Farmer McGregor
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3rd paragraph from the end, farmable bug:
@Bishko says:
“The chicken needs more protein in their feed than leaves them in the egg. The same with bugs. There is no miracle process where bugs generate protein, fat, sugar or any other nutrient without ingesting it first.”
First sentence absolutely correct. Second one not so correct. It is not the higher life form that generates protein etc., it is the bacteria and other microscopic life forms that do this work. Certain families of these ultra-tiny critters can, and do, reconfigure molecules like cellulose into more complex nutrients.My cows pulverize large volumes of plant tissues then rapidly ferment them through massive bacterial action (that is what fermentation is) in their rumen stomach (the bacteria at work there are collectively referred as ‘the rumen’). The rumen reconfigure the plant tissue molecules into the various lipids and amino acids (building blocks of fats and proteins). The cow then digests the massive volumes of dead bacteria bodies to extract those and other materials for making milk and meat. See A Cow’s Digestive System
Incidentally, this is why humans generally do not thrive on a plant-based diet. We simply lack the facilities (large multi-stomach system) to derive adequate nutrition from plants without giving very special attention to concentrated fats and proteins.
It is bacteria that are essential for the production of fatty and amino acids, carbohydrates, and vitamins (especially the B-complex vits) from simpler molecules. This process occurs within all higher life forms, including ourselves, which is why robust health is tied directly to the quality and health of our gut biome. An insect’s digestive tract is the same in this regard which is why they can convert even ‘very dead’ plant matter (compost) into the building blocks needed for their own growth and reproduction.
Bacteria and fungi are alchemists that can even do elemental transmutation under the right conditions.Insects are actually significantly more efficient at converting organic matter into proteins than conventional livestock. The limitation to this is that of scale. A 1500 pound cow is much more resilient to environmental changes and easier to manage, thus far less precarious than 1500 pounds of insect larvae and their breeding adults. Those bugs can’t give me 6 gallons of marvelous milk every day. Milk, cream, butter, yogurt, cheese… by chewing on the grass that grows all around me.
Here is a ‘farmable’ bug, the https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKgg_kncASY. Consider scaling this up to produce tonnage, which is what would be necessary to be of any value.
I have toyed with ‘farming’ mealworms (the larvae of the Darkling Beetle) since they are indigenous and spontaneously appear in the litter that accumulates in the bottom of my chicken coop (I use the ‘deep litter’ method of manure management using high-carbon materials like dry tree leaves, straw, and wood shavings to capture and dry the chicken droppings. This ends up being composted or tilled directly into vegetable growing beds in the fall. Hello Dr. John Day!). Since the mealworms can thrive on old chicken manure, it makes sense to try to use them to convert that manure back into fats and proteins for the chickens. Closed loop!
‘Farming’ insects, especially on waste biomass, makes far more sense as feed for livestock, especially chickens, than for human food. Insects can be very effective vectors for various pathogens, parasites, etc., which cannot survive a chicken’s “hot” gut. Insects are, after all, a chicken’s most natural and preferred food.
@wdt from yesterday: Late comment 07/20/22
As a beekeeper, I gotta say WOW! The glass ceiling idea is brilliant! The usual treatment for hive robbing is to so restrict the size of the entrance to the hive-being-robbed that the guard bees therein have a fighting chance of repelling the robbers.
Thanks for this.
@Antidote “Re: the Cat 994H fuel burn. Not true. Maybe 1800 liters/hr. Not gallons. Still a lot and we get the point.”
It doesn’t say 1800 gallons per hour, but over a 12 hour shift. That’s 150 gallons per hour which is still an exaggeration according to the Cat Performance Handbook chart to which you refer. The chart says 994H fuel consumption can be as high as 52 gallons per hour under heavy usage.
52 gallons per hour doesn’t surprise me; my little 3-cylinder Kubota easily sucks down well over a gallon an hour under ‘heavy’ usage (heavy for it, that is). 50 gallons is a LOT of diesel, currently worth over $300 at the local retail station. Very likely there is more energy embedded in the manufacture of those batteries than they will ever “save” during their usable life
Should have just burned the diesel fuel in the car rather than the big-ass loader.
@zerosum — “The elites believe that they will be able to escape the kill zone of an atomic blast/energy shortfall/failing distribution network/food shortfall/pandemic/etc and survive in the ruins of the remaining civilization.”
Well said, sir. Very well said
It does seem as if they are exactly that delusionally short-sighted. Perhaps that’s what is behind the “you will own nothing and you will be happy” schtick: the ruling elites will be served and provided for by those of us serfs (slaves) which they allow to remain alive. Hasn’t that been their plan through the entire recorded history of “civilization”?@Veracious Poet “What will it take for the lowly, insect-like “electorate” to realize, en masse, that ALL of the insanity, maiming, death & destruction is ultimately THEIR FAULT...”
