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notwiselybuttoowell · 4 years

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We're Stewards of Our Land: The Rise of Female Farmers

'I was always fascinated by getting things out of the ground’

Sinead Fenton

Grows vegetables and edible flowers at Aweside Farm, East Sussex

Sinead Fenton is on an early lunch break, hiding from the sun. “It’s ridiculously intense, so I think we’re going to call it a day and crack back on in the evening,” she says. Fenton and her partner, Adam Smith, have been putting in beds and getting ahead on groundwork for next year. This year, there will be no commercial crops on the couple’s 4.5-acre plot.

They signed the papers on their farm last November and moved onto the land in March. Around the time they needed to make decisions about how they’d manage their first harvest, lockdown happened. With restaurants and florists – their main clients – out of action for the foreseeable future, they made the decision not to sow seeds but concentrate on opening up the land. “We were going to do it over three or four years, so we’re squeezing three years of work into this year, so we can focus on growing next year,” Fenton says.

She and Smith cut their scythes at Audacious Veg, a 0.1-acre plot in Hainault, at the end of the Central Line between Essex and London. Shortly after volunteering at the allotment in 2017, they heard the project was about to finish: “Naively, with about three weeks’ worth of growing experience, we decided that we’d take it on and get the produce to chefs.”

Smith worked in insurance accounting and while Fenton most recently worked in software and food policy, her background was in geology. “I came at farming from an activist point of view,” she says. “I was always fascinated by getting things out of the ground, but that is a destructive industry. Farming is nicer because I can do something for the system instead of taking everything from it.”

There was a lot of insecurity around the project. Land is contentious, especially in London, and land law is difficult and expensive to negotiate for those with no farming background. “Adam and I are both from cities – I’m from London, he’s from Essex. We’re from low-income families, and we had no access to farms growing up,” Fenton explains. “It’s basically impossible to get on the land, because it’s so expensive, or passed down through generations.”

They got the land for Aweside through the Ecological Land Co-op, which buys fields designated by Defra as only being good for arable crops, then splits them up to create smallholdings. Aweside is neighbours with a veg-box scheme, and waiting for others who’ll transform what once was a 20-acre maize field into a cluster of small farms rich with biodiversity. Now Fenton and Smith have a 150-year lease, and no worries that what they create will be taken away.

It’s not yet a permanent home. Fenton says they’ll be living in a caravan for a few years: “Another part of land law in the UK that makes land inaccessible is that if you want to live on your land you have to go through five years of proving your business is profitable, viable and that there is a functional need for you to live there.” Having livestock is an easy way to pass the test, but because Aweside is a vegan farm, Fenton and Smith need to cultivate and show they use every bit of plot.

It’s daunting but Fenton is excited about having a blank slate to work with. “There’s so much more to food than what supermarkets tell us to eat,” she says, explaining that they’ll grow varieties at risk of extinction, or that aren’t commonly grown in a mass market food system. “Seed diversity and plant genetics are serious issues.”

The three principles the couple work to are: more flowers, more trees, thriving soil. They’re working no-dig, putting compost directly on the ground and letting the soil life mix everything over time. They’re pesticide-free and are counting on the fact that the more diversity they have in the system, especially with a high proportion of flowers to pollinators and insects, the fewer problems they’ll face.

“Socially, economically and environmentally, something needs to change. Things have been done the same way by the same people for a long time,” says Fenton of the farming industry’s need for greater diversity. “I learned to grow on an allotment site where there are lots of different things growing at once. Bringing that approach into sites like this is needed – the industry needs it to keep itself relevant.”

'I'm hoping this will be seen as quite a cool career… even if it’s not’

Abi Aspen Glencross

Head of grains at Duchess Farms, Hertfordshire

It was, Abi Aspen Glencross was well aware, an odd, even inopportune time to launch a crowdfunding campaign. In June, with the country still locked down, Duchess Farms asked for support to buy dehulling, cleaning and milling equipment. The Hertfordshire farm needed about £16,000, and the money would go towards boosting the production of ancient and heritage grains for making flour.

“A lot of crowdfunders have been for charity or ‘please keep our restaurant open’,” says the 28-year-old Glencross, head of grains – or “senior flour nerd” – at Duchess Farms since 2019. “We felt a bit bad, but we lost a lot of our business overnight when all the restaurants closed and we were like: ‘God, we hope we don’t go under.’ It was quite a scary time for everyone.”

Still, if we have learned one thing from Covid-19, when times are hard, British people get baking. Perhaps inspired by countrywide shortages of flour, maybe invigorated by a new interest in left-field, older wheats such as einkorn and emmer, Duchess Farms sprinted to its target. “We’ve just done some ordering of equipment this morning,” says Aspen, when we speak in July. “It’s been a tough time for everyone but it has cascaded into some beautiful things and we’re just so thankful.”

Glencross’s path to farming was circuitous. She studied chemical engineering, but while her classmates were heading off for jobs at ExxonMobil and Procter & Gamble, she was more of “a hippy at heart”. She decided she wanted to learn more about soil and its role in food production. This led her to Blue Hill Stone Barns, Dan Barber’s pioneering farm-to-table restaurant in the Hudson Valley, north of New York. She spent four months working on the farm and in the bakery, receiving a crash course in ancient grains – an obsession of Barber’s. But the moment Glencross knew she herself wanted to farm came in 2016 in a field in Hertfordshire. She was with John Cherry, who was showing her around Weston Park Farms, 2,500 acres of land he maintains with minimal fertiliser use and zero tillage.

“We were walking around the fields of wheat and I just said: ‘Where does all this go? There’s so much of it,’” Glencross says. “And John goes: ‘Oh probably for animal feed. It’s a consistent market, they’ll take it, it’s easy, even if we don’t earn that much money from it.’ And I was like: ‘This is crazy.’ And that was the beginning of me getting on this grain bender because I was like: ‘Why can’t we grow these grains organically and not feed them to animals?’ So I realised I’d have to start a business, because there were not very many people doing that.”

Heritage grains can be harder to produce in vast quantities – einkorn, especially, is “a bitch to harvest” – but they do have advantages over conventional wheats. They typically have deep roots and grow tall, which means they shade out weeds and do not require chemical sprays. The end product is more nutritious and then there’s the taste. Since 2017, Glencross has run a roving supper club called the Sustainable Food Story with Sadhbh Moore, and Duchess Farms has worked closely with bakeries such as E5 Bakehouse in east London and Gail’s, and restaurants including Doug McMaster’s Silo. “Heritage grains are delicious: when you stop growing for yield and you start growing for quality the flavour is insane,” says Glencross.

Learning to farm from scratch has not been straightforward, but you sense that’s a big part of the appeal for Glencross. “There’s all these decisions the farmer makes throughout the year and why he sprays and why he doesn’t,” she says. “You realise that most people get up, sit at a computer all day and if they press the wrong button, they just delete it. When you’re a farmer, you plant at the wrong time of year and tomorrow it washes away your whole crop.”

Glencross acknowledges that it is almost unprecedented for women to run arable farms. She struggles to name a single other example in the UK. She also notes wryly that men dominate all the farming conferences, saying: “They have a wife but it’s always the men who have written the book and given the presentation.”

With more role models, Glencross hopes things will change. “I’m not cool in any way, but I’m a reasonably young lady,” she says, laughing. “And so when people say: ‘What do you do? Oh, you’re a farmer. Maybe I could do that …’ So I’m hoping that it might become seen as quite a desirable, almost cool career.” A pause: “Even if it’s very much not cool.”

#agriculture #long post #female farmers #farming

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dougdimmadodo · 3 years

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Tiger (Panthera tigris)

Family: Felidae (Cat Family)

IUCN Conservation Status: Endangered

Immediately recognizable thanks to its iconic orange and black stripes, the Tiger is both the largest living cat species and easily one of the most well-known animals on earth, commonly appearing in folklore and popular culture worldwide. Found in a range of forest habitats (including evergreen forests, rainforests and densely vegetated swamps,) Tigers were once widespread across almost all of southern Asia as well as regions of Europe, but can now be found in only around 6% of their former range, including India, Siberia, Indonesia, Thailand, Siberia, Bhutan and possibly southern China (although as no wild tigers have been seen in China in multiple decades, it is now feared that the Chinese subspecies of Tiger, the South China Tiger, has gone extinct.)

Unusually among cats, Tigers are primarily active during the day and rarely climb trees (although they still capable of doing so should the need arise, in spite of their considerable weight.) They are typically solitary and territorial (although have been observed to tolerate the presence of others under certain circumstances, particularly when food is abundant,) with each Tiger in an area claiming a large territory which it established using deposits of faeces, scent glands on its feet, head and tail and scratch marks that it leaves on trees. This species feeds primarily on large ungulates such deer, wild pigs and bovids, but may also feed on smaller animals including monkeys, hares, porcupines, freshwater fish and even insects. When a female Tiger is receptive to mating (typically every 2 years) her scent markings will contain hormones that advertise her willingness to mate to nearby males, and in response to these hormones males will enter her territory and attempt to initiate courtship by circling around her and gently growling - if she is interested in a male she will also begin circling and growling, and if she accepts him she will approach him and groom his fur before mating begins. After a gestation period of 3-5 months a female Tiger will give birth to a litter of 2-4 young which will then stay with her for a further 3-5 years before leaving to establish their own territories, starting with small territories located near their mother’s territory before travelling further to establish larger territories.

Tigers are threatened due to a range of factors (including habitat loss, conflicts with humans following attacks on livestock and declines in the populations of prey), although perhaps the single greatest threat to their survival is poaching for their skin, meat and bones.

Image Source: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/41967-Panthera-tigris

#tiger #cats #cat #mammalogy #zoology #biology #animal #animals #tigers

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robbyrobinson · 5 years

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Favorite Monsters and Cryptids

1) Black-Eyed Children: What these beings are no one knows. Some cite them as being demons or vampires who require permission to be allowed in. Some say they're alien-human hybrids or tulpas (thought beings). Even interdimensional entities or the ghosts of deceased children. They are described as either wearing old-timey clothing or dark-colored hoodies. They have extremely pale, oftentimes peachy skin tones and speak in a monotonous, adult-like fashion. They approach their target's home or car to knock or their door or window saying that they needed to get in because of bizarre reasons. If they are further denied entry, they become increasingly enraged and reveal their dark, turquoise eyes. In some cases, the witness almost considers opening the door...at least until they catch a glimpse of their eyes.

2) Mothman: A large, red-eyed creature that was described as stalking Point Pleasant from 1966-1967 in West Virginia. Typical descriptions depict the Mothman as bat-like in appearance that had a deafening screech. On December 15, 1967, the Silver Bridge collapsed killing 46 civilians. Strangely enough, Mothman seemingly disappeared after the tragedy, many believing that the Mothman was a harbinger of the bad omen.

3) Reptilians: Crazy conspiracy theory aside, Reptilians are shapeshifting extraterrestrials said to hail from the Alpha Draconis star system. David Icke, in particular, believes that they infiltrated the Earth to take over each of the world's governing bodies. Some also say that they terrorize humanity because they feed on negative emotions and what better way than to stoke the flames of anger and fearmongering than with propaganda?

4) Shadow People: Ever thing you catch something moving from the corner of your eye? Shadow People are believed to be different things ranging from guardian angels; demons; interdimensional beings, etc. The Hatman is often considered to be the leader of the Shadow People and is considered as being the most dangerous out of his wicked kind, but many say that he is an entirely different being.

5) Kuchisake-Onna: A Japanese urban legend, it is said that Kuchisake was once a beautiful woman married to a samurai. When the samurai felt that she was being unfaithful, he cut her mouth and killed her. Since then, she had become a vengeful spirit wearing a trench coat with a surgical mask. Carrying a pair of scissors, if she approaches a victim, she would ask them if they thought she was pretty. If they say no, she kills them. If yes, she would remove her mask to reveal her Glasgow grin and asks the question again. If the victim said yes again, she would make their mouth like hers.

