The Rai3 TV programme Geo&Geo had a great little piece last night on AIRPA, which stands for Allevatrici Italiane Razze Pregiate Avicole. That translates as Italian Rearers of Esteemed Breeds of Fowl. But the word for “rearers” is in the feminine form, which means the society is open to women only. The rationale for this is as follows, according to the website: “le donne cercano di vedere le cose dal punto di vista dell’animale, applicano un allevamento compassionevole, solidarietà , maggiore delicatezza.” That is, women try to see things more from the point of view of the animal, and are more compassionate and delicate towards them. That was certainly obvious from the interviews in the programme. Anyway, if you’re interested in a list of fowl breeds in Italy, here it is.
Meat is murder
Murder to produce sustainably, that is. And here are three stories to prove it. In the arid West of the US, overgrazing has been stripping away the ground cover, and the soil, for decades. Some enterprising ranchers have finally seen the light, however, and are experimenting with how they graze cattle, moving their herds more, giving the vegetation time to bounce back, mimicking the behaviour of the mobile herbivores of the African savannas. But the jury is still out on whether it works, whether “sustainable ranching” is just the oxymoron many environmentalists have always said it is. Meanwhile, in Tibet, climate change is drying up streams. Shepherds have to go twice as far to take their flocks to water. Farmers have to dig twice as far down to strike water in their wells. And finally, all over the world, frogs are being driven to extinction because of our taste for their legs. It’s enough to drive one to vegetarianism.
Leisa blogs!
E-LEISA is a quarterly newsletter that carries highlights from the global edition of LEISA Magazine and keeps you in touch with the LEISA Network.
And very interesting it is too: we’ve linked to it in the past. Well, LEISA now also has a blog. Been going a couple of months, and they have linked to us, and left us a nice comment, so we’ll repay the compliment.
A post from a few days ago discusses the importance of photographs “in communicating innovations and best practices in agricultural development.” We blogged a couple of days ago about how photos can be used to identify agrobiodiversity. ((Though some people also get it wrong.)) It turns out “DFID’s Research Into Use Programme (RIU) has published a Field Guide to Photography, produced by SCRIPTORIA Communications.” Looks excellent.
Living Labs videos online
Television for Education-Asia Pacific (TVEAP) has a series of five-minute videos on YouTube highlighting the work of the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food in some of the more important river basins of the world:
With water scarcity emerging as a global concern, we simply cannot continue the water-intense methods of the past. Yet, as human numbers increase, more food needs to be produced with the same — or shrinking — land. This calls for smarter, thriftier ways of using freshwater and increasing water’s productivity in agriculture, without damaging the environment, or undermining food security, jobs or health.
Nibbles: Banana, Pigs, Bees, Wiki, Cat, Award, Genomics
- Banana going extinct. Again.
- Pigs are good weedkillers.
- Bee bailout in the UK.
- India has an agricultural Wikipedia. With a blog. Via.
- Do you know this cat?
- SEED 2009 Awards for entrepreneurs. Found at the LEISA blog.
- TED talk on building better wines through genomics.