For immediate release
Rome, Italy, 22 April 2008
The No. 1 web site for agricultural biodiversity, the Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog, today announced the winners of the first annual agro.agro.biodiver.se competition.
On being told the news by email Miss Hathorn, creator of My Favorite Things, a video tribute to backgarden biodiversity, wrote: “Well, (blush), I don’t know what to say. I want to thank …”
“We think this is as fitting a way to mark Earth Day as any we’ve seen,” said Luigi Guarino, beer enthusiast and co-blogger.
Miss Hathorn, working at her allotment, trumped the multi-million dollar International Rice Research Institute by 23 votes to 6.
“The people have spoken. Who am I to argue, some sort of aging African tyrant?” Robert Hijmans, IRRI researcher, asked rhetorically.
Being a cutting-edge sort of person Miss Hathorn already owned an iPod, the competition’s munificent prize. She asked that the prize money be donated to Association Kokopelli, recently fined for having the temerity to place unregistered crop varieties on the market, thus encouraging agrobiodiversity where it isn’t wanted.
“Kokopelli has no easy way to donate money,” said co-blogger and aesthete Jeremy Cherfas, “so we decided to buy a year’s membership for Miss Hathorn. There was enough left over to get membership for Robert Hijmans, runner up.”
There will almost certainly be a new competition announced soon, according to Cherfas and Guarino.
“We also have something up our sleeves for 22 May, the International Day of Biodiversity,” they said, in unison, “so stay tuned.”