FERN’s Friday Feed: An ode to the greasy spoon
Welcome to FERN’s Friday Feed (#FFF), where we share the stories from this week that made us stop and think.
Cormac McCarthy loves a good diner
The New York Times
“I lived in New Orleans for a period recently, and McCarthy brought the city back to me,” writes Dwight Garner. “His protagonist, Bobby Western, spends a lot of time in its bars, including the Old Absinthe House and the now-defunct Seven Seas. He reads his newspapers and takes his coffee, presumably with chicory, at Café Du Monde. He eats at old-school fine-dining establishments such as Galatoire’s and Arnaud’s, but unless someone else is paying, he generally measures out his life in hamburgers and red beans and rice and pie.He emphasizes the importance of filthy kitchens. ‘You cant get a decent cheeseburger in a clean restaurant,’ he says. ‘Once they start sweeping the floor and washing the dishes with soap it’s pretty much over.’”
The promise and politics of rewilding India
The New Yorker
“India, like much of the rest of the world, is in ecological tumult. Between 1880 and 2013, some forty per cent of its forest cover disappeared. It has lost a third of its wetlands in the past few decades, and a third of its grasslands in just a ten-year span. A fifth of its tree species may be threatened with extinction,” writes Dorothy Wickenden. “[Pradip] Krishen’s work has emerged as a showcase for restoring biodiversity to ravaged places—a practice known as ecological restoration, or, more colloquially, ‘rewilding.’ It is based not on industrial-scale quick-fix planting projects but on a near-fanatical attunement to the specifics of local ecosystems and the livelihoods of their people. Rewilders strive to undo some of the environmental damage inflicted over the centuries by humans—the most invasive species of all.”
The roots of the U.S.-Mexico conflict over GMO corn
FERN
“Corn, or maize, holds deep cultural significance in Mexico, its recognized birthplace,” writes Lourdes Medrano. “In the early 2000s, the nation’s corn became a cultural flashpoint after traces of genetically modified corn were found in native varieties in rural communities. Such concerns later gave rise to a campaign called ‘Sin maíz, no hay país’ (without corn, there is no country), which lobbies to keep GMOs out of Mexico.” Then, in 2020, “when Mexican President López Obrador mandated the phase-out of GMO corn by 2024, he was in part fulfilling a campaign promise to those opponents. The president vowed to replace GMO corn with ‘sustainable and culturally appropriate’ alternatives.” The decree sparked a trade dispute with the U.S., the source of Mexico’s GMO corn imports. It has yet to be resolved.
Fugitive cows in Quebec
The Wall Street Journal
“A herd of cows is on the run in Quebec. Escaped from a dairy farm, the 20 or so cows have evaded capture for almost five months, dividing people across the French-speaking province and the country,” writes Vipal Monga. “Locals have denounced them as a nuisance and a threat to drivers. Others laud their ‘bovine revolution.’ A senator from Quebec told the Canadian Senate she has ‘boundless admiration for these cows, who have rediscovered their liberty and continue to frolic in the wild.”’
Arctic Alaska’s waterways are turning orangeHigh Country News
“Dozens of once crystal-clear streams and rivers in Arctic Alaska are now running bright orange and cloudy … This otherwise undeveloped landscape now looks as if an industrial mine has been in operation for decades, and scientists want to know why,” writes Emily Schwing. “The prevailing hypothesis is that climate warming is causing underlying permafrost to degrade. That releases sediments rich in iron, and when those sediments hit running water and open air, they oxidize and turn a deep rusty orange color. The oxidation of minerals in the soil may also be making the water more acidic.”
In Fukushima, farmers adapt to a contaminated future
Aeon
“A decade after the 2011 meltdown, the region remains contaminated by industrial pollution. Though attempts at removing pollutants continue, a new realisation has taken hold among many of Fukushima’s farmers: there’s no going back to an uncontaminated way of life,” writes Maxime Polleri. “Rather than giving up, [Atsuo] Tanizaki and other farmers have taken matters into their own hands, embracing novel practices for living alongside toxic pollution. These practices go far beyond traditional ‘farming’. They involve weaving relationships with scientists, starting independent decontamination experiments, piloting projects to create food security, and developing new ways to monitor a changing environment. Among rice fields, orchards and flower beds, novel modes of social organisation are emerging – new ways of living from a future we will one day all reckon with.”