Subject: Food for the body and the mind.

From: Larry London <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 1 Jul 1999 21:22:24 -0400 (EDT)

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 2 Jul 1999 10:07:33 +1000
From: Argall Family <[email-masked]>

Dan Hook wrote"... I saw an entomologist on a PBS special, say as she was
walking through the jungle "all bugs are edible"  I wondered about the all
bugs in that there must be a poisonous one somewhere."

This in turn reminded me that we have in the past collected bugs to make a
bug juice to spray on to plants. I think this is a common recommendation in
use of Bt - you can stop buying if you keep collecting the mortally wounded
are recycling their essence. The basic point being that you can return to
the plant a bunch of relevant bug pathogens. I think it is useful to look on
the individual bug as 10% microorganism.

In terms of their dietary value for people, I suspect it's all in the
quality of the butchery and cooking. I used to raise pigeons, but found the
emotional and physical effort in slaughter and butchery outweighed the
cuisine-nutritional benefit. Quail have always seemed to me to be on the
wrong side of the effort-benefit balance point, though I once ate some very
good braised sparrow in Shanghai. I can't imagine filleting a cockroach;
worm burgers have been a commercial failure in Australia, other than perhaps
in tax minimisation schemes..

Traditional Aboriginal Australian diet involved bingeing on seasonal bugs, a
very notable example being the big fat woolly bogong moth, which migrate in
millions into the high country to breed once a year, at a very handy time in
terms of winter fat needs for the locals, who would put on pounds and
pounds, late winter, banqueting on bogong barbecue. But these were part of a
very sophisticated and selective and poison-aware, medicine-aware
traditional diet. I would go with the opinion of a tradition-wise Amerindian
in the jungle, ahead of an entomologist.

cheers

Dennis

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From: georg <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 02 Jul 1999 18:28:10 +0200

>bugs in that there must be a poisonous one somewhere."

while i have no idea about the jungle on PBS i know that here in central
europe there are bugs (actually beetles) around, that 1 or 2 of them can
kill a man. and they arent huge either.

>the individual bug as 10% microorganism.

yes, here the trick is to liquify them and then let the stuff sit for a day
or 2 - so the microorganisms really get a strong go - then drai and spray -
biological warfare...

>traditional diet.

not only that, my bushtucker literature stated about this moth that even
the abos go through their times of vomiting every year for a day or two
until the system gets used to this diet again... 

*

georg
******

follow your heart -
it's the only way to heaven on earth.....
******************************** * *  *   *     *       *  

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From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 8 Jul 1999 06:29:53 EDT

Hello,

 John S. wrote: <<How would standardization of methods maintain and enhance 
diversity? 

Larry ? wrote:  <<Water, soil fertility/tilth, shade, shelter, etc.  
can be made more available to plants and animals 
though swaling, berming, hilling, ditching, catchment
and impoundment (ponds, pools, ditches, catch crops), 
Keyline plowing, Soil Saver tillage, rototilling and other methods..... >>

While I agree with that individual sites may vary widely  I fully understand 
and agree with Larry's position that there is much we can all benefit from in 
PC like much of the above.  

Yet I know time and again that many PC enthusiast's fail to communicate, or 
respond since they feel that each site is so different that they can't 
possibly offer help without visiting site etc. This of course often 
frustrates the landowner who would like to incorporate PC practices 
applicable to his area because of the expense involved.

I'd love to see regionalized PC agricultural/landscape/conservation 
guidelines, and best practices put into effect.

As for me( mea culpa:) ) I'm much more interested in the kind of practical ag 
related applications mentioned in Larry's post than the often philosophical 
discussions on PC encountered.

It seems so wasteful to miss this chance to see PC principles disseminated to 
as wide a body as possible for implementation.

Take water management on the farm...what are the best ways to deal with water 
from forested hillsides for multi use purposes. How are keylines determined? 
Ponds constructed, and a whole raft of related PC topics come to mind. 
Wouldn't it be great to have a FAQ, and a summary of best thinking on such. 
That would give many of us a great starting point to refine, and hopefully 
add to the body of info available.

Just my two cents.   Best to all.

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