rather than general degradation of habitat.
   
   ===
   For sure, a lot of aboriginal cuisine experiences can come from wildlife that are abundant and thriving.  Endangered animals shouldn't be taken.  Remember "Four & twenty blackbirds, baked in a pie"? ... well, try starlings, instead. ;-)
   One year - being abo - I jerked & plain-dried an entire deer, without any seasoning or 'treatment'.  All through that winter we sang the praises of old pemmican-methods, reading up on everything we could find about pounding dried berries & fat into drying meats ... because plain-dried jerky makes the meat extremely hard, brittle & tough - and normal soaking & cooking still leaves it with plenty of fight.  The pressure cooker will make it nice (like with beans), but leave it in extra-long.
   Story from the Pacific Northwest.
   Herb Crisler, a naturalist & photographer famous for his early videography of Roosevelt elk in the Olympic mountains, made a large wager with another well-known man, that he could survive for a given period (30 days?) in the Olympic high-country with no supplies.  A photo from Crisler's documents shows 40 frogs cleaned & laid out preparatory to meal-time, along with notes making clear this was the standard grub he subsisted on.
   Crisler was dramatically affected by his experience - totally aside from the 'he-man, tough it out in the wilderness' theme.  His attitudes, behavior & lifestyle all apparently veered sharply from former patterns, and never 'recovered'.

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4. 

   biodiversivist Posted 2:00 pm
   05 Feb 2009

   Those are Emerald Tree frogs you hearin those ponds and puddles, Ted. They breed in the coldest part of the year like many salamanders to avoid reptilian predators that are in hibernation. They are still quite common. My ponds are filled with them right now.
   Nobody knows what caused the red legged frog population to crash but you can bet it had something to do with white man's arrival.
   I have no problem with people eating things that are properly regulated like deer and rabbits. This isn't an animal rights kind of issue for me.
   
   In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world

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