Until Proven Safe

Behold! Edible Geography rises, vampire*-like, from the dead, for today marks the publication of my very first book! Until Proven Safe: The History and Future of Quarantine is co-authored with Geoff Manaugh, whom long-time readers of this blog will recognize as my...

The Taste of Quarantine

IMAGE: Landscapes of Quarantine, a group exhibition at Storefront for Art and Architecture, NYC, from March 10 – April 17, 2010. In this shot, left to right: Thermal Scanner and Body Temperature Alert System, Daniel Perlin, Field Notes from Quarantine, Katie...

Landscapes of Quarantine

IMAGE: Contraband Room, United States Customs and Border Protection, JFK International Airport, Queens, New York. Part of an amazing series by photographer Taryn Simon, this photo shows all the food confiscated from passengers arriving at JFK over a 48 hour period....

The Great Green Saharan Wall, Redux

IMAGE: The Green Barrier at Hassi Bahbah, Algeria, via. Algeria is not a small country – according to Wikipedia, it is one hundred three-and-a-half times the size of Texas – but eighty-five percent of its territory consists of the Sahara desert. In fact, only a thin...

Behavioural Borders

As a curious coda to my previous post, in which Kew’s Plant Health and Quarantine Officer, Sara Redstone, notes the frequent mismatch between biological and political borders and discusses the role of quarantine in creating an artificial biological boundary, I...