Typical of societal collapses it requires that the entire generation of pampered losers (most of current populace) simply die out over time. The subsequent generations — those which survive — will grow up in the midst of the resulting chaos and hardship so will resultingly be tough and resilient unlike their pathetic forebears. It is cyclical. The current crop are mostly doomed since they will never get their shit together enough to put together a cohesive society or operate a legitimate government.
Think: Dark Ages before Renaissance.
@boilingfrog “…Granola Shotgun – where’s Johnny now?!”
Been wondering that myself. Sure hope he’s okay.@John Day: “Grow vegetables. Be a neighbor. Ride your bike. Store some food.”
@TAE Summary: ” Store a neighbor. Ride some food. Grow a bike. Be a vegetable.”
–Also Priceless!Pablo Picasso Visage 1928
What more can you say about that which is basically a pencil sketch, except: WOW!
re: Pfizer being ‘delisted’
Can someone please help me understand this:
Pfizer’s stock has not been removed — AP
and
Pfizer stock up 1.85% March 17 2022
(I sure hope I did this correctly)
Thanks in advance.Per DBS’s wife at comment 103303:
“… Americans are now getting back what they’ve been dishing out for hundreds of years . . . they’re learning what it feels like to have hostile psychopaths loyal to foreign interests installed by foreign powers as their puppet government.”Wow. Stunningly brilliant.
“Ilargi’s comment section has devolved into personal bull horns for those with many words and nothing to say or add to this blog…
It is one reason I rarely comment any longer…” –@v. arnoldGotta chime in on this: I have come to greatly value the commentariat on this site for various reasons. They are informed, inciteful, and often highly entertaining. My little homestead suffers a certain amount of neglect due to the time I waste (?) keeping up on TAE. I know of no other forum as valuable as this.
My deepest thanks to Raul for all he does. Secondly to the various folks here: Dr. D., Dr. John Day, the other doctor, bosco, Germ (who’s offerings are priceless), TDK, VP, etc. (failure to mention any others is not intended as a snub in any way). I wish many of you were my neighbors where I could pursue actual personal relationships with you.
Of course, there’s that ‘deflate’ thing that happens here; I quickly scroll past its/his/her/their posts. Not. Interested.
p.s. to Dr. John Day: I cannot convey the sense of respect I have for you. I would love to talk homesteading with you since I have a fair amount of experience and some ideas I think you would find valuable.
Okay, just can’t resist weighing in on this having seen numerous references to Revelation chapter 18 (the fall of Babylon The Great, the global economic system), which TAE’s cool paraphrase is apparently based upon. Thanks, TAE; another home run.
Verse 23 (King James Version) contains the following: “…your merchants were the great men of the earth, for by your sorcery all the nations were deceived.” Restating this in more modern language (as you might find in newer translations, especially the Amplified Bible): “…the powerful men of the world were the businessmen, and by their sorcery the whole world was deceived and controlled.”
Now for the key point here: the word translated “sorcery” is the Greek word “Pharmakeia” which is obviously the root of “Pharmacy” or “Pharmaceutical”. Lexicons translate it to something like “enchanting with the use of drugs or potions”. The KJV translators used ‘sorcery’ because the main users of potions during their era tended to be the witches, sorcerers, herbalists, etc. Later translations stuck with ‘sorcery’ for the simple lack of anything better to do with ‘pharmakeia’ — until today.
Now it makes a lot more sense.
p.s. Many thanks to RIM, and kudos to the fine commenters here. You all have expanded my world.
So why did the chicken cross the road?
Years ago we believed it was because the chicken was stapled to a punk rocker.
But a recent chicken interview has revealed that it was simply that she heard that there was some guy over there laying bricks and just had to see that for herself.Loved how TDK explained why he misspelled “d i r t e e b o m m” by spelling it correctly.
@TAE Summary: You are simply awesome.
You have to click through the warnings…
Not really willing to create a new online identity just to watch a U-Tube vid.
Anyone willing to do a ‘cliffs notes’ version?
Hello TAE Summary, where are you? (Your notes are hysterical, btw)I want you all to know I frikken love yas all and wish you the best it is a very unusual point in human history with a great deal of potential carnage on the horizon…
Well said, Oxy. I feel the same way. Thanks.
@madamski from yesterday:
That shut-mouth military claim is an example of why I disbelieve your assertion. MSM being quiet is one thing…
Might I suggest you watch video clip posted above at comment #79924.
Firstly, countless thanks to Ilargi for providing this wonderful site, and to @Germ and other commenters for their contributions. Priceless.
