Drop spindle with wool via Wikimedia
Sheep farmer here, raising pedigree Shetlands for fleece quality ... Rhedyn comments in the post on how synthetic textiles made from plastic took over the fashion industry. Wow, there is so much fascinating info in this thread! If you have an interest in fashion, textiles, environment, design, climate, farming ... take a look. Plus Nibbly Fang with more info and some great book recs at the end.
Photo by Tom Fisk
kliuless has an in-depth post on "the move by national governments, financial investors and private security forces to snap up food and water resources." Robber barons in the food system.
Les blés by _.Yann Cœuru ._ (cc by)
There's something called "the resource curse," or resource trap ... Eyebrows McGee with a fascinating bit of musing on Russia and Ukraine and the hinterlands and yeoman farmers, and resource extraction, wealth concentration, state benefits, education, and how they are bound together ... and why all this might be more important than usual right now. Confused? You won't be!
Chocolat de Bonnat. Côte d'Ivoire by EverJean (cc by)
I work in southwestern Cote d'Ivoire, just on the border of Cote d'Ivoire and Liberia. The men I employ are largely cocoa farmers, when they're not in the forest taking complex observational data on primate behavior and ecology.
ChuraChura responds to, and takes some issue with, a video of Ivorian cacao farmers tasting chocolate for the first time, plus gives a larger picture of the day-to-day reality of the tough economics of farming in the region.
Cucumbers by karenandbrademerson (cc by)
It's not greed at play here or lack of general desire to grow accessible local, quality, organic food for everyone. It's sheer economics both internally and externally. It's hard to convince someone that it's better to sell a cucumber for 50 cents when there is someone out there that will pay 2 dollars and if they grow polka dot cucumbers in the same space someone will pay 4 dollars for it. For many growers it's choice between having good food on their own tables and someone elses.
MeFite Jalliah on why being a farmer and wanting to provide food for low income folks is challenging.
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