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#farming culture
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traditional knife 石镰shilian specially used to harvest glutinous rice
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reasonsforhope · 3 months
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"Discarded shells from restaurants and hotels are being used to restore damaged oyster ecosystems, promote biodiversity and lower pollution in the city’s bays...
Nestled in between the South China Sea and the Pearl River Delta, Hong Kong has been seen historically as an oyster hotspot. “They have been supporting our livelihood since ancient times,” says Anniqa Law Chung-kiu, a project manager at the Nature Conservancy (TNC) in Hong Kong. “Both oysters and their shells are treasures to humans.”
Over the past five decades, however, the city’s sprawling urban development, water pollution, as well as the over-harvesting and frequent seafloor dredging by the lime industry – which uses the crushed shells to make construction material – have destroyed Hong Kong’s oyster habitats and made the waters less hospitable for biodiversity.
The more oyster colonies falter, the worse the problem gets: oysters are filter feeders and purify water by gobbling up impurities. Just one Hong Kong oyster can filter up to 200 litres of water a day, more than any other known oyster species. But decades of rapid industrialisation have largely halted their water-purifying services.
The depletion of Hong Kong’s natural oyster reefs also affects the ability of local farmers to sustainably cultivate their oysters in a healthy environment, denting the reputation of the city’s 700-year oyster farming tradition, designated by Unesco as an “intangible cultural heritage”.
Inhabitants of the coast feel abandoned, says Ken Cheng Wai-kwan, the community leader of Ha Pak Nai on Hong Kong’s Deep Bay, facing the commercial city of Shenzhen in China. “This place is forgotten,” Cheng says. “Oysters have been rooted here for over 400 years. I ask the question: do we want to lose it, or not?”
A group of activists and scientists are taking up the challenge by collecting discarded oyster shells and recycling them to rebuild some of the reefs that have been destroyed and forgotten in the hope the oysters may make a comeback. They’ve selected locations around the island where data they’ve collected suggests ecosystems still have the potential to be rebooted, and there are still enough oyster larvae to recolonise and repopulate reefs. Ideally, this will have a positive effect on local biodiversity as a whole, and farming communities.
Farmers from Ha Pak Nai were among the first to hand over their discarded shells to the TNC team for recycling. Law’s team works with eight oyster farmers from Deep Bay to recycle up to 10 tonnes of shells every year [over 22,000 pounds]. They collect an average of 870kg every week [over 1,900 pounds] from 12 hotels, supermarkets, clubhouses and seafood restaurants in the city, including some of its most fashionable establishments. About 80 tonnes of shells [over 176,000 pounds] have been recycled since the project began in 2020.
Restaurants will soon be further incentivised to recycle the shells when Hong Kong introduces a new fee for waste removal – something that is routine in many countries, but only became law in Hong Kong in July and remains controversial...
Preliminary data shows some of the restored reefs have started to increase the levels of biodiversity, but more research is needed to determine to what extent they are contributing to the filtering of the water, says Law.
Scientists from the City University of Hong Kong are also looking to use oyster shells to increase biodiversity on the city’s concrete seawalls. They hope to provide tiny, wet shelter spots around the seawall in which organisms can find refuge during low tide.
“It’s a form of soft engineering, like a nature-based solution,” says Charlene Lai, a research assistant on the team."
-via The Guardian, December 22, 2023
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'Aurochs' by Jennifer Tetlow, Dales Countryside Museum, Hawes, Yorkshire Dales
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mushroommemoirs · 2 years
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A mushroom that’s grown in the shape of a flower
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tygerland · 1 year
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"First Steps" and "Noon; Rest from Work" (both January 1890, oil on canvas) by Vincent van Gogh.
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themarchingbeetle · 2 years
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vyorei · 5 months
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I found a post about Palestine and olive trees about a week ago, this reminded me of it so I'm gonna post the text below.
This was posted on Facebook by Dima Seelawi on the 29th of October 2018, it just happened to find its way to my newsfeed:
"When I was young, I never really understood my parents insistence to only use olive oil imported from Palestine. It took a long time and a great distance in a process that was neither cheap nor convenient. The oil came in old beat-up containers that did not look appealing to me at all. In my head, if they wanted to support distant family back home, they could just send them money and save us and them a big hassle. We could just use the nice looking olive oil containers from the nearby store. Yet, this was never an option in our household. The only olive oil we used at home was from Palestine.
