The Domesday Book was a medieval census ordered by the King, William the Conqueror – and completed in 1086. This stamp shows that the majority of population (82%) in Britain at that time, the peasants or slaves, worked to produce food. Forests were cleared and plowed by Ox-power.
Illustrations on this series of stamps are nicely made in the manner of Medieval style – I thought the pictures were from the original book, but they weren’t!
15 June 1946, Switzerland National Féte and Found for Citizens design: P. Boesch, engrave: A. Yersin
Crisply printed intaglio stamp ( yes, my favourite type ) depicting cheese making in the 1940s. Nice looking milk pails in the corner of a well cleaned cheese factory ( typically Swiss! ).
Hard cheese such as Parmigiano, has larger carbon footprint than softer cheese such as cottage cheese, by the way.
Today is International Women’s Day – good to know that spotlights are onto remarkable women in various professions.
In addition to that, I would like to think about anonymous women who take care of their families. For example, this woman on an Indian stamp, is carrying milk and produces a variety of food from it – such as yoghurt, ghee, butter and cheese – everyday, throughout her life.
Historically, Oxen and cattle are holy animals for Indians who follow Hinduism, so they don’t eat beef. As a result, the cattle in this stamp are proud producers of milk if people pay respect, knowing they will not be eaten.
On the contrary, the Jewish law of diet says that they must not eat any mammals which not to ruminate. Some people think mammals are too intelligent to eat, and choose to be vegetarian or vegan. And the last and the latest group of people are now choosing to eat less beef than before, because the carbon footprint of keeping them is really high.
1 July 1942, Canada Canadian Farm Scene designers: Douglas and Mary Patrick
It is a familiar landscape of farming – but those cattle were not indigenous. They were brought to the continent by farmers who emigrated from Europe. Where the climate is humid enough for the field to grow wild grass to feed cattle, the carbon footprint is not too high. But when the wild grass does not catch up to recover after being eaten, you have to grow vegetables to feed cattle – that is when sustainable efficiency goes down.
“Feast to Save the Planet” is BBC Horizon program, to check and compare the carbon footprint facts and scored on the environmental impact of each dish on the menu. These researches show us not only that the distance of transport is significant, but also efficiency of food production and the nature of animals and plants we grow.
1 May 1942, Brazil Zebu: 2nd Agriculture and Cattle Show
This stamp celebrated a cattle exhibition. This virtuous looking bull (or cow?) was introduced from India, because those long eared species have more resistance to heat.
76 years on since this stamp, Brazil had the world largest population of cattle in 2018 ( almost the same as the human population ), and soy production to feed livestock there and to export has been expanding greatly in the last 2 years, causing deforestation on a massive scale.
This beautiful and gentle looking bull is from South America – where livestock cattle were brought from Europe. Did they had buffalo before then? In the report of 2018, Argentina has the 7th largest population of cattle in the world.
28 August 1967, Austria Centenary of Ried Fair, Champion Bull design: A. Pilch / engrave: Alfred Nefe
A fresh new year has started. Here on the fringe of London, we are staying in tight lockdown and schools are closed for another 10 days. We hope that the worst is behind of us.
The Eastern zodiac animal of the year is the Ox – “generally referring to cows, bulls, or neutered types of the bovine family, such as common cattle or water buffalo” by wikipedia. In this wide definition, I have a number of stamps on the topic, and the first one is a non-neutered breeding bull.
1975 Mexico
Mexican exports
design: Rafael Davidson
After red wine, my appetite goes to beef – but I think my consumption of beef in recent years has been reduced. This is because of my age, amount of exercises goes down and a little concern to the environmental issue, I guess.
In 1975, beef was one of the main export from Mexico and this is one of my favourite example of definitive stamps in the same format. The following one of shoes – the byproducts of beef, I guess, is modest yet cool.
I met a numbers of young designers from Mexico through the Vitra Design Museum Workshops at Boisbuche and they are almost all female, somehow. All of them are hard-working ladies with bright smile and they form my impression of the country.
In autumn, somehow I want to drink Red wine rather than summery White wine. So, I feel that I am in autumn season, today.
I met a very nice designer/artist couple from Argentina this summer in France – OK in their country the season is now spring, but here in Europe I think about harvest of grapes.
Well designed stamps with rhythmically placed circles, to tell us their passion on wine – I wish to visit in the near future.
This autumn I have been eating a lots of grapes. It seems this is a reaction to lack of wine – as I am in the medical treatments for last two months. Most grapes I eat are from Spain, but it looks grapes were important exporting item of Belgium in 1948.
Although mono coloured and simple design, this stamps has some strong impression for me.
Another set of stamps with unusual shape – they are big, L= 4.4 cm and W= 3.2 cm. They are embossed, as the paper is thicker for self-adhesive type and the back-up layer gives a good impression during the pressing, I guess. They have strong visual impact.
When these unique stamps were made, Sierra Leone was in short time peace, between political disputes.
It is obvious that self-adhesive stamp can made in flexible shapes. This banana stamp is from Tonga, where the world first self-adhesive stamp was issued from. This one is clearly inspired by the commercial stickers which are used for showing the origin of fruits – this is why it is very small, end to end is about 2.5 cm.
I would be very pleased to receive a letter with this stamp from Tonga. They are now exporting a lot of pumpkins to Japan.
30 August 2013, Japan
illustration: Hikaru Hatano
stamp design: Akira Tamaki
One of the recent issues from Japan has arrived and they are carrying a nice evocative smell of Autumn. They are beautifully illustrated and made a lot smaller ( 21.5mm × 25.5mm ) than normal commemorative stamps – I like their fineness although they are self-adhesive.
Here in London we have the beginning of autumn colours, but the weather is already winter… I guess the southern Europe is still in sunshine and people are harvesting for a few more weeks. In Japan there is a saying ‘sky is high and horse will grow fat in autumn’ and in fact I was always gaining some weight in autumn, after the air cools down and my appetite came back.
These illustrated vegetables are dynamic and thankful.
I am not a fan of self-adhesive stamps normally, but for this set it is appropriate and a great joy to have a lots of sticker parts to choose from.
The only one restriction is not to hide the Queen’s silhouette and 1st class value. So, the results are my designs, except Mr. Potato, which was one of the examples by the designer.
In 2010 Finland issued a bad copied version of this series – not as cool as this British original design. What’s going on at the Finnish Post??
Odd shaped vegetables are more attractive than uniform and shiny ones from the supermarket – I have a feeling that many people think in this way, nowadays. Heart warming vegetable stamps from Thailand.
Another African stamp showing Grapefruits – a friend of mine told me that Japan is importing them this season.
Cameroon was a German colony between 1884 – 1922, after then it became a French and British colony. This stamp was issued several years after the country became independent. This design is trying to depart from French and British stamp design heritage – and it is strong as a result.
