- Meat is not murder.
- Agribusiness wants to keep you on your allotment and off their back.
- Britons ignore agribusiness in search of The Good Life.
- Talkfest on adapting West African agriculture to climate change.
- Natural feeding regime produces unhealthier pigs that grow more slowly.
- Yeah but I bet these ones taste better!
A tale of two fruits
The news a few days back that climate change is affecting the quantity and quality of the mango harvest in India was followed today by similar worries about cherries in Italy. I wonder. There’s no real evidence presented that these difficulties are part of a long-term trend. But it would also be interesting to know if different varieties are reacting in different ways. For example, how are the last four remaining trees of the Noor Jahan mango variety coping?
Sorghum endures
How much crop genetic diversity have we lost? At one level, the question is easy to answer: three quarters over the last century. That’s certainly the number that’s most often quoted.
But that doesn’t make it right. In particular, I have it on very good authority that the figure may in fact be traceable back — a la Chinese whispers — to a statement in Fowler & Mooney’s 1990 book Shattering: “As the mid-1970s were reached, three-quarters of Europe’s traditional vegetable seed stood on the verge of extinction.”
Not quite the same thing. Anyway, be that as it may, the existence of a dominant narrative hasn’t stopped people going out into the field and — the horror! — actually collecting data.
Nibbles: Agave, Fruits, Rotation, Potato, Dogs, Banana, Egypt, Sagittaria latifolia, Cooking
- Tequila!
- Fruitipedia.
- Rotation rediscovered.
- Japan potatoes diversify.
- The genetics of dog behaviour.
- Freakonomist pleads for information. Is the banana doomed, or what?
- Ancient Egyptians stored grain and wine.
- 3,600 year old wapato tubers found in Canada. Wawhat?
- Sarko wants UNESCO to protect French cuisine. Yeah because on its own it just doesn’t have a chance.
More energy
And, concidentally or not, a conference on Charcoal and Communities in Africa has just ended in Maputo. There’s been some press coverage, but I can’t find any recommendations etc. online yet.