6) Teke Teke: Another ghost from Japanese folklore, Teke Teke was a woman or schoolgirl who was bisected by a train. One take of the legends have her ask her victims if they knew where her legs were. If they said no, she would rip their legs off. Another variation has Teke Teke go after the listener if they heard the story.

7) Eight Foot Tall: A demon disguising itself as an 8-ft tall woman wearing a sundress and straw hat. She targets children and is recognizable by her demonic droning.

8) Machine Elves: They are extradimensional entities often described as being sighted by those taking DMT. They claim to be the architects of different planes of existence but have unstable forms that continually contort. Everything happens at a fast pace in their world with all of them having high-pitched voices.

9) Greys: The stock character many think of when the possibility of extraterrestrial life is speculated. They are buglike in depiction with almond-shaped black eyes. Some say they were created by the reptilians as a slave race that deflected. They are commonly associated with alien abductions.

10) Butterfly People of Joplin: In 2011, a devastating tornado hit Joplin, Missouri that killed several people. But from the disaster, many children claimed that they experienced winged beings that saved them by holding back falling debris with their wings. One boy was found miles away in a field claiming that the Butterfly People wrapped him in it to smoothen his fall.

11) Chupacabra: Later takes of the cryptid posit the creature as being more canine in its features. They are accredited to draining the blood from livestock such as goats.

12) Jersey Devil: its origin story is really unique. The story goes that when a mother of 12 kids was due to have a 13th, she in annoyance, prayed for that child to be a devil. The baby is born and appears to be relatively normal. But then it, of course, transforms into a horrible abomination, escaping into the woods.

13) Bigfoot and the Abominable Snowman: Bigfoot or the Sasquatch is an ape-like, humanoid creature believed to have been sighted in several parts of North America. Some believe that the Sasquatch is either an ancient ape species that had escaped extinction, or some even assume that Bigfoot is the missing link that researchers have been searching for. The Abominable Snowman is similar to Sasquatch in some fashion, the exception being that the creature was sighted in the mountains of the Himalayas. There have been some samples of hair believed to have been those of a Yeti's that were analyzed to be the fur of an extinct species of bear from the time of the ice age.

14) Mongolian Death Worm: In the Gobi Desert, there is believed to be a large species of worm that is said to have lethal venom that could kill anyone who even slightly touched the creature. It can even generate electricity. The worm was also known to hunt camels, and would then lay its eggs in the intestines.

15) The Loch Ness Monster: Probably one of the most famous examples of a cryptid in cryptozoology. Believed to be an ancient creature such as a plesiosaur, the Loch Ness Monster, or Nessie, is believed to inhabit Loch Ness. Described as having a long neck, flippers, and endless humps, accounts of the creature date far back to the time of Saint Columbia. Interest in the creature continued until in the 1930s, an alleged photograph of the monster dubbed the Surgeon's Photograph goes down in history as one of the best cases for the existence of Nessie. Even though the photograph was a hoax, many others had given their accounts of the Loch Ness Monster through the use of sonar and photography.

16) Black Stick Men are what happens when you take drawings of simple stick figures and give them sentience. They are believed to be two-dimensional in appearance, and can even generate electrical discharges. Unlike with other paranormal entities, Black Stick Men are not connected to supernatural events. So, they just appear randomly for no real rhyme nor reason. They are believed to feed on negative emotions and their presence incites aggression and uneasiness.

17) Wendigo: In Native American myth, a Wendigo is born when a hapless human commits the act of cannibalism in desperation. As punishment, they are transformed into a monster with an insatiable hunger that would never be quenched. They don't have a corporal form, but they are often represented as antlered-humanoids.

18) Ningen: These are giant, aquatic humanoid entities that are commonly sighted in the waters of the Arctic. Some species are alleged to grow to great lengths.

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carnegiemuseumnaturalhistory · 4 years

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Booseum: Vampires!

Vampires, creatures of folklore that feed on the lifeforce of the living, have long fascinated us. Many cultures have their own version of how vampires behave and are repelled by many different things. Modern vampires in movies, TV shows, and books have some similar main characteristics—let’s explore some interesting or common beliefs about vampires and where they may have come from.

Garlic

It’s a common belief that garlic repels vampires, but did you know that some of that belief is grounded in fact? Garlic, specifically the chemical compound allicin inside garlic, is a powerful antibiotic. Some European beliefs around vampires stated they were created by a disease of the blood, so a powerful antibiotic would “kill” a vampire.

An actual disorder of the blood, porphyria, may also be an origin for this belief: porphyria can cause those who suffer from it to look pale and even make their teeth look bigger because their gums shrink. Garlic makes these symptoms worse, so people with porphyria would often avoid it—making others around them believe they were vampires.

Mirrors

Vampires avoiding mirrors is a more recent belief— the first known reference to this is from Bram Stoker’s Dracula, which was published in 1897. But why wouldn’t a vampire show a reflection?

There are a few reasons that this belief may exist. Mirrors were traditionally backed with silver (and some still are today). Silver was commonly believed to repel evil spirits, possibly because it has antimicrobial properties; so, much like garlic, the healing properties may be what was supposed to scare off a vampire.

Another reason that suspected vampires may have avoided mirrors is because of the changes to their appearance from diseases commonly confused with vampirism, porphyria and rabies. People afflicted with these diseases may have avoided looking in a mirror for that reason, causing others to assume that “vampires” avoid mirrors.

Counting

Why does Count von Count, a vampire, teach us how to count on Sesame Street? It comes from a European belief that vampires are compelled to count spilled seeds or grains. Some Slavic coastal towns also believed that vampires would count the holes in a fishing net. It was common practice to scatter seeds outside the entrances to a home (or drape fishing nets over them). Some Chinese myths say that a vampire must count every grain if they come across a bag of rice. A vampire would stop to count, delaying them until sun-up, and we all know that vampires don’t do well in sunlight.

A common seed used was mustard seed, which was also known as eye of newt!

Now that we’ve learned a little about fictional vampires, let’s explore some real-world vampires!

Vampire Ground Finch

The Galapagos Islands are home to many unique and unusual species, so the vampire ground finch fits in well. This species of sharp-beaked finch lives on Darwin and Wolf Islands, and like most other finches it feeds primarily on seeds. However, seeds can sometimes be a limited resource, so vampire ground finches supplement their diet by eating small amounts of nutrient-rich blood from Nazca or blue-footed boobies.

It is believed that this behavior developed because the finches were first eating ticks from the bodies of other birds, which steadily transitioned into them eating small amounts of blood. Believe it or not, the other birds don’t seem to mind the vampire ground finches doing this, and don’t try to stop them!

Vampire Bats

There are three species of bats that survive by exclusively feeding on the blood of other animals- the common vampire bat, the hairy-legged vampire bat, and the white-winged vampire bat. All three species are found in Central and South America.

Like other bats, they hunt at night and rely on echolocation to find their prey, which is typically sleeping livestock, like cows. Vampire bats use their sharp teeth to make a little cut and then lap up the blood. It doesn’t hurt the animal they’re feeding from, in fact most animals don’t even notice it happening and stay asleep! These bats occasionally try to feed off humans, but it is very rare.

Mosquitos & Ticks

We’ve all felt the aftermath of an itchy mosquito bite! Mosquitos feed on blood from humans and other animals, but it’s only female mosquitos that eat blood. Female mosquitos need the protein from blood to produce eggs, and male mosquitos don’t so they feed on plant nectar.

Ticks drink the blood of both warm and cold-blooded animals, latching on and feeding slowly over several days. They can fast for a long time between meals, but do need to feed on blood as they progress through the stages of their life cycle.

Neither mosquitos nor ticks (or any other blood eating insects) eat enough blood to be dangerous to humans. The biggest danger is that these insects can carry diseases, so make sure to properly care for and clean any insect bites, and see a doctor if necessary!

Jo Tauber is the Gallery Experience Coordinator for CMNH’s Life Long Learning Department, as well as the official Registrar for the Living Collection. Museum staff, volunteers, and interns are encouraged to blog about their unique experiences and knowledge gained from working at the museum.

#Carnegie Museum of Natural History #Super Science Days #Booseum #Vampires #Halloween #Kidsburgh #Science for Kids #Vampire Bats #Vampire Ground Finch

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ts4cyberpunk-followtherabbit · 3 years

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( Send me suggestions for new roles!)

LEGALLY EMPLOYED

Politician: is active in politics, holding or seeking office in government. Politicians propose, support, and create laws or policies that often include how much Corpo control is involved in the city’s government.

Attorney: There are lawyers for corporate law, international law, space law, entertainment law, warfare and military justice, and federal and local law. Rates vary on the firm.

Collar: Corpo Employees like Clerks, Secretaries, and junior Executives are commonly known as collars. Usually a low-level employee of a megacorp they don’t have much pull in Corpo biz but benefit from Corpo job perks.

Suits: Senior Corpo executives find themselves higher up in the ranks with more lucrative benefits and higher risk responsibilities usually involving shady Corpo deals. A suit’s front-line is still usually in an office.

Netcop: Sometimes they uncover Corporate treachery or deadly secrets. But that’s not why they Netrun. Working for Netwatch makes them equipped with very powerful software to move through the Net, every Netrunners dream.

Corpo Engineer: create profitable weapons, devices, security systems, and cyberware. They often have access to dangerous and expensive equipment that they can work with at their leisure for personal gain.

Consolidated Agriculture: direct ownership or leasing of farmland by major corp industry in order to mass produce the world with high quality food.

Social Worker: A particularly underfunded sector of the government, social workers are in charge of human resources and financial aid, most often in the form of kibble card distribution and foster care services.

Scientist: conducts research mostly funded by Corpo to provide corporations with the latest in Cybernetics, Biotechnology, Systems biology, Nanotechnology, Synthetic Engineering, and Metascience.

Medical Technicians: doctors in a specific field. They could be general practitioners, cardiologists, dentists or more elite members of the Trauma team. Most are impossible to afford without a Corpo insurance plan.

Educators: demonstrate effective learning, teaches, informs, instructs, or inspires about general or specific subjects. Anyone with a marketable skill can educate on it.

Accountant: responsible for keeping Corpo’s or crime rings’ financial records. Most accountants are responsible for a wide range of finance-related tasks, but mostly its about making sure acquired income looks legal.

NCPD Badges: Underfunded police that stretches their authority and use procedural abilities as far as they can to get their job done. Most Badges want to make the city a safer place, others just like having authority to abuse.

MaxTac: sometimes referred NCPD Psycho Squad, they are a specialized sub-group of the Night City Police Department. As a cybersquad, MaxTac specializes in dealing with cyberpsychos.

Private Investigators: law enforcement that works for private clients. They interview people, conduct surveillance, find missing persons, and solve crimes. Wages earned vary by the investigator, some are famous, ergo expensive.

Bounty Hunters: catches criminals and brings them to NCPD badges in return for a reward. Even though they are legally employed with NCPD and Militech corp. BountyHunters are not against working solo gigs to catch criminals.

Firefighters: a rescuer extensively trained to extinguish hazardous fires that threaten life, property, and the city. There is a recruitment drive in the armed forces, suggesting assault-style situations.

Dog Tag: Any individual on active duty with the United States Armed Forces, led by the Department of Defense. The D.o.D consists of four branches: the Army, Aerospace Force, Navy, and Marines. Inactive dog tags are called ex-tags.

Construction Worker: work makes up almost 70% of available work for civilians. Full body conversions like the NovelTech Samson make workers tireless, incredibly strong, and capable of surviving almost any accident.

