Nibbles: Rice domestication, H5N1, Fisheries, Crop maps, Grafting, Livestock video, Perennial conference, Goat genetic patterns, Satellites, Large seeds, W4RA

Featured Comment: February 6, 2010

Ford reminds us that, if you’re going to feed the world, there’s more to animals than meat and milk:

There are some other potential benefits to using animals, despite their intrinsic inefficiency. They can buffer food supply: build up herds in good years, eat them (and any grain they would have eaten) when crops fail. See “Future Harvest: pesticide-free farming” (or similar title) for other benefits: growing more soil-conserving forages becomes more economic, graze weedy fields rather than building up weed seed bank, etc.

That title? Future Harvest: Pesticide-free Farming (Our Sustainable Future).