Jeremy Cherfas

February 21, 2013

Simply awesome vegetable poster

Worth way more than a nibble, which is why it is out here. Run, don’t walk, to Popchartlab’s poster which is:

The most extensive mapping of vegetables ever! We have lovingly illustrated and charted over 400 crops, from Root Vegetables like Potatoes and the Prairie Turnip to lesser-known verified veggies like Courgette Flowers and the Ghostbuster Eggplant to the very many vegetables which are, botanically speaking, actually fruits.

Now, how do we persuade them to go global?

February 20, 2013

United colours of Quinoa

Excitement here is mounting as we wait for the UN officially to open the International Year of Quinoa in New York at 10 am EST, in just half an hour. To calm down, I had a quick look at FAO’s own paean to quinoa. Coming fresh to the subject, you could be forgiven for wondering what all the fuss is about.

Jolly farmers ploughing behind stolid oxen, gene-bankers in the cold, scientists in white coats, smiling multicoloured children, uplifting royalty-free music. What’s not to like?

Well, those jolly ploughmen; where are the tractors and disc harrows that other people say are ruining the soil? The gene-bankers, with their 3000 varieties; are they freely available to researchers and safely duplicated elsewhere? The scientists, finding new uses for quinoa byproducts; could that have unintended consequences? And the smiling children; no sign of malnutrition there, are you sure?

Many questions; and there are answers out there. But to do justice to them will take time.

We have all year.

February 20, 2013

Nibbles: Declaration, Students, Grasslands, Organic rice

Fine words from Cordoba: Promising Crops for the XXI Century. Get ’em here.
Got a horticultural problem facing local farmers? Need a US graduate student? Let the Horticulture CRSP Trellis Fund be your matchmaker.
Why conserve grasslands when you could be chasing quick profits in corn and soy?
Texas A&M gets $1M to study organic rice. Would $1million fund side-by-side trials of SRI, organic and paddy?

February 19, 2013February 19, 2013

Nibbles: Rwandan genebank, Quinoa consumption, Pre-Columbian garden, Tomatoes, Aerobic rice, World record potatoes

Today’s new national genebank for food security? Step proudly forward, Rwanda!
Bolivians are eating three times more quinoa. Or maybe three times more Bolivians are eating quinoa.
Growing history in a pre-Columbian English cottage garden.
Bland tomatoes all down to the lack of volatiles.
Daily Kos spreads the Guardian’s gospel of SRI rice; so is aerobic rice a step down that path?
Speaking of which, those Bihari farmers have snagged a world record potato harvest, using organic methods, and a relatively new variety from Indian breeders.

February 18, 2013February 18, 2013

Nibbles: BXW, GMOs, Quinoa, Farm incomes, WIPO, Diverse diets, Agroforestry, Rwanda genebank

Plantwise says you can manage banana xanthomonas wilt; so no need for GMOs?
DG of Bioversity says “adopt transgenic crops carefully and on a case to case basis”.
“You can contribute to the revision of quinoa descriptors”. Is there one for level of threat to indigenous people?
Poor US farmers. “Despite last year’s drought, net farm income in US … will be highest since 1973.” h/t Tom.
“WIPO Instrument on genetic resources and traditional knowledge should reflect developments in international law and policy relating to indigenous peoples.” Course it should.
“[N]otable gains in dietary diversity and increased child health in hundreds of farm communities of Northern Malawi.” Any causal link?
Roger Leakey talks agroforestry.
Rwanda saves seeds.