Bashing George Monbiot for his absurd anti-agricultural stance is a mug’s game in the hands of almost anyone other than Chris Smaje.1 So I skipped quickly past that bit in an otherwise worthwhile piece on the past history and current state of hedges in Britain. There is, apparently, an upsurge i...

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Of course, I sound like a grumpy old man. I am a grumpy old man. But I’m very seriously considering abandoning one of my favorite podcasts, to which I’ve been listening for a very long time. The presenter has possibly the most mellifluous voice of any I listen to, maybe even of all those I don’t l...

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Graph of changes in breastfeeding associated with the February 2022 recall of infant formula

Yesterday’s graph from USDA is really interesting. It shows that the February 2022 recall of formula milk in the US, which compounded the supply chain difficulties of Covid, was associated with a striking increase in the number of infants fully and partially breastfed (and a drop in the number f...

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Yesterday was a perfect early spring day; clear blue skies, warm sunshine. Off to the countryside to visit my friend Bill and help him with his vegetable garden, and while I was doing that I had ample time to think once again about the differences between Italian and British approaches to gardens and, especially, growing food.

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African dwarf frog underwater, holding onto a green stem with one foot

At the end of October last year I adopted a version of the six box to-do list.1 The idea is to create five and only five “focus areas” and to place all tasks into one of them, with a sixth for “the other 5%”. It seemed useful at the start, but less so now. I am officially returning to my version of eat-the-frog-to-get-things-done.

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