Janitors: There aren’t enough janitors in Night City to clean the filth off her streets but all the same companies still hire people to clean their office buildings and shops. Its often nasty work for bad pay.

Binman: a worker who collects and hauls away garbage and municipal solid waste and recyclables from residential, commercial, industrial for further processing and waste disposal.

Farmer: raising living organisms for food or raw materials. The term usually applies to people who do some combination of raising field crops, orchards, vineyards, poultry, or gene-buddy livestock.

Owner: a privately owned business with a storefront where legal business is conducted. Many owners are under the protection of gangs depending on their location but some owners are perfectly capable of protecting their own store.

SPIRITUALISTS

Paranormal Investigator: the paranormal is a lucrative business. Most gigs tend to be the work of tech being used to simulate experiences but they are paid to resolve the paranormal activity.

Cultist: A charismatic leader or a follower of an unorthodox cult who generally lives outside of conventional society. Some Cultists are prone to acts of terrorism or unorganized violence for their spiritual or religious cause.

Religious Leader: The duties of a religious leader vary from faith, but usually include encouraging people to make a commitment to their faith and live according to its teachings and explaining the meaning of scripture.

ENTERTAINMENT BIZ

Glitters: Doors open for Glitters that are closed for others because they can bring exposure and popularity. Public icons, fashion gurus, famous investors are all glitters whose only job is to write checks and shine.

Braindance Artist: An actor or actress that works primarily with Diverse Media Systems Braindance Studios. The artist is wired up with the neural feeds and starts recording. The BD artist usually has no script. The art of Braindance recording is spontaneity.

TV Star: From talk shows to “reality shows” TV stars still fill daytime TV channels with drama, action, and comedy. Braindance might be the next best form for the movie cinema and video game industry but TV stars still dazzle the small screen.

Rock stars/Lazrpop Star: Singers that are sponsored by recording companies or other Corp. and are paid to be apolitical so their music creates no discourse, They make beats and lyrics and their income is relative to the size of the audience that idolizes them.

Radio Jockey: A radio jockey hosts a radio show that may take calls from listeners; interview celebrities or gives news, weather, sports, or traffic information.RJ’s can be swayed monetarily to broadcast political leaning content. In between, they play music of preferred genres.

Performative Dancer: From Ballet to Kabuki Theatre, performative dancers are marveled upon in media by more artistic or refined members of society. Many performative dancers utilize cosmetic and athletic cyber to add authenticity to their performance.

Performative Musician: composes, conducts, or performs music on instruments. They are not concerned with conflicts of political interest since their music seldom includes vocals. They are still often sponsored by Corpo though.

Comedian: seek to entertain an audience by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, acting foolish or employing prop comedy. Comedians get the most heat in the industry for crossing apolitical lines.

Writer: Most Corpo employed writers are writing scripts for TV stars, comedians, songs for rockstars, and speeches for politicians but some still work the competitive field of novels, they also compete with AI software in creative writing.

Preem Mannequins: Models that work their way up a brutal and competitive industry to stand out for their physical beauty in some way. Most get featured in advertisement billboards and high fashion magazines and most are obsessed with their physical appearance.

Superstar: do it all, record BDs, release songs, dance,and have had their face on billboards. They are masters of the entertainment industry and produce eddies and audiences where ever they go. Most Superstars are completely entitled.

Professional Athlete: Athletes compete in one or more sports that involve physical strength, speed or endurance Most professional athletes have particularly well-developed physiques obtained by extensive modification, strict training, and dietary regimen.

Celebrity Agent: represent and promote artists, performers, and athletes in dealings with Corpo sponsors. They handle contract negotiation and other business matters for clients. They also headhunt for new talent to bring in.

Fashion Designer: design clothing and fashion ranges. They may work in high fashion or designer ready-to-wear fashion, as well as in high-street fashion. Most fashion designers that achieve recognition for their designs assist Corpo techies in producing more creative code in Fashion Ai’s.

Aesthetic Artist: those in the entertainment biz are concerned about their appearances to the media and public. Aesthetic artists’ job is to make sure they look their best. Focused on make-up, hair, and outfit they keep those in the entertainment biz styling.

Creative Craft Artisan: a very rare breed mostly replaced by 3D design and printing companies, CC Artisans create unique sculptures, woodwork, or pottery made out of the finest materials, and their creations are afforded only by the super-wealthy.

Illustrator Artisan: Illustrators are painters, sketchers, and digital drawers that create original images for a range of printed and digital products. They work closely with marketing teams to turn ideas and printed media into inspiring illustrations.

MEDIA

TV News Reporter: always somehow on the scene in the thickest of action to get first hand news delivered to the citizens before other networks. It can be a high-risk job.

TV News Anchor: Once reporters work up in ranks they can earn opportunities to become a TV news anchor, a lower risk job with higher pay than TV news reporter. Many TV news anchors gain enough popularity to be considered a glitter media.

Journalist: Journalism in night city means gathering, assessing, creating, and presenting news and information via screamsheets, magazines, or the net. Unlike TV news reporters, journalists are freelance, the job is high risk.

Combat Correspondents: provide perspective on what it’s like inside the U.S. armed forces. These soldier media gather information for news and feature articles much as civilian journalists do , often against military protocol.

Sensationalist: sensationalism is a type of editorial gig. Events and topics in news stories are selected and worded to excite the greatest number of readers and viewers.

Celebrity Hunter: Journalists that focus on the who’s who are usually found chasing down the hottest glitters for interviews that will produce the best ratings. They have a low-risk job but sometimes find themselves in high-risk situations.

Clicker: a freelance photographer or can be employed by photo agencies, magazines or local newspapers. Their job is to shoot the best photo for the best story. Journalists and clickers work as a duet.

Sport Jockey: to make sure you know every score from all the most important games worldwide. It’s a low-risk job with sports celebrity access perks.

Media Techie:In media, there is equipment like cameras, recorders, Braindance, media techies are hired to maintain, repair or purchase and all equipment for best-produced media in the biz.

Shutterbug: vagrants of media, shutterbugs are out to get any quote, photo, or story that will garnish any eddies for personal gain. They don’t care about truth or ratings, they simply chase whatever sells quickest.

STREET TRASH

Sharks: have eddies to give away, but interest rates are known to be extreme. consequences of defaulting on a loan shark is often a higher price to pay. only desperate people go to sharks, and they capitalize on it.

Bookie: a person whose business is accepting and paying out money risked on a particular result of something, esp. fighting, racing and competitive activities.

Black Marketeer: a person who trades illegally in officially controlled commodities such as illegally obtained Corpo weapons, Illegal cyberware, BDs, and extreme drugs.

Juicers: work for sharks almost exclusively and aren’t hired to kill but instead hired to squeeze eddies owed to the shark from poor s.o.b’s that are overdue on their debts. They are quick to use extreme force and torturous tactics.

Pushers: SynthCoke,Boost,Blue Glass,Smash,Dorph,Black Lace -pushers sell it all.Pushers only care about moving drugs for eddies. They are prone to using the drugs they push some can be dangerous.Ex-tags and joytoys are common customers.

Cookers: SynthCoke,Boost,Blue Glass,Smash,Dorph,Black Lace- Cookers make it all.They have a dangerous job just from being exposed to lethal chemicals during the cooking process to avoiding the ncpd Vice unit.Cookers use pushers to distribute.

Street Punk: Gang posers,dophers,zoomers, and dregs of society are weak nobodies that get themselves or other people killed during careless acts of petty crimes and gigs. They have a low threat level but are still a nuisance, mostly to the NCPD.

Scavengers: known for kidnapping people and forcibly harvesting their cyberware.Despite all of them pursuing the same distasteful trade, scavengers tend to operate in small groups with no official hierarchy to unite them.

Con Man: night city’s cheats and swindlers who cheat or trick someone by gaining their trust and persuading them to believe or buy something that is not true. Con man are responsible for a lot of disappearances and deaths.

Gangbanger: Gangbangers are the ultimate rules of the city streets. From small gangs like Moxes or Divine Dragons to mega gangs like Tyger Claws each gang in Night City is as diverse as the street itself all thrown together in a lethal cocktail.

Street Scribbler: Wannabe street artisans take to scribbling opinions, quotes, and sig tags over public property as a form of protest and vandalism. Scribblers are not extremely creative and don’t respect gangbanger tags.

Street Artisans: create graffiti as form of activism and expression but follow strict code and respect gangbanger territory. This respect of code encourages gangbangers to protect some artisans’ artwork from scribblers defacing their work.

Buskers: the jesters of night city from acrobatics, drawing caricatures, comedy, dance, singing, living statue, poetry, street theatre, these citizens earn gratuities by entertaining the city streets on all corners.

Street Vendor: Offers goods or services for sale to the public with a mobile stall. Goods they sell are often second or even third hand, may or may not be stolen or salvaged.

Disc Jockey: DJs, play off the cuff or pre-recorded mixes at nightclubs and at private and public street events. They engage and entertain their audience and incorporate requests into their music line-up.

Fixer: Well-connected information brokers who apply their trade on the black market. They locate, acquire and sell info about desired persons, places or things within their areas of operation. Most gigs solos do come from Fixers.

Nomads: were once corporate wage-slaves, who got fired from employment, and now they roam the highways in motor-gangs.They maintain strong family bonds and have a hard time trusting anyone outside of the family. They despise Corpo.

Ripperdoc: is a medical practitioner who can install a variety of cybernetic prostheses. There are many that operate legally, but some conduct illicit deals, such as installing military-grade cybernetics for the right price.

Deckjockey: is an expert netrunner, usually a specialist at covertly accessing and stealing from corporate databases, buying, trading and selling their deepest secrets and information to Fixers and other Deckjockeys.

Techie: range from technicians to cybernetic specialists. They are usually introverted and “underground’ who do “off-the-record” work and make their living building, fixing and modifying anything from vending machines to weapons.

Bartender: Night City drags dangerous individuals in pretty much every bar, club and pub so many bartenders tend to be ex-gangbangers, ex-cons, ex-tags, and ex-solos.and are accustomed to violence and high-stress environments and how to handle them.

Bouncer: tend to come from backgrounds of violence but also have the body and modifications to execute more aggressive methods of peacekeeping. A bar’s success can sometimes completely rely on how good the bouncer is at their job.

Smuggler: facilitate entry into a desired location and smuggle a package to be delivered at a predecided destination.They may traffic persons or merchandise and are quick to abandon a package if they suspect they will be caught.

Runners : a driver for hire that has three rules: all deals are final, no names, and never look at the package. Runners don’t abandon packages at the first sight of risk, This makes them more expensive.

Highrider: a pilot for hire who will fly anyone to their destination under any conditions as long as they get half their payment before take-off and the rest when they land. Most highriders die in a flame of glory.

SOLO

Solo Mercenary: is the jack of all trade in the solo biz not particularly a master in one thing a solo merc takes jobs From bodyguard to thief, to assassin. But the point is they get the job done, even if its a bit…messy.

Shinobi: trained shadow solos have finesse. Their proficiency is in katanas, martial arts and stealth so have a great skill-set suited for silent stings and assassinations. They get the job done quietly and you pay extra for it.

Solo Thief: have exceptional skills at stealing and have mastery over all kinds of lock picking and hacking.To the simple pickpocket to the most difficult heist, a solo thief always nabs their target possession.

Solo Assassin: don’t have time for petty thievery and are not in the biz of “protecting’ anybody. Their set of skills is good for one thing: finding and killing a target. Their contracts are usually very expensive.

Solo Bodyguard: are tanks, physically strong and unyielding they use their physical advantage to guard and protect persons or places. solo bodyguards often have contracts with fixers, celebs, politicians, and even Corpos.

Corporate Samurai : Solos that are hired to protect Corporation property and carry out violent and illegal gigs for Mega Corps.The Corporate Samurai will associate and works for or possibly as a Corrupt Corporate Executive.

