Jeremy Cherfas

March 15, 2011March 15, 2011

Featured: PGR newsletter

Somewhat belatedly (but they have other things on their mind) a message from Vavilov’s institute supporting the rebirth of Plant Genetic Resources newsletter:

Scientists and curators from the N.I.Vavilov Institute fully support this initiative. PGR Newsletter very important valuable publication and source of information for PGR community.

So what’s the story, Theo and Robert? Is no news good news? Let us have an update.

March 14, 2011March 14, 2011

Nibbles: Mead, Treaty, Zoonoses, Flowery margins, Post-doc, Sacred Groves, Posters, Maize in Africa.

Mead, part 4. You can find 1-3 yourselves.
Plant genetic resources key to food security. The Jakarta Post gets it.
Long, complex post from ILRI on zoonoses; diseases that infect people and animals.
What are all the flowers for? The Provincial Agricultural Chamber of East Flanders seeks answers. h/t PAR.
Wanna do a post-doc on Comprehensive modelling of agro-biodiversity in relation to seed exchange networks?
Sacred groves threatened, by Times of India.
Fabulous botanical posters, many featuring useful species, and all useful information. Of course tomatoes are fruits.
I meant to write in detail about how Untapped crop data from Africa predicts corn peril if temperatures rise, but you know, life intervened.

March 11, 2011March 11, 2011

What to call a monoculture if it isn’t a monoculture?

If someone is serious about a critique of modern agriculture, “monoculture” is not the best term to use – particularly if you want to communicate with farmers. The real issue is the difference between “diverse rotations” and “non-diverse rotations.”

Yup, that’s going to work.

Steve Savage offers his interpretation of the word, and how not to use it if you “are being critical of mainstream farming”. As I noted on his blog, I’m not about to do a point-by-point rebuttal. Life’s too short. And language is alive. But if that photograph of “a 700+ year-old farming system in China” is a monoculture, I’m a cantankerous nutcase with a blog to prove it.

March 10, 2011March 10, 2011

Nibbles: Micronutrients, Population, Opium, Nixtamalization, Chocolate, Seed swap, Dog domestication, Meeting, Biofuel failure, Mesquite

“Organic management practices appear to result in elevated levels of grain micronutrient concentration.” By no means the whole story.
Tom too takes The Economist to task.
Afghanistan’s opium growers. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
Nixtamalization for the rest of us. More than you could ever want to know. Rye tortillas!
Chocolate began with leftover beer? Seems unlikely.
Take the fight to the monster’s lair. Swap seeds in Brussels. h/t Patrick.
Dogs or dholes? Yeah I didn’t know what they were either.
There was a workshop on “Seed System and Climate Change” in Bhutan a month ago.
Big biofuel project in Tanzania bites the dust. And the land they “leased,” what happened to that?
Ancient grinding holes. Might mesquite be another edible never domesticated?

March 9, 2011March 9, 2011

Potato seeds or seed potatoes

It’s a curse, knowing (and caring) too much. Last week, we dutifully nibbled a Spanish-language report that seeds from Peru’s Potato Park were on their way to the Bóveda Global de Semillas de Svalbard. The BBC, equally dutifully, seems to have retailed the same story. But hang on. Are those true potato seeds, in which case I’ll just relax and go home? Or are they potato seed tubers, capable of safeguarding actual varieties, rather than merely a diverse sample of potato DNA? The BBC certainly suggests the former, by specifically mentioning one of the varieties by name.

I had always thought that named potato varieties do not breed true from true seed. so if seeds are being stored, then why bang on about varieties? And if it is seed potato tubers, which do preserve variety characteristics, why are they being stored at Svalbard, where they’ll die pretty quickly?

Someone put me out of my misery.

A greater curse is the curse of unreliable technology. This post was supposed to magically appear three weeks ago. It didn’t. I don’t know why. And I was on the road at the time. No wonder it evoked no response …