Secondly: Peter & Gordon — Lady Godiva, 1966.
A must listen.@madamski
Good to know you’re still lurking out there…!“Enjoyed the eggplant life cycle…but they missed a step. Eggplant seeds won’t germinate when simply excised from the fruit that way. They have to be fermented for a few days in order to germinate.”
Absolutely correct. What immediately crossed my mind watching the little proto-seed being plucked from the immature fruit was “that seed is not mature enough to be viable”. Oh well, the idea is great and the video is spectacular.
“… that wanking rodent Schiff…” — Priceless!!
@Basseterre Kitona: “I’ve been trying to post this for days but it keeps getting rejected by censors”.
Thought you might like to know that I have been seeing these posts with the same two links for several days running, two posts today. You seem to be getting through okay. Good articles, BTW.I really liked this BBB article:
ocasio-cortez-claims-border-patrol-turned-her-into-a-newt
“She got better”.@madamski
Brilliant discussion. “The weather disruption will go on for many many decades, long after we’ve run out of fossil energy, and will continue to place overwhelming survival pressure on us in a mostly random and unpredictable way.” Agreed. Hence my use of the phrase “over the long term”.My grandkids will suffer this far more than myself; I expect to experience the slow-motion train wreck of industrial society breaking down around me — I already see this in subtle ways that very few people comprehend, present company excluded of course! (The $hite is hitting the fan in dribbles — if you watch closely you will see the color of the walls slowly changing.) My endeavor is to provide something of a refuge for my offspring in the years to come.
Interesting that John Day and Michael Reid have been discussing wood stoves; I have been shopping wood cook stoves and will be ordering a Kitchen Queen in the next few days.
@madamski from yesterday: I certainly would not argue that climate change poses a significant problem to humanity, especially over the long term. It is my opinion that resource depletion — which includes potential economic collapse halting industrial production and crippling the fossil fuel industry — is a larger and more imminent problem.
Your response yesterday was all very well said. I particularly liked this: “James Kuntsler is weird about many things but he is right about this: abandon modernity while you still can…” Years ago I adopted an operative motto from the Archdruid: “Collapse now and avoid the rush”.
@madamski: “…the dire implications of Peak Oil are very close at hand”
A double Amen to that. I often hear it said or written something to the effect that “climate change presents the greatest threat and challenge to humanity”. I disagree; resource depletion is a much larger problem — predicament, actually. Problems have solutions…We will adapt to climate change. Yes, there will be migrations and areas with more severe effects, but the collapse of our industrial way of life would destroy far more lives than will rising sea levels. Without petro-agriculture, famine would be unavoidable in most of the ‘developed’ nations. For the time being, I’m glad for diesel powered hay harvesting equipment, but I am also stocking up on high quality scythes.
@zerosum: Thanks for the “Heavy Snowfall” links. I have to chuckle though, that most of the pics look like they got maybe an inch or two of snow (including the pic of the Acropolis) which we would call a ‘dusting’; ‘heavy’ snowfall is a foot or more. Of course, when you’re not used to it or prepared for such you get disasters like that 100+ vehicle pileup in Texas last week. Snow Sissies!
re: yesterday’s inquiry to you about re-posting the same links from the day’s Debt Rattle.
I meant no offense, I was just curious to know if there was some kind of big-picture reason for re-posting them that I was not aware of, like maybe producing ping-backs or other means of widening the audience by distributing them beyond TAE’s readership (who obviously have already seen those articles). That’s all. New content like you’ve provided today — Marvelous!@zerosum: Just curious here, I observe that you post a comment each day which reiterates some of the articles with links and teaser text of some of the very articles from this day’s Debt Rattle. What’s that about — Department of Redundancy Department?
@kultsommer: I cannot locate “The Office Space” movie you recommend. A link, perhaps?@my parents said know: A second on that “hope John and Jenny are alright”.
Here in Colorado we are finally pulling out of a week of sub-zero’s. Yesterday my milking machine froze up during the process.“Do a search for “post not showing up” – 230,000,000 Results” –zerosum
“A search where” –R.I.M.FWIW, I have had comments on this very site (as well as others) that I could not get to post. Or they appeared to me to have posted, but were gone the next day. These were not scurrilous or offensive but intended as constructive contributions to the conversational thread which I cannot imagine needed to be deleted by the moderator. I have quit trying to comment because of this (until right now — we will see what happens).
re: Houses Of Parliament, Sunset: Very surreal; coal smoke sure played hell with the London skyline.
@Raul et al: This may be too little too late, but thought y’all might be interested.
The Italian Job: Explosive New Testimony on Dominion Election Fraud
And
Maria Zack Italy did it – Arturo Delia Admits to steal the USA elections!Cheers,
Greg
