Author: Jeremy Cherfas

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Micro, mini, what’s the difference?

511Anbszh4L. Ss500 -1 Now, I know I’m a pedant, and biased, but for me, micro has always been smaller than mini. Cars, skirts, whatever; micro is smaller than mini. It’s, like, a rule. So when our friends at the Global Facilitation Unit sent flyers for a book called “Ecological Implications of Minilivestock: Potential Of Insects, Rodents, Frogs And Snails”, I was puzzled. Insects, frogs and rodents aren’t mini, they’re distinctly micro. Capybara and beaver are probably mini-rodents, but the rest are micro too. The reason, I guess, is that the term “microlivestock” had already been snaffled, by “Microlivestock: Little-Known Small Animals With a Promising Economic Future”, a wonderful book that I had the pleasure of reading, and writing about, when it came out in 1991. Except that BEDIM, the Bureau for Exchange and Distribution of Information on Minilivestock, that is responsible for this book, was “created circa 1990”. My brain aches just thinking about it.

Anyway, what you call them is besides the point. Small animals make big sense. They eat things big animals don’t. They are much more productive per unit area, and probably per unit food too. They’re nutritious, especially for people who cannot afford to eat macrolivestock. Ecological Implications of Minilivestock is not brand, spanking new, but then neither is the idea of eating insects. Indeed, the editor sent the information to the GFU in response to a tiny article here about a Kenyan researcher who was promoting insects as human food. As a contribution to broadening the biodiversity of productions systems and diets, we are happy to give it some attention.

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Descendant from a Tangled Bank

Welcome to anyone sent here by the estimable Derwin Darwin II’s time-travelling Tangled Bank blog carnival. In addition to the ag-ec posts we wanted people to see and comment on, he’s individuated a few posts that might be of wider interest to the community here. First off, Larry Moran’s two-part series on penicillin resistance: before 1960 and after 1960. I’m never too sure whether to delight in the diversity of useful organisms that produce antibiotics, or tremble at the waste of bacterial (and not just bacterial) sensitivity that intensive and simple agriculture causes.

There’s a questionable rant about rice engineered to express cholera antigens from S.A. Smith.

Thinkevolution.net has a personal take on the bee shortage and colony collapse disorder. Her dad is a beekeeper.

And the chicken — a species close to my heart — gets a good going over at Matt’s Behavioral Ecology Blog.

Thanks to Greg Laden for giving Derwin Darwin II the space to blog.

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Namibia examines Access and Benefit Sharing

A meeting in Windhoek, Namibia, is bringing together private sector and government in an effort to develop legislation and practices governing biotrade and bioprospecting, according to an article in allAfrica.com. Namibia is currently drafting a bill on Access to Genetic Resources and Traditional Knowledge.

According to the report, the private sector is unwilling to stand up and announce a clear approach to ABS.

“They are averse to any negative publicity and believe that prior to any such event it is essential for them to have a clear position and approach to benefit sharing, and for many this is still work in progress,” said Jonathan Laundrey, New Business Manager of Phyto Trade Africa.

The focus on medicinal products, where “benefits” can indeed be very large, is not surprising as Namibia is the primary source of Devil’s Claw, Harpagophytum procumbens, a therapy for inflammation — notably arthritis — and other ailments. The value of exports is estimated at N$10 million a year. That’s “only” US $140,000, but in a country where more than a third of the people live on less than a dollar a day, a bigger share would probably help. An old press release from WHO suggests that organic, sustainable Devil’s Claw is the way forward, but enforcing that requires more than a bill on ABS.

Later … I’ve done a little more digging, and discovered a study published at the end of 2006 that has this to say on the value of Devil’s Claw:

In answer to the question of whether Devil’s Claw is fairly traded analysis of the value chain indicated that harvesters receive only 1.1% of the final consumer price of the active ingredient of Devil’s Claw. Of the final shelf­value, only 7% is retained within the range states, a disappointingly low figure.

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Pea project, possibly

There’s another attempt to involve schoolchildren in agricultural biodiversity at a site called GeBaPro — Gene Bank Projects. Like one we linked to a while ago, this is also about peas and is also supported by Het Hof van Eden (whose site seems to be undergoing a rebirth). Maybe they are two aspects of but a single project?

The idea is terrific. Get children interested in diversity using a simple subject, of great historical interest, and with all sorts of ramifications that good teachers could use to range widely across almost any curriculum. Link classrooms in Europe with counterparts in Thailand and Bolivia, for example. But — and I hate to be a worry-wart — there just doesn’t seem to be any follow-up. So what’s up? Lack of support? Lack of schools? Lack of something, that’s for sure. If I can help in any way, I’d be happy to, but it is impossible to know what to do for the best.

I suppose they could also try this: “The door is now open for everyone to participate in conservation with this simple activity called e-Conservation. You are invited to participate and to innovate on the content into your area of concern.”