In honor of World Food Day, let's start this week with some edible flora and fauna:
"Samoan researchers have developed three new varieties of blight-resistant taro," says the ABC. Traditional Samoan varieties had been wiped out in the blight and these new varieties should ease the shortage.
In Ghana, the BBC reports on the wheat shortage there and how the government is experimenting with a wheat/cassava flour combination. Cassava is both cheap and plentiful in Ghana. The project also hopes to increase profits for participating farmers by USD $190 a year.
The world fishing industry continues to sail in the wrong direction, writes the Economist. "Bad management, inefficiency and overfishing could mean that as much as $50 billion a year is lost from world fisheries, according to a new report published jointly by the World Bank and the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation."
Alaskan beluga whales have been put on the endangered list after failing to recover from "a period of over-harvesting by the region's Native hunters." Local Whale-fil-A franchises are rumored to be converting to McWalrus.
"A Peruvian and a Chinese photographer were announced today as winners of a world photography contest, launched by the United Nations to highlight the potato's key role in agriculture, the economy and world food security. Part of the International Year of the Potato celebrations in 2008, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) awarded first prizes in the contest - called 'Focus on a global food' - to professional photographer Eitan Abramovich, and amateur photographer Xi Huang." - UN News Center
Here's a recipe for acorn flour and here's one ACORN you needn't worry about.
The political stock market continues to be volatile, due to the growing economic crisis, here's my picks:
Gordon Brown: Buy. Brown, PM of England, was the lamest of ducks until his plan to bail out UK banks was widely adopted in EU countries and then in the U.S.
John McCain: Sell. They may not remember the difference between Herbert and J. Edger Hoover anymore, but American voters do seem to be aware of who's been minding the store these past eight years.
Barack Obama: Buy. See above.
Stephen Harper: Hold. Canada's PM (and his Conservative Party) were reelected to a minority government despite the economy.
Robert Mugabe: Sell. World recession hasn't made Zimbabwe any more appealing. Mugabe continues to resist making a power sharing agreement with opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, the probable winner of the recent elections there.
Paul Krugman: Buy. Not only did he call the housing bubble what it was long before most anybody else, he picked up a Noble Prize in economics this week too.
George W. Bush: Sell. He's no Gordon Brown.
Allen Greenspan: Sell. He's gone from Mr. Sparkle to "Mr. Bubble."
Bernanke/Paulson: Hold. The jury is still out, but it's not for a lack of trying.
Levi Stubbs, lead singer of the Four Tops, has died.
I thought cats didn't like car travel? "The former Croatian interior minister Berislav Roncevic's cat clocked up 150,000 km (93,000 miles) on regular chauffeur-driven weekend trips in his owner's official car, local media reported on Thursday."
