Fellowship available on Agrobiodiversity and Climate Change

The Basque Centre for Climate Change (BC3), offers a one year full time research fellowship (with the possibility of extension) with the level of financial support according to the academic and professional profile of the applicant.

There is a need to understand what policies can efficiently and equitably enhance farmers’ livelihoods by increasing their capacity to adapt to climate change. Climate change is expected to increasingly threaten the conservation of wild and domesticated biodiversity, including, agrobiodiversity, as changing local climates place habitats and species at increasing risk of extinction. Agrobiodiversity and associated ecosystem services are key factors that affect the resilience of agroecosystems and food security. However, the largest investments in food production continue to be associated with agricultural innovations to increase the productivity of some major crops and livestock, which are often advocated as crucial for agricultural climate change adaptation. Much less emphasis is being put on local systems that rely on existing natural, human and social capital assets such as agrobiodiversity, traditional knowledge and collective action institutions, such as seed systems, to reduce vulnerability and ensure food security.

Full details if you scroll down on the BC3 website.

Nibbles: Maya nut, ARTCs, Pedal power, Cacao, Conservation, Dietary diversity, Ecosystem services, Climate change, Open access, Training, Drought resistance is futile, Organic farmers speak

What’s gin got to do with the price of corn?

Just caught up with a fascinating NPR interview with Richard Barnett, author of The Book of Gin. What struck me particularly was a section on the origins of the gin boom in England. Barnett tied it to The Glorious Revolution, and William of Orange coming to the throne. William needed to keep the land-owning aristos sweet. One way to do that was to keep the price of grain high, and one way to do that was to deregulate distilling. That, as Barnett explained, opened up a new market for grain, which kept grain prices high, even as it made gin cheaper and cheaper.

So the aristos were presumably happy enough to keep supporting King Billy, and there NPR left it to wander down Gin Lane and beyond.

But the story sounds an awful lot like the contemporary story of mandated maize biofuel. That too opens up a new market that keeps prices high, and, some say, is keeping food prices high too.

So here’s my question: did the demand for grain for distilling have any impact on food prices in the 18th century?

Nibbles: Potatoes, Quinoa, Biofuels, Raisins, Cherokee heirlooms