#people of the corn

[minionsuncle]

Blarmy!

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Welcome to the Dungeons of Fear and Hunger.

[reasonsforhope]

"In response to last year’s record-breaking heat due to El Niño and impacts from climate change, Indigenous Zenù farmers in Colombia are trying to revive the cultivation of traditional climate-resilient seeds and agroecology systems.

One traditional farming system combines farming with fishing: locals fish during the rainy season when water levels are high, and farm during the dry season on the fertile soils left by the receding water.

Locals and ecologists say conflicts over land with surrounding plantation owners, cattle ranchers and mines are also worsening the impacts of the climate crisis.

To protect their land, the Zenù reserve, which is today surrounded by monoculture plantations, was in 2005 declared the first Colombian territory free from GMOs.

...

In the Zenù reserve, issues with the weather, climate or soil are spread by word of mouth between farmers, or on La Positiva 103.0, a community agroecology radio station. And what’s been on every farmer’s mind is last year’s record-breaking heat and droughts. Both of these were charged by the twin impacts of climate change and a newly developing El Niño, a naturally occurring warmer period that last occurred here in 2016, say climate scientists.

Experts from Colombia’s Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies say the impacts of El Niño will be felt in Colombia until April 2024, adding to farmers’ concerns. Other scientists forecast June to August may be even hotter than 2023, and the next five years could be the hottest on record. On Jan. 24, President Gustavo Petro said he will declare wildfires a natural disaster, following an increase in forest fires that scientists attribute to the effects of El Niño.

In the face of these changes, Zenù farmers are trying to revive traditional agricultural practices like ancestral seed conservation and a unique agroecology system.

Pictured: Remberto Gil’s house is surrounded by an agroforestry system where turkeys and other animals graze under fruit trees such as maracuyá (Passiflora edulis), papaya (Carica papaya) and banana (Musa acuminata colla). Medicinal herbs like toronjil (Melissa officinalis) and tres bolas (Leonotis nepetifolia), and bushes like ají (Capsicum baccatum), yam and frijol diablito (beans) are part of the undergrowth. Image by Monica Pelliccia for Mongabay.

“Climate change is scary due to the possibility of food scarcity,” says Rodrigo Hernandez, a local authority with the Santa Isabel community. “Our ancestral seeds offer a solution as more resistant to climate change.”

Based on their experience, farmers say their ancestral seed varieties are more resistant to high temperatures compared to the imported varieties and cultivars they currently use. These ancestral varieties have adapted to the region’s ecosystem and require less water, they tell Mongabay. According to a report by local organization Grupo Semillas and development foundation SWISSAID, indigenous corn varieties like blaquito are more resistant to the heat, cariaco tolerates drought easily, and negrito is very resistant to high temperatures.

The Zenù diet still incorporates the traditional diversity of seeds, plant varieties and animals they consume, though they too are threatened by climate change: from fish recipes made from bocachico (Prochilodus magdalenae), and reptiles like the babilla or spectacled caiman (Caiman crocodilus), to different corn varieties to prepare arepas (cornmeal cakes), liquor, cheeses and soups.

“The most important challenge we have now is to save ancient species and involve new generations in ancestral practice,” says Sonia Rocha Marquez, a professor of social sciences at Sinù University in the city of Montería.

...[Despite] land scarcity, Negrete says communities are developing important projects to protect their traditional food systems. Farmers and seed custodians, like Gil, are working with the Association of Organic Agriculture and Livestock Producers (ASPROAL) and their Communitarian Seed House (Casa Comunitaria de Semillas Criollas y Nativas)...

Pictured: Remberto Gil is a seed guardian and farmer who works at the Communitarian Seed House, where the ASPROL association stores 32 seeds of rare or almost extinct species. Image by Monica Pelliccia for Mongabay.

Located near Gil’s house, the seed bank hosts a rainbow of 12 corn varieties, from glistening black to blue to light pink to purple and even white. There are also jars of seeds for local varieties of beans, eggplants, pumpkins and aromatic herbs, some stored in refrigerators. All are ancient varieties shared between local families.

Outside the seed bank is a terrace where chickens and turkeys graze under an agroforestry system for farmers to emulate: local varieties of passion fruit, papaya and banana trees grow above bushes of ají peppers and beans. Traditional medicinal herbs like toronjil or lemon balm (Melissa officinalis) form part of the undergrowth.

Today, 25 families are involved in sharing, storing and commercializing the seeds of 32 rare or almost-extinct varieties.

