{"id":8070,"date":"2022-03-25T06:06:31","date_gmt":"2022-03-25T06:06:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=8070"},"modified":"2022-03-25T06:06:31","modified_gmt":"2022-03-25T06:06:31","slug":"lambs-succory-interrupted-brome-small-bur-parsley-downy-hemp-nettle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2022\/03\/25\/lambs-succory-interrupted-brome-small-bur-parsley-downy-hemp-nettle\/","title":{"rendered":"Lamb\u2019s succory, Interrupted brome, Small bur-parsley, Downy hemp-nettle."},"content":{"rendered":"

The Economist<\/a> reports that Egypt spends around $6bn a year subsidising food for the poorest people in its ~100m population. \u00a0$2.9bn of this is used to subsidise the staple aish baladi<\/a><\/em>\u00a0bread. \u00a0The magazine notes that\u00a0Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine<\/a>\u00a0has sent commodity prices surging<\/a>, and may compel Arab governments to think the unthinkable, as costly wheat will blow up budgets in the Middle East<\/a>, perhaps forcing subsidy cuts that leave citizens hungry. \u00a0And across sub-Saharan Africa, higher oil prices<\/a> will strain budgets that are already creaking under the burden of growing\u00a0debt. \u00a0All this, it says, may mean not just hardship, but also unrest, as has happened before.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile the price of wheat is now 55% above that in 2010. \u00a0We may all have to eat cake.<\/p>\n

For a sceptical view of the value and cost of\u00a0Triticum aestivum<\/em>, see this<\/a> in Unherd by John Lewis-Stempel\u00a0who is a farmer and historian. \u00a0He argues that wheat, historically, comes chained to tyranny. \u00a0For example:<\/p>\n

\"Wheat is a slave-master, demanding in its specific and daily needs, not least the endless \u2014 or so it seems to us who have ever grown the stuff \u2014 weeding. Wheat locked us into a seasonal cycle of planting, weeding and harvesting from which we have been unable to escape ever since. It also made us more sedentary, both in terms of chaining us to static settlements, and becoming less active. Guarding a wheat field from wild boar requires less energy than hunting wild boar; the lineal ancestor of the couch potato was the campfire bum.\"<\/p>\n

\"Chemical use in conventional wheat-growing does much for the coffers of Monsanto (now owned by Bayer), but it is turning swathes of the UK countryside into a coffin for nature. Wheat is the cause of more environmental problems than you can wave a baguette at. Although the lobbyists and the apologists of agribusiness insist that pesticide use has declined over the last quarter of a century, this is not the case<\/a> when it comes to wheat. Between 2000 and 2016, average spray passes (applications) over wheat increased from 5.5 to 6.6, while the active substances in sprays went from 14.7 to 20.5. Actually, forget\u00a0 the mgs, and the ratios. The countryside is doused in chemicals.\"<\/p>\n

\"Five wildflowers \u2014\u00a0\u201cweeds\u201d to some \u2014 associated with cereal and arable farming in the UK are now dead and gone due to chemically addicted\u00a0 industrialised agriculture: So, farewell, Lamb\u2019s succory, Interrupted brome, Thorowax, Small bur-parsley and Downy hemp-nettle.\"<\/p>\n

\"To save the planet, pastoralism is the intelligent solution. The brain is 60% fat, and omega-rich fat from grass-fed meat is excellent for mental health<\/a>. The sine qua non<\/em> of free thinking. Beef and liberty! More meat, less wheat!\"<\/p>\n

Time to tell the Egyptian government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Economist reports that Egypt spends around $6bn a year subsidising food for the poorest people in its ~100m population. \u00a0$2.9bn of this is used to subsidise the staple aish baladi\u00a0bread. \u00a0The magazine notes that\u00a0Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine\u00a0has sent commodity...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment","category-news-and-updates"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8070\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}