<![CDATA[Grist - Comment Feed for With global wheat stocks at all-time lows, a killer fungus looms]]> Grist Comment Feed en Comment #1 by Pangolin http://www.grist.org/article/grain-drain/ Wed, 19 Mar 2008 07:57:07 -0700 http://www.grist.org/article/grain-drain/1 Amaranth

All parts of the amaranth plant are edible (although not always particularly tasty, varieties differ) it grows like a weed and yields a LOT of grain that is high in protien. Most importantly just about anybody can grow it as it really is a free seeding weed.

So if you're inclined to garden and have a few chickens this might be a plant you want in a back corner. Just remember to never put any form of amaranth on the compost pile. If you do you have a new intercrop to go with everything else you planted.

The lack of biodiversity in our food supply will someday create a great tragedy. Every few years we get a wake-up call like this but so far they have turned out to be false alarms. One day the famine will be real.

Put the Carbon Back

]]> Amaranth

All parts of the amaranth plant are edible (although not always particularly tasty, varieties differ) it grows like a weed and yields a LOT of grain that is high in protien. Most importantly just about anybody can grow it as it really is a free seeding weed.

So if you're inclined to garden and have a few chickens this might be a plant you want in a back corner. Just remember to never put any form of amaranth on the compost pile. If you do you have a new intercrop to go with everything else you planted.

The lack of biodiversity in our food supply will someday create a great tragedy. Every few years we get a wake-up call like this but so far they have turned out to be false alarms. One day the famine will be real.

Put the Carbon Back

]]> Comment #2 by AtomicWarBaby http://www.grist.org/article/grain-drain/ Wed, 19 Mar 2008 18:13:57 -0700 http://www.grist.org/article/grain-drain/2 Why Can't the Fungus Attack Tobacco Plants?

Geez, why can't the Universe deliver us a KILLER FUNGUS, please, which will wipe out all Tobacco Crops on the frackin' planet, & end the bloody curse of that useless, disease-producing, nasty addictive & poisonous toxic weed?

There's the Tobacco Mosaic Virus, but that's not a Fungus, is it? I'm not a botanist. Just tired of having generation after generation, pass on this curse, this "merchant of death" product.

At least you can make something useful out of HEMP, & medical marijuana (not smoked) has actual uses for some conditions. Tobacco, nicotine? What the frack is it good for? Absolutely nothing.

Like the stupid bloody Bush's War in Iraq.

]]> Why Can't the Fungus Attack Tobacco Plants?

Geez, why can't the Universe deliver us a KILLER FUNGUS, please, which will wipe out all Tobacco Crops on the frackin' planet, & end the bloody curse of that useless, disease-producing, nasty addictive & poisonous toxic weed?

There's the Tobacco Mosaic Virus, but that's not a Fungus, is it? I'm not a botanist. Just tired of having generation after generation, pass on this curse, this "merchant of death" product.

At least you can make something useful out of HEMP, & medical marijuana (not smoked) has actual uses for some conditions. Tobacco, nicotine? What the frack is it good for? Absolutely nothing.

Like the stupid bloody Bush's War in Iraq.

]]> Comment #3 by Jeremy Cherfas http://www.grist.org/article/grain-drain/ Wed, 19 Mar 2008 20:06:11 -0700 http://www.grist.org/article/grain-drain/3 North America just as vulnerable

Dear Tom

You single out the quote about Africa and Asia's wheats all being susceptible.

You think North America's are any better off? The big difference is, North America can afford fungicides.

Jeremy

]]> North America just as vulnerable

Dear Tom

You single out the quote about Africa and Asia's wheats all being susceptible.

You think North America's are any better off? The big difference is, North America can afford fungicides.

Jeremy

]]> Comment #4 by Jeremy Cherfas http://www.grist.org/article/grain-drain/ Wed, 19 Mar 2008 20:08:34 -0700 http://www.grist.org/article/grain-drain/4 Make better compost

If you get intercrops of anything after spreading compost, you're not making your compost properly.

Having said that, I agree that amaranth is a fine and overlooked crop.

False alarms? I don't think so. Just that in the agriculture you're familiar with, people pay for fungicides and the like. Asian soybean rust has cost Brazil millions of dollars a year.

]]> Make better compost

If you get intercrops of anything after spreading compost, you're not making your compost properly.

Having said that, I agree that amaranth is a fine and overlooked crop.

False alarms? I don't think so. Just that in the agriculture you're familiar with, people pay for fungicides and the like. Asian soybean rust has cost Brazil millions of dollars a year.

]]> Comment #5 by Ron Steenblik http://www.grist.org/article/grain-drain/ Thu, 20 Mar 2008 16:30:42 -0700 http://www.grist.org/article/grain-drain/5 Thank you for bringing this to our attention, Tom

Of course, the ethanol industry continues to assert that the low grain stocks and high prices have NOTHING to do with the push into biofuels.

The price of wheat is so high now that one of Canada's leading producers of ethanol, Husky Oil, has decided to back off on wheat as its main feedstock and use more corn.

These are only my personal opinions.

]]> Thank you for bringing this to our attention, Tom

Of course, the ethanol industry continues to assert that the low grain stocks and high prices have NOTHING to do with the push into biofuels.

The price of wheat is so high now that one of Canada's leading producers of ethanol, Husky Oil, has decided to back off on wheat as its main feedstock and use more corn.

These are only my personal opinions.

]]>