As I grew up and started a student part-time job, I worked with olive oil a little. I knew all about olive oil imported from Spain, Italy, and other countries. I knew which ones were better and more expensive. I also learned to tell, based on the pungent taste, which ones were extra virgin. I was tempted to use my employee discount to bring home one of the fancy bottles and use at our kitchen. I could not get myself to do it, and I did not exactly know why. I felt like it would be disrespectful to my parents even if it didn’t make sense to me. It did not feel right. It was not an option.
After living in Palestine for a year during the olive picking season, something changed. The olive picking season in Palestine is holy.
Palestinians relate to the weather based on how it would benefit or harm the olives. There is well-known unspoken rule about treating olive trees with respect. There is a day off from work just to pick olives. On public transportation, it is not unusual to hear someone on the phone telling their friend to stop by for their share of this year’s olive oil stored in what used to be a Coca-Cola or a liquor bottle. A driver will stop in the middle of the way to give his brother- in- law a jar of olives that are so close to one another that they start to crush showing their insides.
In Nablus, the owner of the Nabulsi soap factory takes pride in how picky he is about getting his olive oil. He insists on filling a cup to let me smell how authentic it is and smirks as he sees my diasporic facial expressions transform in appreciation of its strong smell running through all of my brain cells.
I started noticing how olive oil is an essential part of so many dishes. “Palestinians drink more olive oil than water” I would jokingly say and they would laugh in agreement. Olive oil is truly an everyday ritual.
They fantasize about its color when it’s fresh and remind me that it starts to change as it reacts with oxygen over time. They dip their bread into olive oil, just like that and without any additions, and enjoy it more than the sweetest of all foods. I can guarantee that every lunch invitation (عزومة) I received during the olive-picking season was a chance for my hosts to share their olive oil using Msakhan (a traditional Palestinian dish).
I now have a deeper understanding of the psychology behind the burning of olive trees by Israeli settlers and why farmers moan at the scene as if they lost a loved one.
Wherever you are, if it’s accessible to you, make sure your olive oil is Palestinian. Your ancestors would want that."
And this picture was attached:
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Link to the article in the header image:
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strangebiology · 10 months
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So I think I can post this field of dead sheep now that they look kinda like piles of wool. I counted 51 in a baseball-field-sized field the first time I saw them. Video here. I also found a dog and if you gave me a few hours I'd probably be able to count 50 more in nearby fields. Maybe more.
If you're wondering what killed them, my three guesses are:
Harsh winter (I first saw them less deflated in April, when the snow finally thawed revealing a whole winter of death)
Pneumonia (I heard that some sheep around here were dying of that, but I don't know)
Maybe this is a normal death rate considering there are a ton of live sheep around, and this is just where the farmer(s) piled up their deads all winter. This 2018 document said there were 345,000 sheep in WY that year. I'm sure I've seen thousands within a few hours of driving around this place.
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punkeropercyjackson · 3 months
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Stop saying Oscar isn't a half white afrolatino and that Yang isn't a butch lesbian they literally look like this
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Far from escaping significant human modification, areas mapped as wilderness across tropical biomes have been profoundly shaped by humans in deep time, and continue to be occupied and used by diverse Indigenous and local populations today. For example, the Amazon is thought to be a center for the domestication of over 80 crop species, including many that humans rely on today, such as cassava (Manihot esculenta), wild rice (Oryza sp.), peanuts (Arachis hypogaea), and chili (Capsicum baccatum). The domestication and cultivation of these key crop species resulted in substantial human impact over the composition and structure of soils and forests in these landscapes that continue to support significant agroecological diversity today. Despite clear human intervention in the Amazon forest system for millennia, Indigenous and local peoples’ use of these forests have promoted biodiversity and maintained forest structure. On the other side of the globe, the application of swidden agriculture—a way of farming involving rotational clearing, burning, and fallow that has been used for millennia and today supports between 14 and 34 million highlanders in tropical South and Southeast Asia —is thought to have played an important role in shaping the structure and resilience of forests, as well as maintaining diverse ecosystem services.
Indigenous knowledge and the shackles of wilderness
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todayinhiphophistory · 6 months
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Today in Hip Hop History:
Russell Simmons was born October 4, 1957
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thesilicontribesman · 6 months
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Iron Age Roundhouse Interiors, Butser Ancient Farm, Waterlooville, Hampshire
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thefaeriecreek · 7 months
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Continuing my series of botw redesigns, I'm working on my boyfriend Revali!
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veiligplekje · 2 years
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Embroidery of a Dutch Farmhouse 
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themarchingbeetle · 2 years
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Rolling in the grass
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boiledegghole · 1 year
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fishie friday. the salmonids are picking mangos
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