Kenya sugar boondoggle blocked, for now.

A Kenyan court has temporarily halted a US$370 million sugar and biofuels project in a coastal wetland that conservation groups warned would threaten wildlife and local livelihoods.

Via Aguanomics, who noted:

We learn in the update that the sugar company is 20% owned by the Kenyan government. Always nice when your government can sell land to itself to generate cash.

This is going to be a really important decision for the future of Kenya and the future of biofuels everywhere. Can transparency and the rule of law withstand the onslaughts of vested interests?

Fresh Nibbles

A paean to diverse diets is just what we all need.
And another one, from the MIT Technology Review of all places.
Menawhile, there’s only one reference to dietary diversity in the World Bank’s investment framework for nutrition.
Maybe you have to quantify that diversity before you can save it? Now where have I heard that before?
Meanwhile, Europe reports on biodiversity-friendly farming practices. Does that include the biodiversity of the actual crops? Perhaps surprisingly, yes!
You want biodiversity-friendly farming practices? Talk to Indigenous people. The Committee on World Food Security (CFS) has launched an e-consultation on “Preserving, strengthening and promoting Indigenous Peoples’ food and knowledge systems and traditional practices for sustainable food systems.”
There’s diversity in asparagus too.
Genebanks can help with those biodiversity-friendly practices, diverse diets and rops and Indigenous practices.
Even big international genebanks.
Even the Svalbard Global Seed Vault.
But some are in trouble.
Though others are coming back.

Published on November 7, 2024

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