- Orwell summarizes; ownership, ploughing, crop diversity, livestock.
- Broad spectrum immunisation for plants.
- Turkish agriculture blog.
Help me find a link, please
UPDATE: The internet is a wonderful thing … thanks to Aaron Cummins, I have an answer … SPIN-Farming.
Ok, I admit it, I’ve failed, and I need your help. Some time ago I linked to some folks in the US who offer courses in intensive horticulture, the kind that can make a small urban vegetable farm a profitable enterprise. But now that I want to find them, I can’t, and every search I’ve tried doesn’t reveal any more. Are you those folks? Get in touch. Do you remember who they were? Give me a clue. Please. Thank you.
News from the ‘Tubes
On a quiet Sunday morning, two pieces of internet news that might be of interest. Karl J. Haro von Mogel, ((Congratulations.)) of Inoculated Mind, has launched Biofortified.org, a “group blog on Plant Genetics and Genetic Engineering”. The blog is “devoted to educating the public about genetic engineering, and discussing how it intersects many aspects of our lives,” and I wish them luck. Once upon a time I too thought that education would help people to understand. I no longer do. I think the polarized opinions on genetic engineering owe almost nothing to lack of scientific evidence and everything to lack of thought. But maybe that’s just me.
I don’t recall any huge outcry (only little ones) when genetically engineered human insulin came along and removed the need to rely on pigs. ((Although one has certainly been building; I am not qualified to express a view on this.)) And I don’t suppose there’ll be much of an outcry when genetic engineering delivers something that straightforwardly benefits ordinary people — as opposed to those with a financial or political interest.
The discussions will surely be interesting, but in the meantime, regular readers can imagine what I think of Karl’s explanation for the choice of name:
The name Biofortified comes from biofortification, which is when the bioavailable nutritional content of a food crop is enhanced. Literally, strengthened through biology. Like fortifying foods with vitamins, biofortification through breeding or genetic engineering can allow the plants to produce the nutrients that people need on their own. This can be good for people in industrialized nations, but a boon for developing countries. It is also a topic that several of our authors find personally very interesting!
I’m just going to bite my tongue. You needn’t feel so constrained.
The other piece of news is that Eve Sibley commented that the seed swap mechanism I hoped for is now alive and well at World Food Garden.
The craigslist of seeds — post seeds you have to offer or request a particular rare variety.
I hope it works well. Go, try it, report back here.
Just don’t try it with any GM seeds, deliberately or by accident.
Nibbles: Toms, Virus, Svalbard, CIRAD
- More on those purple tomatoes. And there’s lots more where that came from.
- Virus weakens the response of genes that normally boost defense against pest.
- “Superman had it right.”
- Yeah, but France has genebanks too.
- Dispatches from Terra Madre: “How are you fighting racism in your food community?”
Microbe man
Gary at Muck and Mystery waxes lyrical:
When I walk my fields I entertain fantasy visions of walking on a spongy mass of wriggling, ravenous microbes. It helps that my fields – or at least those I’ve had the management of for a couple of years – are in fact soft and yielding since they are rich in organic matter and living material so that even when bone dry they remind some of walking on a firm mattress.
He sees microbes and moo-cows as co-workers, a view we need to promote to those who see simplification as the only response to challenge. Complexity is almost always best.