Nibbles: Russian ‘rooms, CWFS, Small farmers and their systems, CABI pest maps, Aussie aid, Seed saving pod, Fiji video, CWR conference, Baobab & peanut festivals, Caribbean meets, Irish food security meet, Potty for pots, Salty microbes, Domesticated stomata, Bayer in Hyderabad

Normal Russians hunt mushrooms.
Committee on World Food Security meets. Not many people hurt.
Normal Indian farmers go back to the future. So, in a different way, do Egyptian farmers. Rikin Gandhi probably knows all about it, and has made videos of it.
I wonder if they’ve told the folks at the new, very agroecological Berkeley sustainable food institute. Though some would suggest they’re on a hiding to nothing there.
You want past and future? Historical records used to predict spread of pests.
When is development aid not development aid?
Cherfas on Cavagnaro on seed saving. Trifecta.
Cool ACIAR videos take me back to my stint in Fiji.
International Conference on Utilization and Conservation of Crop Wild Relative (CWR) and Landrace (LR) Diversity for Crop Improvement. First order of business: think of a new name.
Eden has a Baobab Festival. No word on the factsheet situation. But maybe you’d rather play it safe and try a peanut festival instead? OK, how about Coconuts of the Caribbean? No? Agrotourists of the Caribbean, then?
Our Food. Our Future. Sustainability: The Bottom Line. Their presentations. Tell me if you find any agrobiodiversity in there. Well I dunno, maybe there will be some in the upcoming 2020 Policy Consultation on Building Resilience for Food and Nutrition Security, in 2014.
Can you grow baobabs in a pot, I wonder? Or hydroponics for that matter.
Salt-tolerant bacteria assist rooting in degraded soils. Easier than breeding, I guess.
No consistent effect of domestication on stomata. Worth a try.
Bayer goes to Hyderabad. To be near ICRISAT?

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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