Ronin: Previously corpo Samurai are now freelance are called Ronin and are seen as untrustworthy in the solo bizz because of their Corpo past however this past gives them an edge in succeeding against Corpo gigs.

Street Samurai: fight against the Megacorps and follow their own personal codes of honor which is to bring down the society in which they live in order to make a better one so they take Any gig that sticks it to Corpo.

Shinobi: are elite trained and have mastery in espionage and deception hired by Corpos executives, celebs, and politicians for protection. Shinobi are usually against using cyberware and prefer to rely on their own strength.

EROTICA WORK

Joytoy: Licensed prostitutes that work the street.Their biz is selling sex.joytoys have a high risk gig so they often seek out pimps for protection which depending on the pimp can help or complicates a joytoys job and life.

Pimp: a joytoy’s manager. They sometimes bring joytoys clients and deal with problematic customers but mostly they hover around their joytoys and berate them for not bringing enough eddies.Most pimps only ‘manage’ a handful of joytoys.

Doll: A step up from street prostitutes Dolls use neural implants to remove themselves from the experience and implant a fantasy for the customer and the doll doesn’t remember the interaction when it’s over.Dolls are employed by dollhouses.

Caretaker: owners of dollhouses. They employ dolls, provide health care as needed as well as protection for dolls . Caretakers can employ dozens of dolls at one time and dolls work hard for them for higher positions in the dollhouse.

Mannequin: are a dancer that perform in a window box, usually wearing a fashion brand they are hired to be still, poised, and perfect like a real mannequin, others are hired to perform lavish dances to sell the brand they are wearing.

Stripper: is a person who earns eddies by stripping their clothes off.However, its not as easy as just standing on a stage naked. They are excellent dancers and masters at visual teasing. Some strippers are also joytoys,but not always.

Erotica: are a dancer that performs for braindances. synaptic acting a-listers. Pure bi-based ecstasy.All eroticas are in a catalog where you ask for their pre-recorded BD. Eroticas don’t generally engage in physical sexual activity.

Black Widow: has a more lucritive and lethal way to use their body .Black widows target Glitters use sex to get closer to the target and murders them before making off with an exceptional score of eddies or merch to sell.

Hooker: an unlicensed sex worker generally wants to avoid STD screenings which would make any sex work they do illegal if they fail the screening.Unlicensed sex workersoffer way cheaper services but with much higher risk of STD spread.

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pnwdoodlesreads · 4 years

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TO PLANT their flower and vegetable gardens, African American women used their hands—darkly creviced or smoothly freckled; their arms—some wiry, others muscled; and their shoulders and backs—one broad and another thin. They dropped small seeds into the soil with their veined hands. They wrapped their arms around freshly cut flowers to decorate tables in their homes. They bent their shoulders and backs to compost hay, manure, and field stubble, and transplanted plants from the woods into their own yards. These women developed a unique set of perspectives on the environment by way of the gardens they grew as slaves and then as freedwomen.

They continued these practices and exercised these perspectives into the early twentieth century. Rural African American women then joined these traditional ways of gardening with horticultural practices they learned from Home Demonstration Service agents and from the special programs developed in African American schools in the South.

An examination of these traditions and practices of gardening changes the reading scholars have had of African American participation in Progressive-era agricultural reform and also reveals the outlines of a rural African American environmental perspective at the time. Progressives envisioned national agricultural reforms that subjugated the discrete and nuanced expertise of local actors to models of bureaucratic efficiency and skill. Yet African American women developed an expertise from community knowledge, from their own interpretations of agricultural reforms, and from the training they received in horticulture in the Cooperative Extension Service, African American schools and other places. Progressive era scholars have missed the critical role of African American women gardeners in Progressive reform efforts, or at least have not viewed the participation of African Americans in these efforts through the critical lens of gender.2

These women cultivated with simple tools, a hoe, trowel, or shovel in one hand and seeds or fertilizer in the other hand. But they gardened within a gendered and racial milieu that gave the application of these simple instruments of skill a complex social potency. Rural African American women and men often supported one another in complementary roles and with strategies that were designed to support the family unit. Some women met their own and sometimes their family’s needs by harvesting vegetables for meals, and by planting shrubs and cultivating flowers to create more appealing homes.

The value of the women’s contributions to household productivity was often invisible to Progressive reformers, who practiced enormous condescension in their efforts to uplift the poor. African American reformers shared this condescension, making women special objects of disdain. Thomas Monroe Campbell, an agent for the Negro Cooperative Service, was haughtily dismissive of rural women, characterizing them as “too careless as to the loud manner in which they act in the streets and in public places ... and unduly familiar with men.”

But ultimately, African American women in the rural South controlled how and where they gardened, and by implication, why they gardened. They drew upon rich traditions of gardening knowledge and took what they would from Home Demonstration Work and the education programs of African American schools.This article explores this relationship between African American gardening and Progressive reform, but also asks how African American women cultivated their own gardens. Were African American women’s gardens expressions of self-interest or community experience and values, or both? Did the women blend community and Progressive influences in the gardens they made and used? How did the gardening practices of African American women in the early twentieth century rural South add up to an environmental ethic?3

[...]

THE AFRICAN AMERICAN GARDEN

AFRICAN AMERICAN and Euro-American gardens also possessed distinctive characteristics much like the roles of African American men and women. Though Vera Norwood argues that women of both groups were “responsible for designing and maintaining the yard and its ornamental garden” according to gender, ethnicity was as important as gender in shaping the unique gardens of African Americans. These featured flowers, shrubs, trees, and plants that were purchased individually, accepted as gifts, or cultivated from cuttings. African Americans created colorful motifs from gifts and cast-offs. Euro-Americans could more readily buy several plants and group and organize them.

African Americans relied on an oral tradition, unlike Euro-Americans whose expertise came from magazines and books. African American traditions were so ingrained that plants presented as gifts were associated with the giver.7African American women manipulated and controlled their yards for multiple functions in slavery and then in freedom. Free range in which livestock could roam, or a pen, an extended kitchen from the house, cleaning and leisure spaces, swept areas, and pathways to the fields, woods, the slaveholder’s house, and fenced flower and vegetable gardens comprised overlapping spaces in the yard. Each function, each space was often fluid with little or no boundaries.

Unlike most slaves, renters and owner-operators had some income and could purchase livestock, including chickens and hogs that were given free range of the yard.The women sought the shade and protection of trees from the sun and heat to prepare meals, feed and entertain family and friends, scrape pots, scrub dishes, wipe tables, beat rugs, and launder clothing. Children played and adults sought recreation throughout the yard, particularly in the shade. Outside the green spaces, women carefully swept clean any foliage, including weeds, creating a bare and austere yard.

The pathways took the women beyond their homes and yards to the environs of the woods, fields, the big house, neighbors, and town.8 In these gardens, African American women planted vegetables, fruit, flowers, shrubs, trees, and plants in red clay, sandy, and dark loamy soils. They generally cultivated vegetable gardens on a side or to the back of the cabin for easy access. To keep out livestock, their partners probably built enclosures of tied stakes for gardens—less expensive than free range. Most women grew vegetable gardens primarily to sustain their families.

[...]

They planted okra, milo, eggplant, collards, watermelon, white yam, peas, tomatoes, beans, squash, red peppers, onions, cabbage, potatoes and sweet potatoes. Others planted truck gardens and sold corn, cotton, peanuts, sweet potatoes, tobacco, indigo, watermelons, and gourds at the market for profit. African Americans also displayed flowers for everyone’s viewing and pleasure, beckoning neighbors to take a closer look or visitors to chat in the yard’s fragrance and color.

The women looked out upon exquisite flowers including petunias, buttercups, verbenas, day lilies, cannas, chrysanthemums, iris, and phlox planted in the ground, old tires, bottles, planters, and tubs. They placed shrubs—roses, azaleas, altheas, forsythia, crepe myrtle, spirea, camellias, nandina, and wild honeysuckle—throughout the yard. Azaleas and roses were most commonly planted. The dogwood, oak, chestnut, pine, red maple, black locust, sassafras, hickory, willow, cottonwood, and redbud dotted the landscape. They chose ornamental plants that were self-propagating, along with annuals that were generally self-seeding.

Colorful combinations of blues, reds, pinks, oranges, whites, and yellow often clashed with little or no sequencing. Placement was generally informal, where the gardeners could find space. A mix of color and placement resulted in a lack of symmetry and formal design. African Americans, including the women, simply could not afford to buy several shrubs, plants or flowers at the same time to create such symmetry.9 Women’s roles were transformed from slavery to sharecropping. Jacqueline Jones observes that African American men reinforced gender roles by hunting and fishing during slavery. Men were primarily responsible for cultivating the tiny household garden plots allotted to families by the slaveholder.

They practiced conservation, tilling their own vegetable plots when time off from the slaveholder’s tasks allowed. Dating back to the antebellum period, slaves used organic farm methods such as composting, when they took or were given the opportunity to grow their own gardens. A Louisiana slave gardener also built birdhouses from hollowed gourds to attract nesting birds that protected vegetables from insects and other pests.The birdhouses, a modern fixture in suburban backyards, provided shelter for the birds that served as a natural pest control.

[...]

GARDENING IN AFRICAN AMERICAN SCHOOLS:

African American schools offered several options to their students including model yards and classes with practical and aesthetic applications. The school trained students on school grounds by cultivating model yards for teaching and profit. The model yards featured traditional elements found in a rural African American culture, including gardens, livestock, and laundering. Schools like Tuskegee and Hampton Institute also offered home economics classes, which included gardening training for women, and an agricultural curriculum for men. Most significantly, African American women teachers taught other women to cultivate aesthetically pleasing gardens.

Some applied their training to teach at secondary schools. In 1937, the African American Elizabeth City State Normal Summer School in North Carolina offered a class in housing titled, “The Rural Community Background and Rural School Organization and Management,” which emphasized home and yard aesthetics in the curriculum, and suggested “ways and means of making rural life more attractive and joyous to those who live in the open country.” Students sketched “attractive lawns and backyards and [gave]suggestions of what native shrubbery to use and when to transplant it” in this class.

They created images of nature in their art and searched the woods for plants to dig up, carry home, and replant.27 Progressive influences continued at Hampton which offered to African American women courses with aesthetics in mind, ranging from “Flower Arrangement” to “Landscape Design” in the “Curriculum for the Division of Agriculture.” These courses nurtured creativity through symmetry and beauty. Hampton also offered “Flower Arrangement” and “Flower Growing for Amateurs”— classes focusing on aesthetics and scientific housekeeping already practiced in the community and Home Demonstration.

In the flower arranging class, teachers taught “the fascinating art of flower arrangement [that] provides a medium of expression universal in appeal. Students in all divisions of the Institute will find value in learning to utilize plant materials in home, store, school, or office decoration.” Instructors demonstrated “the necessary methods involved in knowing and growing ornamental plants commonly used about the home can well be learned with study and practice” in “Flower Growing.” As teachers, Home Demonstration agents, or homemakers, women applied scientific housekeeping to gardening.28Hampton also offered classes in advanced gardening.

Teachers there taught “Ornamental Horticulture,” a course general enough in scope for the layperson and the horticulturist. Students, both men and women, learned to arrange and enhance “the homes and grounds and larger properties in order to make them more useful as well as attractive” while “growing and caring for trees, shrubs, and flowers as a commercial enterprise or as a hobby.” One of the courses, "Landscape Design of Small Properties,” was more advanced than basic flower planting and arranging, and taught vegetable gardening with an emphasis on aesthetics: “Landscaping one’s own home or school grounds is an economy and a pleasure as well as an art.

