wolfyvegan

If Iceland can grow bananas, then oil palms don't seem like much of a stretch. But whether they are grown outdoors in the lowland tropics or in a greenhouse somewhere else, that's land that cannot be native forest. At least in the tropics, it's possible to implement an agroforestry system that includes both oil palms and native trees, but in a greenhouse somewhere cold... nope. Even if the yield would be greater than that of more cold-tolerant oil crops, more energy would be needed for heating in the winter, so intuitively, it doesn't seem practical except where there would be large amounts of "waste" heat anyway, like near geothermal vents or power plants.

Fortunately, palm oil is not essential for nutrition, and many industrial applications could use (e.g.) hemp oil if palm oil is not available, so it's not necessary to increase production of palm oil. About half of world production goes to "livestock" feed anyway.

Solving world hunger, improving banana access... In practice, it's largely the same thing. But yeah, if there were crops that grew well year-round in Iceland, then that would be great. But if that were the case, then they probably wouldn't be building geothermal banana greenhouses in the first place.

When asked why he doesn’t irrigate his crops to increase yields, Dr. Johnson simply replies: “Well, then what would we pray for?” Hopi farming is a testament to his faith. And faith is tied directly to water. That’s what makes Hopi agriculture so resilient–it’s faith-based. This means it can withstand droughts, seasons with minimal growth, and the cycles of life. It's important to Dr. Johnson to continue this practice, and part of that practice means not bringing man-made lines to irrigate crops. Hopi seeds, or what he refers to as “hardy” seeds, would not know what to do with all the extra water. They have been adapted to grow within an unmanipulated environment—a quintessential trait of Hopi farming: raising crops to fit the environment, rather than manipulating the environment to fit the crops.

I'm all for rational and scientific approaches to agriculture and to engineering problems in general, but these faith-based farmers who have learnt to grow and eat the crops that do well in their environment make the people growing bananas in Iceland look pretty foolish. Imagine what could be achieved with a scientific approach to working with natural systems instead of trying to overcome them. (And imagine what could be achieved if those banana growers in Iceland simply moved to the tropics.)

a berry pie without any sugar but what’s already in the berries shouldn’t be too bad.

Wolves have been observed to subsist on almost exclusively blueberries during the height of the season in Yellowstone, so I'd say the glyphosate residue in the flour is much more of a risk than whatever fruit is in the middle.

Ah. I thought that you were implying that the post was off-topic. Never mind.

And I think that information about a possible neurological basis for the dysfunction that allows for mass insanity to take hold in the first place is relevant, no?

THIS is the actual definition of Veganism, directly from the people who coined the term:

That definition is from 1988, so it's questionable whether it came "directly from the people who coined the term" in 1944. Here is a re-publication of the 1951 Leslie Cross definition:

“The object of the Society shall be to end the exploitation of animals by man” and “The word veganism shall mean the doctrine that man should live without exploiting animals.”

Allegedly someone read The World Peace Diet (by Will Tuttle) to Donald Watson on his deathbed, and Donald Watson said that the book encompassed everything that he intended when he founded the Vegan Society. Make of that what you will.

Probably 'Silk', AKA Latundan, from the Philippines.

While it's important to recognise the gravity of the problem, it's also important to recognise concrete steps that can be taken to address it, and this article doesn't really go into that. For example, to stop the Amazon deforestation and burning, it is necessary to both stop the "global appetite for burgers" and shift to reforestation and sustainable decentralised food production. This is one example of people trying to do that, but such projects need to scale up massively in order to have an impact on such large problems as climate change.

Not all, but yes, some components are inevitably lost in the drying process. There's a reason that dried fruit is often treated with sulphur dioxide as a preservative. Of course, preserving the colour doesn't prevent the loss of large amounts of essential nutrients like vitamin C. Fresh is best whenever possible.

I haven't run the numbers, but your assessment seems about right. The lower the humidity, the greater the potential for evaporative cooling, and the higher the max tolerable temperature. No reason to avoid moving to the tropics anytime soon.

"Non-native grass removal" indeed. Life would be so much easier if people didn't plant grass in the first place!