Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog
Agrobiodiversity is crops, livestock, foodways, microbes, pollinators, wild relatives …
All science, some of the time.
Maybe you weren’t tempted by the Nibble of caterpillar mushroom we served up a week ago. Today the Guardian gives you another bite at the cherry, as it were.
[T]he value of Yartsa Gunbu has increased more than ninefold since 1997, creating what mycologist Daniel Winkler calls a “globally unique rural fungal economy” on the Tibetan Plateau.
It has everything, this story — poor people, over-exploitation, lack of diversity, government meddling — and the report includes some great photographs. Is anyone, though working to cultivate or domesticate the Summer Grass Winter Worm?
Oh, and here’s some science again. And our post from three years ago. 1
The wait is over. Rachel Laudan’s talk at Postopolis is now available in two versions. Rachel herself carries a transcript of her talk, with some photos. And Nicola over at Edible Geography has the same transcript with different photos and a bit more by way of introduction. 2
There is so much content there that I hardly know what to say, except that I am in awe of the research skills and basic understanding of the problem. The basic point is that “without food energy, a city is nothing”. For most people and most of history, that energy came from grains: about a kilo per person per day. And the consequences of that … go read!