New episode: Farming’s Overlords. The top four companies globally control more than 60% of the inputs modern farmers need: machines, seeds, chemicals. That concentration, plus their size, gives them unprecedented power.
A space for mostly short form stuff and responses to things I see elsewhere.
Top Album Artists last week:
1. Ralph Kirkpatrick 35
2. Charlie Haden & Pat Metheny 14
3. Galactic 13
4. Jenny Scheinman 12
5. The Iguanas 12
Eat This Newsletter 268
- Link to a truly thought-provoking essay on Malthus
- Fiction, fact, and myth in rural–urban conflict
- Crop variety names
- Celebrate Passover != Jewish
Read (and subscribe) at https://buttondown.com/jeremycherfas/archive/eat-tn-268-will-the-circle/
Just for fun I went to look at the four sites Jason linked to, the ones he thinks may be of no value. Each asked me to share my information with 119 vendors. I'm not going to do that. And spending on adverts is not going to deliver visitors either.
Always good, and this time, super pleased by the link to a chart of which glue to use when, and how.
Anti-Big Tech Journalism
Tech language does not work. That includes the 'Fediverse'. Campaigns isolated on decentralised networks do not work. By claiming platform 'purity' no one new is learning about these spaces. Build and they will come is not true. Humans are complex things and they need more than four walls to feel at home.
True for almost everyone, not just journalists.
Top Album Artists last week:
1. Willie Nelson 15
2. The Cranberries 13
3. The Little Willies 13
4. Salif Keita 10
5. Jerusalem Quartet 9
Interesting and educational to read about Reilly’s bash script for writing a now post. I’m still in the metaphorical Dark Ages of having a template that I save in the right place under a new name with updated variables.
XKCD on tariffs is actual genius.
https://xkcd.com/3073/
I feel the same, and am now tempted to rename Miscellaneous to Dunno.
Time again for Eat This Newsletter.
- Some things called pepper
- Welsh oats
- Chickens with olives
- Hot potatoes
- Civil Eats’ Food Policy Tracker
Read (and subscribe) at https://buttondown.com/jeremycherfas/archive/etn-267-more-diversity/
Thanks for the introduction to wikiloc.
Might just be me, but Apple’s launchctl seems badly broken, at least for new services. Followed https://www.navidrome.org/docs/installation/macos/ to the letter, and it just doesn’t work. The exactly same command directly from the terminal works perfectly. Cannot figure it out, but it seems I am not alone.
New episode: Quinoa’s Rise and Fall
Between 2007 and 2014 farmers on the altiplano of Peru saw their income from quinoa increase by almost 900%. The boom was followed even more quickly by a bust.
https://eatthispodcast.com/quinoa
Yes:
It is good to share some of the downs as well as the ups or even the plain level-going. I sometimes censor myself from sharing all the joy because I don't want to give the impression that everything is always perfect, but it darn near is, for which I am grateful.
Most people know that Jewish dietary laws forbid pork. A new book asks why the pig — rather than any of the other animals banned by the Hebrew bible — should have become so inextricably bound up with Jewish identity.
https://eatthispodcast.com/pigs
Just wow! https://www.c82.net/natural-colors/
The Natural System of Colours: Recreating Moses Harris’ color wheels from the eighteenth century.
h/t https://anhvn.com/posts/2025/weeknotes-29/
Yes:
Eat This Newsletter, for your delectation.
- 16,000 calories per calorie: isn’t that rather inefficient?
- NuFood: ready for water lentils?
- Marmalade, membrillo: what’s the difference?
And more, at https://buttondown.com/jeremycherfas/archive/etn-265-past-and-future/
I think my problem with Douthat and this essay is that I just don't find myself attracted to systems of belief, any systems of belief. To be a part of life, yes, but no more than a part, and a part with no special talents beyond self-destruction -- which is easier maybe if life eternal beckons.
Is there anything worse than having a post from two years ago highlighted with fine exceprts, and discovering at least one typo?
Question expecting the answer no, as my old Domine used to yell.
Fixed now. Thanks Joe.
I fear this may not work, but I need some webmentions to style in my site redesign, so I am going to reply to a post not quite at random and hope that that shows up. It probably won't, which will relegate styling webmentions to the live site. Heigh ho.
Latest episode: Food facts are not the answer to fear of foods
Charlotte Biltekoff, author of Real Food, Real Facts: Processed Food and the Politics of Knowledge, on how industrial food and real food talk past one another.
https://eatthispodcast.com/real-food
2025-02-15
1 min read
Unfortunately Google was a good one to resurface from this day in 2006, and of course the original inspiration is still up. I played again, and the results were not nearly as interesting or varied as they were all those years ago.
I got over the grave disappointment of Apple’s Books messing my Notes and Highlights for long enough to discover that a solution had been close at hand all along: Calibre!
https://www.jeremycherfas.net/blog/a-farewell-to-books
Grave disappointment. Cleanfeed has removed the ability to record left and right channels from its free tier, and there's no way I can afford €28 a month for separate tracks. I guess I need to rewrite my podcast instructions for guests. Pity, it worked well.
Yes: Can't stay to the end, and looking forward to it.
I bought a pair of “cycling" insoles for my non-cycling shoes (trainers) and on the first two rides, coming up the long hill to home seemed a lot less effort. Can that possibly be the result of the insoles? Or self-delusion? Not just a jump in fitness, I am sure.
Thanks to improved crop varieties, “From 1961 to 2015, global crop output was higher by 226 million metric tons”. Is that a lot?
Eat This Newsletter runs the numbers and is not impressed. Or might just be mistaken. You be the judge.
https://buttondown.com/jeremycherfas/archive/eat-this-newsletter-264-curated/
As I continue to mull over Pixelfed, these suggestions from Matt Haughey make a lot of sense. Will they still do as after I am there? I expect so.
Brian has an interesting approach to inserting microformats from front matter that I could pretty easily emulate in Twig as I do my resign. Need to think through whether it would increase flexibility or tie things down.
Food, folklore and St Brigid
St Brigid’s Day, 1 February, traditionally marks the beginning of spring and the start of the agricultural year. There are special foods and other ritual celebrations, some of which delve in the pagan past.
Listen at https://eatthispodcast.com/brigid
It is too easy to connect the dots. Sugar craving, cheap ultraprocessed calories, cheap food for enslaved sugar workers, the hidden horrors behind plenty, information deficits.
I need a pinboard and some red string.
https://buttondown.com/jeremycherfas/archive/etn-263-connectivity/