Dennis vanEngelsdorp, Ph.D., is an apiarist (beekeeper) widely known as a result of a 2008 TED talk, “A Plea for Bees.” He is one of the leading researchers attempting to understand Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) and other factors responsible for the dramatic decline in bee populations. “Imagine if one of every three cows died,” he says. “The National Guard would be out.” Dr. vanEngelsdorp’s research involves a multi-faceted approach to […]
Rowan Jacobsen | The Taste of Place
My neighbor Paul has a field that grows great carrots. That’s a good thing, because Paul makes his living off that field, but it’s also a bit of a surprise. At first glance, you wouldn’t expect it to grow great anything. It looks too high, too cold, and too poor. The soil is little more than ground-up schist. After a rain it looks like old pavement. Only after you’ve lived […]
Cary Fowler | The Future of Food
I’ve been fascinated with crop diversity for about thirty-five years now, ever since I stumbled across a fairly obscure academic article by a guy named Jack Harlan. He described diversity within crops — all the different kinds of wheat and rice and such — as a genetic resource. He said, “This genetic resource,” — and I’ll never forget the words — “stands between us and catastrophic starvation on a scale […]
Nathan Hill | No more mindless goldfish
A myth abounds in many of us, fed to us at an early age and carried with us into adulthood: a goldfish has a three-second memory. This supposed fact has resulted in numerous jokes, memes, and punch lines. It is the common- knowledge gem that any Joe on the street can tell you about our underwater neighbors. The fish brain has become synonymous with poor recollection, the humble, boggly-eyed bowl […]
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