Teachers, community workers, and home owners alike will find it much to their advantage to be able to improve their surroundings in their respective communities.” In the “Landscape Gardening” class, students learned “the practical methods of beautifying grounds around the buildings, the construction of wind breaks, placing ornamental flower beds, laying out walks, planting trees and shrubs, arranging and planting window boxes.” Once again,African Americans had the opportunity to layer Progressive horticultural education upon community experiences.29

#Register to JSTOR to read #It's free #I'll have to transcribe this later

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theevilfoodeaterconchita · 6 years

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Hors D’oeuvre–Tasan Pig Liver Pâté With Assorted Vegetables; Scene 2

Evil Food Eater Conchita, page 14-17

"Which of the animal presents is the rare one?" Muzuri asked the male cattle hand who happened to be present there the moment he reached the barn.

"H-hah…That one. This is the first time I've seen that creepy pig, Master,” the man said, pointing at the pig pen.

Inside the pen they were keeping about twenty pigs of various breeds that lived in the southern regions of the Beelzenian Empire.

The Demilamb pig was the breed most commonly eaten in that area. It was generous in fatty meat but it wasn't too rich by any measure, and its sleek flesh was a characteristic trait. It also had lovely white fur.

The Shadow Moon pig was a mixed breed from a combination of a species native to Marlon and Demilamb. It had hardly any fur at all. Its greatly reddish meat wasn't particularly tasty on its own, but processed and assorted with other ingredients its delicious flavor came through.

The Tasan pig with black fur was, to speak plainly, awful and smelly. Going by all of the chefs in the empire, the scent was impossible to work with.

At the same time, its organs were fairly noteworthy. Heart, liver, intestines, stomach...No matter which one you took, they carried a unique deliciousness that you couldn't taste in the other breeds.

And as for the "rare" one that Muzuri was so interested in--the moment he saw it, he instantly knew what it was.

“Is that—It must be! That’s the ‘Baemu’ pig, isn’t it!?”

“T-the B...Baemu?”

"Good grief, you don't even know about the Baemu; first Ron, now you, none of you know anything about food."

That being said, it was actually the first time Muzuri himself had laid eyes on the Baemu.

However, it had deep red fur, almost as though it was covered in fire. And it had two deer-like horns growing from its temple…The oft-rumored "Baemu" pig had features just like that.

The other pigs in the pen were keeping their distance from the Baemu as though they were afraid, or perhaps showing reverence for him--or her.

"Do you know of this red pig, Master?"

"That…is a breed of pig known as the Baemu. It rarely shows itself before humans, and it's impossible to raise. It's such a valuable pig that among gourmands it is known as the 'legendary pig'."

"Ooh…legendary, huh...I see. I'm impressed, you're quite knowledgeable, Master." The cattle hand gazed again at the red pig, nodding several times as though in admiration. "So then, its flavor must be pretty amazing, huh?"

"I don't know."

"Huh!?"

"Neither I nor anyone I know has ever actually tasted the Baemu. But there is a tale that the emperor of that one big empire used to love it, and ate it regularly. And it's also said that as they were excessively hunted to give to him, the pig's numbers dwindled heavily."

"Who in the world…would have sent such a rare pig?"

"…That's the thing. Did the coachman who brought it over say anything on the matter?"

"Apparently he didn't know either. He said it had been riding in the carriage before he knew it. He figured that there wouldn't be anything put into the luggage compartment that wasn't being sent as presents for Lady Banica's birthday, so he just brought it over with the rest of them."

"Hmm, I see…"

It was a garbled mess of a story. Muzuri folded his arms, closed his eyes, and thought for a moment.

Then he suddenly opened his eyes and shouted to the heavens, “I’ve got it! This is surely a present from the gods!”

"W-what!?"

"If we don't know who sent it, then that must mean that a wild Baemu climbed into the luggage area when the coachman wasn't looking...It's reasonable to think so. There were other livestock in there, and there was feed set out. Perhaps it was tempted by these things and went in against its better judgment.

"…Would something so convenient simply happen?"

"It's unthinkable under normal circumstances. That's why I say it's a present from the gods! Surely, the gods are celebrating Banica's birthday--and so they granted me this Baemu as a reward for my regular good deeds. It's so obvious!"

"…I guess so."

The cattle hand gave up on refuting that. Once Muzuri had gotten like this, nothing he said would reach him. He knew that well.

"In that case, there's no need to hold back. We shall gratefully feast on this Baemu tonight!"

"Since it's such a rare opportunity, it might be best if you treated your honored guests to it during Lady Banica's debut. Once you do, your social standing will--"

"Absolutely not! I won't be letting the likes of Earl Vincent and Duke Oruhari have a taste of my long-awaited Baemu! I alone will eat it, and I'll brag to the others later!"

"Sigh, I guess so."

Like he thought, the cattle hand wouldn't be objecting. At the risk of repeating himself, when it came to all things food it was impossible to find any compromise with Muzuri. There was even a chance that if a man like the cattle hand were to give a negative opinion he'd be sacked.

"Alright! Take this Baemu to the kitchens at once!"

Without actually waiting for a reply from the cattle hand, Muzuri next ran for the kitchens, his large belly flabbily swaying along the way.

<<prev------directory------next>>

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lizziedoesvetpath · 6 years

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Disease Compendium: Facial Eczema

Welcome! This is the first installment in what I’m affectionately calling my disease compendium. I’m starting with a disease I know well which is big and important in New Zealand - Facial eczema of cattle. If you have suggestions for further posts, check the plan here and send me your thoughts!

Source: https://www.thevetcentrenorthland.co.nz/dairy-articles

Species and distribution Facial eczema affects all grazing ruminants, as well as camelids and other grazing livestock. The disease can occur around the world, but is most commonly seen in New Zealand due to the intensive pasture grazing employed by our farms.

Cause Facial eczema is a form of secondary hepatic photosensitisation. It arises due to ingestion of the saprophytic fungus Pithomyces chartarum which grows on leaf litter at the base of pasture (as such, it’s very common in the ryegrass pastures we favour in NZ, due to its pattern of growth and senescence). The fungus grows best in warm, damp conditions, so disease is particularly common in late summer and autumn. This fungus produces a toxin called sporidesmin, which is the cause of the diease.

Pathogenesis The sporidesmin toxin from ingested P. chartarum is absorbed from the gut and is transported via the blood to the liver. Here, it causes severe necrosis in the bile ducts and surrounding parenchyma. This necrosis leads to fibrosis of the liver, impairing bile flow and normal excretion of other compounds.

In the acute form, this is where it gets interesting. The liver damage impairs the excretion of phylloerythrin, a breakdown product of chlorophyll (hence affecting grazing animals). This phylloerythrin builds up in the bile, blood, and then in other tissues. Where it builds up in the skin, it causes photosensitisation, with all the painful consequences that follow.

In the chronic form, the animal continues to ingest small quantities of the fungus over long periods of time. In this case, there is no photosensitisation, but the liver damage persists, leading to cirrhosis.

Diagnosis The acute form is usually diagnosed by clinical signs. Here in NZ, there aren’t many other common causes of such a photosensitisation, so I diagnosis can be made based off the gross lesions. The photosensitisation is focussed in hairless or pale areas. Typical distribution is over the face, ears, udder, and any white patches on cattle. This presents as reddining, which progresses to exudation and scabbing (much like a sunburn on yourself). Affected animals may also be seen hiding in shady patches, and showing signs of pain or pruritus when forced to be in the sun.

Sources: https://www.naroomanewsonline.com.au/story/5208467/dairy-farmers-warned-about-facial-eczema-after-high-spore-counts/, https://www.vetent.co.nz/dairy-disease-management/facial-eczema.html, https://www.evs.co.nz/news-and-events/new-news-page-5/

The chronic form shows few outward signs, and may not be evident at all. It is most often diagnosed on post mortem, where the liver is small, pale, and firm, possibly with regenerative nodules (cirrhosis). The classic sign of chronic facial eczema is termed the “boxing glove liver” where the left lobe is fibrotic and atrophied, while the right lobe is enlarged.

Serum liver enzymes can be used to try and make a diagnosis, but are non-specific (as liver enzymes tend to be). Some clinicians will use GGT during the risk period if milk production drops in a dairy herd (commonly affected) without an obvious cause, as subclinical disease can affect production.

Treatment Treatment of facial eczema is largely symptomatic. Severely affected animals should be kept in the shade where possible and not be made to walk long distances. Sunscreens for animals (usually containing zinc) are available and can be useful, but are not practical in large commercial herds. Some animals may be so severely affected that the pain becomes a welfare issue, and they must be euthanised. If possible, it helps to take the animal off the affected pasture - this can mean feeding supplementary feeds (eg: silage, baleage, hay, cut-and-carry etc) during convalescence.

Prevention Prevention of facial eczema is a fine art, that can be difficult to achieve. The simplest technique is to manage grazing carefully. The fungus grows on decomposing leaf litter at the base of the sward, so pastures should not be grazed too low. Leaving a greater post-grazing cover reduces the intake of P. chartarum and sporidesmin, so animals are less affected.

Zinc is an excellent preventative. This can be given as a ruminal bolus (slow release bullets are favoured here) or distributed through the water supply (more variable but requires less labour). The mechanism of this method is not 100% certain, but it has been shown to work very well, so is used widely on NZ farms.

Fungicides sprayed on pasture have been tried, but this method is expensive, labour intensive, and not hugely effective. Sprays have to be used regularly to control the fungus, and can pose risks to the animals grazing the pasture.

Prognosis The prognosis of affected animals varies significantly with severity and chronicity. An animal with severe acute disease likely needs to be euthanised, while a more mild case can be supported while the burns healed. Chronic disease is rarely a specific cause of death, and is usually only detected on PM following slaughter for meat production or due to another disease.

Sources: Most of the information in this article comes from my own brain - and that info was put there by my lovely production animal lecturers at Massey University, New Zealand. I checked a few details with the Merck Manual to re-fresh my memory, and this provides a neat little summary for anyone who’s interested. Read more in Parkinson’s Diseases of Cattle in Australasia

#vetstudent #vetschool #vet #vetmed #veterinarian #cows #cattle #sheep #deer #goat #ruminant #disease #pathology #disease compendium

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acti-veg · 7 years

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“Vegans exploit crop workers.”

This argument will be a familiar one to any vegan, it is less an acknowledgement of the inherent issues with crop farming and more an attack specifically levelled at vegans. It is used more often than not as a “gotcha” card, a way to point out that vegans cause harm too, and that being vegan isn’t morally any better from eating animals. There are of course several issues with this argument and the way it is commonly used.

It is important to acknowledge from the outset that there absolutely are inherent issues in the crop industry. The exploitation of migrant farmers to pick crops is a serious and severe issue, and it is something we should all be advocating against. However, blaming vegans specifically for this global problem is deeply unfair, we feed considerably more plants to farmed animals than we ever eat ourselves and livestock take in far more calories in crop feed than they will ever give out in meat, meaning your average omnivorous diet requires significantly more labour than a vegan one does.

At present a full 1/3 of the planet’s land surface and 2/3 of available agricultural land is used for farming animals. Chicken meat production consumes energy in a 4:1 ratio to protein output; beef cattle 54:1, lamb 50:1, pork 17:1, turkey 13:1 and milk 17:1, according to the ecologist’s analysis of U.S. Department of Agriculture statistics. All told, farmed animals consume 40% of all grain produced and 70% of all soy produced globally, which means that most crop labour is expended to meet the demands of meat based diets, not vegan ones. If we were looking for a diet which requires the least crop labour possible, based on these figures alone the first things we would eliminate are meat and dairy, as these are some of the most resource and labour intensive products in existence.

