Author: Jeremy Cherfas

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Worthy of support?

Global Giving, mentioned yesterday as a possible source of funds, is running a Global Open Challenge: projects have 30 days in which to secure themselves a spot on Global Giving’s roster of projects. And there are 3 days left. So just for fun, I skimmed through 150 projects to find those that are directly connected with agriculture, ignoring some that might be borderline, such as nutrition projects. Here’s the list:

Personally, I wouldn’t support this last one, because it describes Moringa and amaranth as “super-foods”. They’re good, but to pin your hopes for “a long term solution to poverty, malnutrition & food insecurity” on two species — any two species — is to miss the point comprehensively.

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We are not an organization

We’ve had a couple of flattering comments on some obscure pages lately. 1 One asked:

Please, let me know, if your organisation supports our research work.

The first response is that we are not an organisation. Just a couple of guys discussing agricultural biodiversity. With occasional wonderful contributions from our friends. But, hey. Thanks.

The second, possibly much more important response is that no, we don’t support anyone’s research. We can barely support ourselves. We often get asked about support, and all we can do is sympathise with the difficulties researchers face, especially those outside the mainstream. There really isn’t much we can offer.

In the very traditional realm, IFAR has a small grants program that might be a source of funding.

Thinking a bit sideways, it could be worth trying to get something like Global Giving to take a project on board, although pure research is unlikely to make it. I discovered them through a campaign to educate girls, and it seems like they have some really interesting ideas.

Finally, a completely off the wall suggestion that first emerged in our posts about the Plant Genetic Resources Newsletter: Kickstarter. Sure, they say they’re mostly about creativity, but what could be more creative than finding new ways to use agrobiodiversity to solve problems of food and nutrition security?

If you are aware of other possible sources of small grants, why not add them to this post in a (totally legitimate use of a) comment?

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Nibbles: Heat, Pastoralism, Yams, Caimito, Pavlovsk, Beans, Tomatoes, Trees, Grasslands, Rice in LAC, Fossil sunflower, Apples, Fish in Africa

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The Importance of Scientific Collections

The American Institute of Biological Sciences and the Ecological Society of America are among the scientific organizations around the world that have urged the Russian Federation to reconsider the decision to destroy the collections at the Pavlovsk Experiment Station. And they remind us that we do occasionally need to relate our concerns about agricultural biodiversity to wider concerns about biodiversity: it isn’t only our favoured collections that are threatened.

Lack of funds, loss of technically trained staff and inadequate protection against natural disasters, are jeopardizing natural science collections worldwide. For example, in May of this year an accidental fire destroyed roughly 80,000 of the 500,000 venomous snake-and an estimated 450,000 spider and scorpion-specimens at the Butantan Institute in São Paolo, Brazil. The 100-year-old collection featured some rare and extinct species and contributed to the development of numerous vaccines, serums and antivenoms. The building that housed these specimens, including what may have been the largest collection of snakes in the world, lacked fire alarm or sprinkler systems.

“Biological collections, whether living or non-living, are vitally important to humanity,” says Dr. Joseph Travis, president of the American Institute of Biological Sciences. “Natural science collections have provided insights into a wide variety of biological issues and pressing societal problems. These research centers help identify new food sources, develop treatments for disease and suggest how to control invasive pests. Natural science collections belong to the world and cannot be limited by geographic borders.”

Good points, well made.