“When I was a kid, my father brought me to the farm to participate in recovering the land,” says Nilvadys Arrieta, 56, a farmer member of ASPROAL. “Now, I still act with the same collective thinking that moves what we are doing.”

“Working together helps us to save, share more seeds, and sell at fair price [while] avoiding intermediaries and increasing families’ incomes,” Gil says. “Last year, we sold 8 million seeds to organic restaurants in Bogotà and Medellín.”

So far, the 80% of the farmers families living in the Zenù reserve participate in both the agroecology and seed revival projects, he adds."

-via Mongabay, February 6, 2024

[peppiekorn]

welcome to my autistic paradise

[heartnosekid]

day 6 of @deadboystims’ 300 follower event: a stimboard of my favorite aesthetic! i call this 90s halloweencore lol

🎃-👻-🎃 / 👻-🎃-👻 / 🎃-👻-🎃 / ~divider~

[squea]

corns first vacation, first break-in, first kiss, first hangover. also he needs 12 friends and we are currently on... 4... (he fell out with Berrie)

also he came across @minimooberry 's drega in willow creek and of course he was smitten. but then she didnt turn up for their date the next day so other things happened there.

prev / next

[gummi-stims]

Vintage Halloween stimboard (think pumpkin heads and over the garden wall vibes)

I'm in a fall mood 🧡🧡🧡

GOD so am I, best season by far c:

Hope you like this!

🎃-🍁-🎃

🍂-🎃-🍂

🎃-🍁-🎃

[dlartistanon]

"Irreplacable"

[fyanimaldiversity]

Poptart the palmetto corn snake (Pantherophis guttatus)

[featherymainffins]

I hate to say it but I might have to admit that Redditors can be pretty based sometimes

[monsteractialuna]

Pick your fighter beautiful wife

First time drawing Fanon Eclipse and man i forgot how hard it is to pose that many arms without covering literally everything up.

Also if you see me post future art and the colors of the characters are totally different shhh don't say anything I've been slacking on making real refs for them

[arrowsperpetualcringe]

So in conclusion

[ridthewaste]

Based on THIS ask

I don’t post on Tumblr often but I felt like getting this out - funnily enough all because of a likely joke response. Ah well. I’ll continue the tradition of making elaborate backstories based on minimal information 💪

Anyway, here’s some background to Jax’s life and upbringing. Call it a headcanon or AU or whatever you feel is best

The purple rabbit individual later known as "Jax" to the circusgoers was born between 1973 and 1982 in Wabash, Indiana, to a Lutheran Protestant family of five, of which he was the middle child of two other brothers whom he got along well with. The family took only a nominal approach to religion to their children in terms of traditions passed down, something that their mother and father would, on occasion, regret doing whenever their sons got into trouble. The small family farm was agricultural in nature, rather than focused on livestock, producing mainly corn as well as carrots and other assorted produce. Due to Wabash’s town-city setting making for easy profit to farmers markets and other retailers, the family were decently well off, as far as single farm households went.

The “corn incident” as it is aptly called, refers to an instance in which the family dog - a Doberman Pinscher named “Bruno” - developed rabies, unbeknownst to the family. Jax and his brothers (ages 15, 17, and 19) stumbled upon the canine after it had killed a stray cat past the fencing. Upon seeing that their beloved pet had gone rabid, the three bolted in different directions through the family cornfield. The dog alternated between the three, causing a warped ironic twist on the game of cat and mouse - in which Jax had to hide from the beloved family dog-turned rabid mongrel, attempting to stifle his breathing over the sound of his pounding heart. For him, few things would terrify him more afterwards.

Though their father was able to regrettably put the dog down with relative ease once his boys eventually scampered out of the vegetative maze, the feeling of helplessness in the thick underbrush of the cornstalks never truly left Jax. Perhaps he developed a fear of mazes, rather than corn; but he never did go back into the cornfield again, much to the teasing of his brothers and chagrin of his folks, who were from then on one pair of hands short on that chore.

[morgana-ren]

Mate, if you unironically say things like 'corn' instead of porn, 'spicy time' or 'smex' instead of sex, or anything like 'unalive' on here, you're probably too young or emotionally immature to be engaging in any sort of content or conversations around those topics.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

The most terrifying creature of all

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[omppupiiras]

the kostopitsi ask implies the existence of regular sized Bojan holding cornpea Kä 🥺

i think bojan likes his new little friend <3