On top of the issues with farming crops to feed farmed animas, one of the things people making these claims always fail to take into account is that animal agriculture is one of the most exploitative industries in the world. Slaughterhouse workers are much more likely than average to have problems with drug and alcohol abuse and with mental health issues like PTSD from working under extremely stressful conditions. These workers have astonishingly high rates of injury due to a high pressure, dangerous working environment. When workers do sustain injuries, The Human Rights Watch reports the industry avoiding administering their workers’ compensation programs by systematically failing to recognize and report claims, delaying claims, denying claims, and threatening and taking reprisals against workers who file claims for compensation for workplace injuries. These are most often poor immigrants with few other choices. These victims of the very same system of oppression as crop workers are, yet their suffering is conveniently ignored by those who profess to care about the exploitation of food workers.

Vegans are fully aware that like everyone else, our lifestyle is far from perfect. The fact that we cannot avoid all harm is contained in the very definition for what it means to be vegan, to avoid exploitation as far as is possible and practicable. It is possible and practicable for most people to boycott all animal products, but we simply could not survive if we had to boycott all plants as well. It not possible to be a consumer in the modern world without causing some harm, but veganism is about reducing that harm as much as we are able to. It is incredibly cynical to berate someone for making an effort to live a lifestyle lifestyle which is as ethical as they can make it just because it isn’t perfect, especially if you are someone who is making no such effort yourself.

With all of this in mind, blaming vegans who make up a tiny percentage of the global population for the existence of exploited crop workers is not only absurd, but blatantly self interested. The exploitation of workers on the lowest end of the economic scale is an inherent issue of capitalism, to expect vegans alone to be able to avoid this exploitation, while simultaneously doing absolutely nothing to avoid this exploitation yourself, is blatant hypocrisy. The sad truth is that the struggles of impoverished farmers are seldom spoken about as anything other than blunt force attacks on veganism; and using them in this way is nothing more than capitalising on other people’s struggles as a smokescreen to disguise selfish and harmful choices.

(More resources available at Acti-veg.com)

#anti-vegan arguments #debunked #vegan #crop workers tho #original #cruelty free #human rights #crop workers

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allyklapak · 5 years

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You are what you eat: Unsustainable

Food and water are two of the most fundamental needs of mankind. In order to adequately fulfill this vital need, the land and the water sources which accommodate these must receive proper care. However, unsustainable human practices constantly jeopardize the health of these biomes which consequently poses a great risk for the existing ecosystems and they habitant, including humanity. The agriculture and aquaculture industries are largely exploited for economic benefit and are strong examples of short term gain that results in sometimes irreversible environmental ramifications. While the more imminent repercussions are already evident in the dwindling populations of many important sea creatures and flora variety, an expanded analysis of the interconnected nature between life and the environment demonstrated the negative effects humanity will face.

While the majority of the ocean and its depth remain vastly unknown to mankind, the areas we have touched have greatly perished under our hand. The degradation faced by these aquatic ecosystems can be directly attributed to mankind's unsustainable habits. To put the scale of this issue into perspective, according to ecologist Douglass J. McCauley, "'oceans are facing a major extinction event."[^1] The situation must be in a dire state to warrant such designation as an extinction event. Developing a comprehensive view of all of the issues at hand, should lead to a widespread desire for action and reform that is necessary to inspire true change and potentially reverse the demise of all sustaining life beneath the water.

Humans have both a direct and indirect impact on the ecosystems of the oceans. Through inland pollution and unsustainable practice in coastal areas, the collateral pollution and climate change touch aquatic life. Pollution can directly run off into water, pouring in harmful chemicals and solid waste. As stated by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), "80% of all ocean pollution… comes from land-based coastal activities."[^2] This statistic directly ascribes the blame for the toxic waste dropped into the oceans to the large populations that inhabit coastal areas. Species that perish often abundantly include algae, which then subsequently must be decomposed, but the process in which this accomplished spends oxygen that is then being deprived from marine life. [^2] Additionally, humanity's unregulated CO2 emissions have sparked a period of climate change, slowly rising atmospheric and subsequently water temperature. Many aquatic organisms are not suited for these warmer climates and therefore die off when they cannot adapt. [^3] For example, coral reefs suffer coral bleaching g when these temperatures force them to expel algae, making these important ecosystems vulnerable to collapse. [^4] Humans also may inadvertently harm sea life through accidentally introducing invasive species to ecosystems such as lionfish. Boats that traverse across the world may unleash harmful microbes and organisms that they had bred or been stored in their ballasts.[^2] This accidental harm can be blamed for "about two-thirds of all fish extinctions in the United States since 1900 and have cause huge economic loss" according t the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. [^2]. This exemplifies the massive adverse impact mankind has without even knowing. Propagating this data is imperative to encourage more careful practices to attempt to cut back the impact we make. It is ludicrous that we know the harm that can be done yet often turn a blind eye to it for the sake of profit. This sentiment is equally counterintuitive as the long term economic expense of widespread ocean extinction will drastically outweigh the temporary gains. These aquatic ecosystems are destroyed by the chain reaction of detrimental human activity on land.

The intentional abuse of aquatic life by the fishing industry has also become an issue of great urgency to be addressed during this time were the onset of a mass extinction is in our midst. The fishing industry varies in importance from place to place due to the unique role it plays in different cultures. However, the rise of unsustainable practices are widespread. The root issue exists in the recurring human habit of consuming more than is available at a rate which does not allow adequate time for natural replenishing. In this case, this principle manifests itself in overfishing. There exist fishers to accommodate the commercial demand for fish but man's increased fish print has resulted in, "87% of the world's commercial fisheries have been fully exploited or overfished." [^5] The mass quantities of fish caught by innovative strategies such as trawling, purse-seine fishing, long-lining, and drift-net fishing, have wiped out significant populations inhabiting both the deep and shallow ecosystems of the sea. [^5] This has jeopardized the populations of important predators that maintain order and filter out natural waste such as sharks. [^6] Through decreasing biodiversity, the integrity of an ecosystem is compromised which poses adverse effects to all of the inhabitants and therefore may harm human health and economic interests. Those choosing to cash in on large fishing hauls to not consider the problematic commercial extinction that will ensue when the types of fish that are commonly aught and sold are depleted to the point of extinction and create a whole in the market where no profit can be made. [^5] Although the financial security of this destructive industry is not f utmost concern, this is an important position to underscore as the industry may only be motivated to act if their wallets are at stake.

It is vital that more sustainable practices are adopted for the sake of the population s of the world that rely on fish as their primary source of food, for the life that exists within, and to avoid the negative natural phenomena that would be emerge. The threat is not exclusive to the ocean but also targets freshwater sources and wetlands. It is more complicated to implement legislative protection in oceans due to the uncertain nature of jurisdiction.[^7] The UN has issued various regulations over the years to create reserves and sanctuaries as protective measures, but preventative measures are key as the complicated biodiversity beneath the sea is very difficult to restore artificially. [^7] Nature's resilience is remarkable but it must be given adequate time to heal. The aftermath of marine mass extinction is too alarming to go unheeded. Governments should utilize this common threat on common water as a unifying factor and should cooperatively pass strict law and policy to restrain sales of illegally caught fish and implement regulations on practices that over fish or emit unsustainable amounts of CO2.

While fish primarily feeds those on the coast, majority of the world depends on agriculture for the bulk of their food. The economically driven world of agriculture ultimately harms the land and human habitats which consequently threatens posterity of all people, especially those of low-income. In order to satisfy the demands for a surplus of food, modern nations have utilized developments in irrigation, fertilization, and pesticides to implement industrialized agriculture.[^8] Monocultures are often promoted as they yield high output of a essential crops and facilitate genetic engineering to manipulate produce.[^9] The cost of this practice includes extreme water waste which in turn can over-saturate topsoil as well as encourages the use of toxic pesticides. These pesticides were created with the intention of fending off disease carrying pests, but have adversely bred insects with greater resistance to the chemicals and can be dangerous to human health when consumed. [^10] Organic practices are more sustainable as they use more natural processes and reserves certain legal criteria to be used to market products, which the term natural does not. [^11] Mass farming nonetheless harms the land it exists on as it is often over-tilled and topsoil loses its integrity.[^12] Polluted, eroded, and chemically imbalanced topsoil will not support plant growth.[^12] This point is pertinent as land unfit for plants will become land unfit for humans. If agricultural lands are not cared for, humans will wither starve or suffocate due to the inability to produce adequate food or oxygen providing plants. A daunting thought that alls on the innovators of the world to engineer a new sustainable system to support our planet and its habitants.

Finally, the meat industry encompasses its own array of environmental catastrophes due to harmful and exceedingly wasteful practices to meet the superfluous demand for poultry, beef, and pork in the nation.[^13] Factory farms expends exorbitant amounts of energy and water to feed and slaughter the animals within. [^13] Time means money in business so those in the meat industry have devised a way to grow their livestock in a timely fashion in order to have a greater rate of profit. The chemicals fed to the animals are ultimately consumed by humans and also make the manure produced unusable for fertilizer and sheer waste. [^13] The CO2 emitted by the animals themselves as well as the factories that breed them are catastrophic for the atmosphere and climate. [^13] In additional to the environmental issues, the cruel practices this industry is infamous for should be enough to institute much stricter regulation. It is not so much to ask humans to cut down on their meat intake and while I note the importance of protein in a diet, even small restrictions can make a world of difference to motivate action.

The ethical considerations of this industry imbalance are disconcerting. Malnutrition is an issue that plagues a significant population of the world on a daily basis.[^14] Wealthy nations often trade sustainable practice for high crop yield and therefore high profit. Powerful nations are able to invest in technological advancement which enable these unsustainable systems. It is not right that those that do the least harm suffer the most. We could use or technology and influence to solve the issue of world hunger, but human greed has exacerbated the threat of famine and malnutrition across the world in a sickening way. Through understanding where our food comes form, we may endorse more sustainable practices in our own practices and in fighting for greater change. This is a matter that takes place in the home and if approached with persistence and unity may reach much further.

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Discussion Question: It is often promoted that many people doing many things can make a whole world of difference. In this case can cutting out meat really make such a large impact in industries will continue to produce large amounts and the issue is rooted in the ethics of human's flexibility or restrictions in diet?

Miller Jr, G. Tyler. Living in the environment: an introduction to environmental science. No. Ed. 19. Cengage Learning, 2017. 255

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juniperpublishers-agriculture · 5 years

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Black Gold: The Best alternative in Waste Management via Agriculture-Juniper Publishers

Vermicomposting is a modern technique in agriculture to transform different kinds of organic waste into utilizable products that contain different plant nutrients. Special types of worms are being used in Vermicomposting and in this review, we discuss the scientific results of different kinds of composting and the best choice in agriculture to get rid of waste and cultivation with vermi-worms (earthworms). In Addition, we discuss the previous studies in vermicomposting that proves it is a unique addition and a sustainable method to control waste and manage it.

Keywords: Vermicompost; Organic compost; Vermi-worm; Eisenia fetida; Red wiggler; Nutrients; Waste management; Agriculture

Abbreviations: SWM; Solid Waste Management; MSW: Municipal Solid Waste

Introduction

The constant increase in population, urbanization and economic growth have led to a massive increase in solid wastes and pollutants [1]. When these contaminants aren’t disposed or managed in a safe way, they cause major threats to the ecosystem in air, water, land and living organisms, which can cause serious and critical health hazards. The amount of municipal solid waste disposed of in the environment worldwide is estimated between 1.3 and 1.9 billion tons per year and is expected to rise to approximately 2.2 billion tons per year by 2025, which is considered to be a hazardous crisis and a matter of high concern [2].

Solid Waste Management (SWM) is characterized as a discipline associated with the collection, control, storage, transfer, process, and disposal of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) in a civilized manner that best serves the environment, the public health and the economy [3]. Globally, an outstanding amount of money goes towards waste management. Asian countries alone have spent around 25 billion American dollars on solid waste management per year in the early 1990s and the figure is expected to rise in 2025 to reach 50 billion American dollars [4].

