Category Archives: Food
Goats in Jail
The BBC reports that goats were released from jail in the DR Congo:
The beasts were due to appear in court, charged with being sold illegally by the roadside.
The minister said many police had serious gaps in their knowledge and they would be sent for retraining.
Enforcement of the rules is often a tricky business, but this example is quite funny.
Deputy Justice Minister Claude Nyamugabo said he found the goats just in time during a routine jail visit.
I guess you could say the goats are lucky that the justice system in DR Congo has maintained its checks and balances.
The goats might have been there for another simple reason, such as bribery or corruption, and the “court” story is just an extended joke.
Wolves prefer fishing to hunting
Here is an interesting perspective on food safety from BBC News:
“Selecting benign prey such as salmon makes sense from a safety point of view,” wrote Dr Chris Darimont, from the University of Victoria, BC, and his colleagues in the journal BMC Ecology. “While hunting deer, wolves commonly incur serious and often fatal injuries,” the researchers said, adding that salmon fishing is much less time consuming than tracking deer in the forest. “In addition to safety benefits, we determined that salmon also provides enhanced nutrition over deer, especially in fat and energy.”
Yes, it turns out wolves prefer to fish for food rather than hunt. Makes perfect sense and brings up the question of salmon stock relative to wolf behavior. Perhaps the fish shortages that led to cancellation of the salmon season will also lead wolves towards more risky behavior.
BioDiesel from the wastelands
Wikipedia points out that Jatropha curcas is easy to grow and convert into fuel:
The seeds contain 30% oil [8]that can be processed to produce a high-quality biodiesel fuel, usable in a standard diesel engine. […] Cultivation is uncomplicated. Jatropha curcas can grow in wastelands and grows almost anywhere, even on gravelly, sandy and saline soils. It can thrive on the poorest stony soil and grow in the crevices of rocks. Complete germination is achieved within 9 days.
Again biodiesel presents a major paradigm shift for islands and other remote areas in need of a fuel source.
Oil content varies from 28% to 30% and 94% extraction, one hectare of plantation will give 1.6t (metric tonne) of oil if the soil is average.
This plant is unfit for human consumption as food, requires no pesticides, and it grows even in the desert.