Besides the increasing need of controlling waste, there has been a request for agrochemical free crops and vegetables. Since the 1960’s the green evolution relied mostly on agrochemicals, it enhanced the productivity of the crops but also severally harmed the environment and society as the health of agriculture is directly related to the public health [5]. It destroyed the beneficial organisms in the soils and impaired their natural fertility and pest resistance.

In the last few decades, various techniques have been introduced in association with waste management to save our environment from life-threatening pollutants as it is an essential public request and highly important to preserve our environment. One of those techniques known in agriculture is known as vermicompositing where it is an economical alternative, socially safe and sustainable.

Traditionally, worms have been used as fishing bait and a protein source for many animals. Several studies on different animals, birds, and fish have shown excellent results when feeding animals with a worm [6] and view earthworms as being a natural source of food for birds and other animals in the wild. Recently, vermi-worms have proven their ability in transforming waste into a utilizable product as well as their ability to be used as an excellent tool in improving the health of the agriculture due to them working as cleansers that are capable of biologically and safely degrading wastes [7].

Composting

Composting is a natural biological process that leads to the biodegradation of organic wastes to a stable end product known as compost which can be used for different agricultural needs. Therefore, interest in compost is considered a component of waste management as it limits the pollution caused by overusing other forms of chemical composts [8]. Composting works on degrading all organic materials that are biodegradable as well as degrading the polluting matter that can cause unpleasant odors which in return would impact the ecosystem [9]. There are various types of composting, a few of them being; a) Anaerobic composting and b) Aerobic composting c) vermicomposting.

a. Anaerobic composting is the degradation of organic matter in the absence of air where the anaerobic organisms produce intermediate compounds such as methane, organic acids and other substances such as hydrogen sulphide [10]. Anaerobic composting is a low-temperature process. In Addition, the compost isn’t transformed completely and can contain lumped mass and compounds that are toxic to the plant.

b. Aerobic composting is the degradation of organic matter in the presence of air where the microorganisms degrade the organic matter producing carbon-dioxide, ammonia, water, heat and humus [11] and forms an organic stable product. Humus is a fully decomposed compose and is made up of remnants of leaves and grass and other organic matters [12]. Other intermediate products are formed that are made of organic acids, although the compost produced is of low toxicity on the plant. The heat produced from the microorganisms and bacteria’s activities fastens the process of breaking down the proteins, fats and complicated carbohydrates in the plant. Thus, “Hot composting” takes less time and therefore aerobic composting is considered more effective than anaerobic composting.

c. Vermicomposting is a simple process of composting where certain species of earthworms (such as Eisenia feotida and African Night Crawler) are used to enhance the process of waste conversion and produce a better product. Vermicompost is used extensively due to its low price point and high efficiency [13]. It is a porous process where microorganisms and earthworms are used that are active at 10-32 ºC (not temperature around but temperature within the pile of moist organic material) and the earthworms feed on organic waste and pass it through their digestive system where it comes out in the form of compost known as Vermicompost. This compost enhances the growth of plants, reduces plant diseases, increases porosity and microbial activity in the soil, enhances water retention capacity and aeration within the soil [14,15]. Vermicomposting is called the “cold” composting due to the low range of heat created during the process; and if the temperature increased within the pile, the worms wouldn’t continue in the vermicomposting operation [7].

Vermiworm

Although there are over 3000 types of worms around the world, only 384 types are suitable for agriculture such as Eisenia fetida, Lumbricus rubellis [16,17], Eisenia Andrei, Perionyx excavatus, Eudrilus eugeniae, Enchytraeids, Dendrobaena veneta, and Perionyx hawayana. Eisenia fetida and Lumbricus rubellis are the most often used species due to their high efficiency and easy maintenance [18]. They are vastly used in Vermicomposting as well as in the form of fish bait and can be found in organic materials such as compost or litter manures or near fresh water and even in snowy patches [9].

The classification of Eisenia fetida falls under Epigeic species and has many different names such as manure worms, tiger worms, red wigglers, and red worms. Eisenia fetida is shortly known as “E. fetida” and has proven to be highly effective in converting waste of many forms such as wastewater [19,20] into materials that can be benefited from. This species grows effectively in a room temperature environment and normally feeds on organic materials and wastes and converts them into utilizable materials rather than their accumulation in the environment and food web [21]. Eisenia fetida was previously known as Eisenia foetida and lives in the European continent and recently all around the world except for Antartica due to its environmental condition. Eisenia fetida is a red worm with a yellowish orange tail (Figure 1). Earthworms are cylindrical in shape and have a segmented body that tapers off at both ends. Worms have a brain and 5 hearts and a digestive system that is responsible for the composting process. Earthworms are photophobic, which means they’re highly sensitive to light. They have the ability to process large amounts (almost its body weight) of organic matters in ideal conditions. Eisenia fetida has an effective defense mechanism where it can deplete a yellow liquid with an unpleasant odor that makes possible predators flee away from it [23].

Worms are hermaphrodites, which means they are both male and female. However, each worm still needs another worm of its species to mate, where each worm fertilizes the other eggs. The fertilized eggs contain a mucous tube that slips over its head and then into the soil through its mouth as an egg-case or commonly known as a cocoon. Cocoons are small spherical balls that contain various worms inside it. They are about the size of a match stick’s head and change colors as the juvenile worms develop. It starts out as pale yellow and before hatching, when the hatchlings are ready to emerge, the cocoons are reddish-brown. They reproduce every 7 to 10 days if they are kept in the recommended environment with other worms for mating. The difference between the juveniles and adult worms is their color being slightly lighter. It takes around 60-90 days for the worm to mature and would weigh about 0.55g [22] and can reach 3-10cm in length. The initial worms can remain healthy and in sustainable amounts if it is reared in a safe way [7]. There are various places in which vermiworms can be obtained.

Vermiworms are termed on the certain types of earthworms that act as biological agents to consume those wastes and to deposit excreta in the process called vermicompost. Vermiculture is termed on the sustainable preservation of the number of worms to receive a sustainable product [24]. Vermicomposting is a term of the process by which all types of biodegradable wastes such as farm wastes, kitchen wastes, market wastes, biowastes of agro-based industries, livestock wastes etc are converted while passing through the worm gut to nutrient rich vermicompost. Vermicompost is termed on the excreta of earthworm that is capable of improving soil health and nutritional status.

Effective Factors on vermicomposting:

a. The organic matter used in vermicomposting isn’t considered the main factor in the process, there are other factors that can easily effect vermicomposting such as: Carbon to nitrogen ratio in the compost (C/N) is a significant factor. The fungi and bacteria in vermicompost will digest or oxidize carbon as an energy source and ingest nitrogen for protein synthesis, therefore, carbon can be considered as the nutrimental source and nitrogen is the digestive enzyme, which is why the organic matter placed in the pile should have enough “food: enzyme” ratio, aka, “Carbon: Nitrogen” ratio. The estimated measurement is 30 parts carbon to 1 part nitrogen (30:1), which should be enough or sufficient for the rapid composting process. However, the presence of too much nitrogen may create ammonia gas which will create an unpleasant smell and affect the composting process or even kill the worms [25].

b. Moisture inside the pile is one of the make or break factors in vermicomposting. The microorganisms in the pile can only use organic molecules that are dissolved in water. Therefore, the pile must contain a moisture content of 50-80%. When the moisture level drops, the microbial activity will slow down and if it increases above 80% it will hinder the aeration needed [24]. The change in moisture level (such as the manure being too soaked or too dry) can significantly affect the safety of the worms and can even lead to their death [24].

c. Aeration or the amount of oxygen present in the pile should be carefully maintained as the decomposition takes up all the available oxygen. Aeration means to provide a passageway for oxygen in the middle of the pile where it is needed. Efficient and successful decomposing can only occur with the right amount of oxygen available for the worms. Aeration can be done with a special tool called “Aerator” [22]. A high rate of aeration, however, would decrease the moisture level of the pile and increase the temperature which would kill the worms [26].

d. Due to the microorganisms generating heat in the process of decomposing, the pile can easily get overheated which can be lethal to the worms. Thus, the temperature should be around 15-32 °C (59-77 °F), where the worms feed most rapidly. Vermi worms can live in temperature as cold as 10 °C although the process would slow down while temperatures above 30 °C would harm or even kill the worms [22].

e. One of the steps that would speed up the composting process is increasing the surface area of the material to be composted. It is an essential factor to make it easier for microorganisms to ingest the waste material. This technique can be done by shredding or cutting up the material into small pieces as the increase in surface area means that the microorganisms will be able to digest more material where the earthworms and bacteria will also break down the matter into smaller pieces. Materials such as bread tend to mold and cause an unpleasant smell as well as reduce the oxygen level in the pile so it is best to use food such as melons or cantaloupes [27].

f. The pH level in the compost pile depends on the decomposition rate by the worm and the type of feed material. Organic acids may be released during the process which causes a decrease in the pH. The production of ammonia gas from the increase of nitrogen level can raise the pH level. Therefore, a pH level of 6.5 to 8.5 is suitable for the compost’s microorganisms [22].

g. The bedding of the vermiworm is its shelter, it needs to be comfortable and ready for the worm to keep them healthy and safe. The bedding provides a balanced diet (waste), a moisture filled environment, and an aerated home for the worms. It is essential to keep the bottom of the bin covered by bedding for a depth of at least 4-6 inches. Mixing materials for bedding would ensure you a more successful process (such as cow dung or soil Figure 2). Providing shredding newspaper, or using straw, or coconut fibers (Coir) or shredded leaves mixed with soil will provide a good source of nutrients for your worms. It is important to use material that wouldn’t compact the bedding to avoid the earthworm’s death [7].

Setting-up a bed and harvesting: There are different types of Vermicomposting settings that depends on the intention of use, materials used, and quantity of the worms and the location of the composting system. A vermicompost’s bed or “pile” is the shelter in which the vermi-worms would live, feed, reproduce and make the end product. Thus, the bedding is a very necessary part of the system that would determine the success or failure of the process.

Small scale vermicomposting systems: Small scale is often called bins or windrows and their size depends on the amount of waste that is going to be composted and the number of worms. A small Vermicomposting bin can vary in structure material (like wood or plastic) but should contain 1 pound of food for 1 pound of worms. The overloading of food would create a reaction (rotting of the food) that would generate heat and potentially kill the worms.

Large scale vermicomposting system: Is used when the quantity of worms and waste is usually enormous and requires more space. They are usually kept outdoors or in fields.

Precautions for small and large scale vermicomposting: Bins can be kept a) indoor or b) outdoors but certain measures need to be considered in each case.

a. If the bin is well maintained it is going to be odorless and thus can be kept indoors without any discomfort to the farmer or breeder. It can be kept under the kitchen sink or in a place away from light and possible predators while maintaining the same effective factors.

b. Outdoor bins can be more suitable if there is more than one bin or the space inside the house is insufficient. However, special measures should be taken during outdoors vermicomposting. The bin should be maintained in a temperature that is suitable for the worms production at all times. The bins should be protected from rain and wind and any possible aggressors such as rodents or other animals.

Setting up a vermicompost station requires certain steps as illustrated by Ramnarain et al. [28] where he followed the famous vermitechnique pattern by Ismail [29]:

a. A vermicompost station can be built in a shaded area with measurements of 10×8×3m3.

b. The vermi-worms is to be cultured in a concrete unit of 150 × 100 × 60cm3 with drainage holes (of 2 × 2cm2) to maintain the right moisture level by draining the excess water.

c. The roof of the unit shall be made up of zinc sheets and the bottom should be isolated with paper while the walls of the unit would be built with wire mesh for a cooling effect and stable aeration.

d. The first layer of the compost bed can be covered with broken bricks with 6-7.5cm thickness with sand mixed within (or it can be substituted by sawdust or shredded dry paper mixed with soil [7]). This step is essential to maintain the drainage of water that would otherwise harm the vermi-worms.

e. The feeding material would be added days before the worms for the “initial composition” to take place.

f. The Eisenia foetida would be added to moistened soil as a layer of 15cm into the unit.

g. Feeding material in Ramnarain et al. [28] study was cattle dung as the aim of the study was to test cow manure’s effect on vermicompost. Some studies have used agricultural wastes [30] or domestic wastes when the system is built to recycle wastes at home.

h. The 4th layer shall consist of dry grass clippings (and rice straw) where Ramnarain et al. [28] obtained it from the University of Guyana’s Garden in Georgetown, Guyana with the thickness of 10cm.

i. The unit shall be covered with layers of banana leaves (or a jute bag as recommended by S Karmakar et al. [31]) to protect the worms from direct sunlight and sprayed with water twice a week to maintain the recommended moisture level.

j. The temperature, pH, moisture, and carbon: nitrogen ratio should be maintained throughout the process.

Harvesting the vermicompost is considered the final step in the process. The end product is usually black or dark brown crumbly soil. To maintain the worm’s health and sustainability of the process, it is necessary to harvest the compost and change the bedding at least twice a year. The product can be harvested through placing the compost on a plastic sheet and shining a light on it or using direct sunlight, and as vermi-worms are photophobic, they would crawl away and the remaining compost can be brushed gently by hand on the outside [13]. The crawling worms can then be recollected for reuse. Some researches and farmers use a sieve to collect the vermicompost and separate it away from the worms. Although this method is effective, it has been reported that it can be traumatic for the worms and cocoons can be lost along the process [32].

Feeding Types

Every type of worm depends on the type of waste available, its quality and quantity and the type of composting system a breeder wishes to set up. Worms will eat almost all organic materials that a breeder or a farm would provide them but it is essential that the food being placed in the bin should not exceed the size of half an inch or smaller to ensure a quick process of decomposition. Macro and microorganisms in the pile will first break down the chopped and shredded food into smaller pieces by a process called “Initial composting” to prepare it for the worm’s consumption since it is in a form that doesn’t require teeth or biting (as a worm doesn’t have the ability to do that). Some forms of wastes or “feed” can lack softness for the worm to consume but it would degrade eventually by the help of the macro and microorganisms as well as the bacteria present in the pile. There are specific kinds of food that are prohibited upon worms due to their negative effects on them. This might include any material that contains the chemical limonene, which is a chemical compound found mostly in citruses that are considered poisonous for vermi-worms.

Therefore, it is advised to limit citrus food and spicy substances such as hot pepper, even hair, and eggs. Although materials such as dairy, oils, and meat can be allowed, it is advised to prevent them due to the smell they might create in the pile that can affect the worm and the breeder. Food such as vegetable wastes (in certain quantities), grains, manure, fruits, coffee grounds, and agricultural wastes are highly recommended for the feeding of earthworms and for an effective and quick Vermicomposting [7]. Vermi worms have the capability of digesting different kinds of wastes as well such as agricultural wastes [33], municipal solid wastes [34], animal wastes [35], organic solid wastes [36,37] even herbal pharmaceutical wastes [38]. In addition, recent studies have shown that vermicompost can also be used to recycle human excreta [22].

Climate

The climate varies from a country to another which is why there is a noticeable difference in some of the vermicomposting methods. If the temperature is not monitored inside the pit every week, it can cause an unexpected death of the worms due to the heat generated in hot continents. The worms would work at a 5-10 ºC but the process would be slower, thus, even in cold continents, the pile should be measured for maintenance. Eisenia foetida feeds most when the pile is in the suitable temperature of about 15-30 ºC [28].

Therefore, in order to receive fast and effective vermicompost, green waste should be added moderately to avoid overheating the bin and outdoors bins should be kept in the shade to avoid direct sunlight

Further Studies on Vermicomposting

Vermicompost is an excellent soil additive made up of digested compost by earthworms, therefore, is considered as a higher value product [13] and is capable of being exported as a global contestant. A chemical study of worm manure was conducted by Ruz-Jerez et al. [39] and Parkin and Berry [40] respectively that proved worm manure can contain 5 times the available nitrogen, 7 times the available potash (alkaline potassium compound) and 1.5 times more calcium than that found in 15cm of good topsoil. In addition, the nutritional life of vermicompost is up to 6 times more in comparison to the other types of organic composts. The phosphorous passes through the worms gut and is transformed into the plant suitable component [41]. Therefore, any process that can increase the availability of phosphorus to the plants is considered essential for the plant’s growth and better agriculture.

Vermicompost is rich in microbial organisms and nutrients (that is important for plant growth and productivity) that have long lasting effects, unlike potting soil mixes in the market that are usually sterile. Vermicompost enhances the water retention capacity of the soil by modulating its physical structure. Vermicompost has also been observed to increase the aggregated stability and soil porosity of a plant [42] and increases the number of largely elongated soil macropores, which is the space in the soil that holds water and oxygen. These changes enhance the access of moisture and air which is a major factor in controlling root growth and seedling emergence of a plant [43]. In a study by Kale [44], it was reported that the nutritional status of vermicompost increased an average of 1.5% to 2.2% nitrogen (N), 1.8% to 2.2% phosphorous (P) and 1.0% to 1.5% potassium (K) with the use of organic waste. In addition, the vermicompost also contained micronutrients, like Calcium and Magnesium, Copper, Zinc, and Sulphur where they all increased noticeably. In addition, a noticeable decrease in C/N (carbon to nitrogen ratio) has been observed when Vermicompost was applied to soil for 60 consecutive days, as well as an increase in heavy metal content of iron, copper, and manganese has [33]. In another study by Nagavallemma et al. [45], it was observed that the worm manure contained a higher percentage (nearly two-fold) of both macro and micronutrients than other garden composts, which proves that Vermicompost enhances the uptake of nutrients by the roots.

Another study was conducted in India by Ansari [46] where he observed the production of potato (Solanum tuberosum) after application of vermicompost in a reclaimed sodic soil (of high sodium content) and concluded that with good potato growth, the sodicity (ESP) of the soil was also reduced from an initial 96.74kg/ ha to 73.68kg/ha in the 12 weeks of the study. In addition, the average available nitrogen (N) content was also observed to increase in the soil from an initial 336.00kg/ha to 829.33kg/ha. This is due to the vermi-worms containing enzymes like amylase, lipase, cellulase, and chitinase in their canal, which can degrade the organic matter in the soil to release the essential nutrients and make it easily obtainable to absorption by the plant’s roots [47].

Studies by Edwards and Arancon [48] reported a statistically significant decrease in arthropods (such as mealy bugs and spider mite) infesting the soil and a noticeable reduction in plant damage in tomato, pepper, and cabbage trials with 20% and 40% vermicompost additions. In a study by Capowiez et al. [49] the water retention of the soil had increased in an experiment involving earthworms from a mean value of 20% to 25% which proofs that vermi-worms increased the availability of water in the soil. A proof that vermicompost is beneficial and saves time and energy is an American study that indicated that 10,000 worms in a farm plot provide the same benefit as three farmers working 8 hours in a shift all year round with 10 tons of manure applied in the plot [50].

One of the benefits of Vermicompost that was studied is that humic acid is a stimulant to plant growth (even with minor percents) [51]. The humus contains the humid acid which plays a significant role in the plants in more than one way. It helps the plant extract the nutrients from the soil as well as dissolve the undissolved minerals to make the organic matter ready for the plants’ consumption. It stimulates the plant’s growth and enables the plant to overcome stress. It has also been proven by Li and Li, 2010 that the humus in the soil helps chemical fertilizers work better. Moreover, Ayres [52] reported that root diseases in the plant were reduced from 82 to 18% in tomato when Vermicompost was applied and similarly in capsicum where the percentage dropped from 98 to 26%.

The cast contains a higher bacterial population than the soil or the worm’s gut where a study concluded that the microbial activity of beneficial microorganisms in worm castings is high than that of soil or other organic matter by 10-20% [53]. The bacterial content in Vermicompost ranged from 102-106 per gram of Vermicompost in a study by Suhane [54]. These bacteria included Actinomycetes, Azotobacter, Rhizobium, Nitrobacter, and Phosphate solubilizing Bacteria. Other soil microbes that are stimulated by earthworms include nitrogen-fixing and phosphate solubilizing bacteria and mycorrhizal fungi.

Among other benefits of vermicompost is that the castings can hold more than its weight by 2-3 times in soil and do not burn the root’s systems. In addition, it is odorless and 100% recyclable which is why it is considered a stable alternative. Vermicompost can insulate roots from extreme temperature as well as control weeds and reduce erosion. It is filled with many capabilities such as “high porosity”, “aeration”, “drainage” and “water holding capacity” than the traditional compost which is due to its humus contents [55].

Various studies stated that Plant Growth Regulating Activity is among the advantages of Vermicompost. It’s proven that the growth responses of plants from vermicompost appeared more like “hormone-induced activity” [56,57]. Various studies on different plants have concluded that Vermicompost stimulated seed germination such as of green gram [58], tomato plants, [59], petunia [60] and pine trees [61]. Vermicompost also stimulates vegetative growth, shoot and root development [62]. Application of vermicompost increases fruit yield [63,64] and number of flowers produced [60,65] and changes the seeding morphology of a plant (such as increasing leaf area and root branching) [63].

Vermicompost limited the soil born fungal diseases and surprised the parasitic nematodes in plants when applied by Edwards et al. [61] in field trials with pepper, tomatoes, strawberries, and grapes. This phenomenon explained that the agronomic microbial population in the Vermicompost protects the plants by outcompeting plant pathogens for available food resources and blocking their excess to plant roots by occupying all the available sites.

Vermicompost can be used in sludge transformation into a better product as the results by Jian Yang et al. [66] showed that it lowered the pH level and water-extractable organic carbon when vermicompost was applied for 3 weeks, along with higher electrical conductivity and nearly two times higher content of water-extractable nitrate (WEN-NO3(-)) than the control. In addition, a Fourier transform infrared spectra (FT-IR) was performed by Jian Yang and revealed that vermicompost promoted the transformation of macromolecular organic matters and accelerated the degradation of polysaccharide-like and proteinlike materials.

Various forms of wastes end up in the environment when it is not disposed of safely. Therefore, vermicompost isn’t just an agricultural phenomenal addition, it is a sustainable method for waste control and management such as Solid waste [67] or agricultural waste [30]. Vermicompost can be used in controlling water sludge waste as well. Studies even proved that vermicompost can be used to manage paper waste [68] and even agro-industrial waste management [69-71].

Conclusion

The rapid increase in population numbers and changes in lifestyle resulted in huge amounts of waste in dumpsters and landfills, causing damage to the environment. Therefore, this review’s aim is to act as a comprehensive guide to Vermicomposting as Vermicompost is the best choice among the safe technologies of waste management. It focuses on recycling of different types of wastes and converting them to new products that are environmentally friendly, economic and useful for agriculture.

The earthworms and microorganisms convert organic waste to Vermicompost through a complex environmental and biological practice that stabilizes the organic matter and maintains the complex food webs and the improvement of food elements that are rich in plant nutrients, thus, the Vermi-worm is a small environmental engineer that can solve a lot of disasters that confront our environment and limits the various contaminants to maintain the ecosystems. Vermicompost can be used in all types of farming fields in small and large scales as well as domestic gardens to transform home wastes.

The proper management, minimization and recycling of these wastes in agriculture should be our style of living in order to preserve our resources for future generations, stabilizing and sustaining the health of the environment and society and promote the revolution of discoveries regarding the golden fertilizer in farming via worms and is the best option available in healthy agriculture.

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