- Goats and seeds help southern Lebanon recover from war. But which breeds, what varieties?
- Dated desert date decides to drop dormancy.
- “Mobile clinics for sick plants.” Nice idea.
- China honours IRRI. Rice idea.
- World Bank economist says increased investment in agricultural research not enough, also need decent roads. Oh, and extension services. Media alerted.
- Crete’s Culinary Sanctuaries.
- “Towards Food Sovereignty” multimedia book etc. published by IIED.
“Discovering Agricultural Biodiversity” DVD review
After we blogged about their DVD “Global Science Encounters: Discovering Agricultural Biodiversity†last February, the people at PhotoSynthesis Productions very kindly sent us a copy. Here’s a teaser. We asked Meg Fowler to give it a onceover, and you can see what she thought of it below. Meg recently graduated high school and will be going to American University in DC to study law or business or somesuch, but she has a keen interest in agrobiodiversity.
Despite the inescapable level of cheesiness in all educational films, the Global Science Encounters DVD on “Discovering Agricultural Biodiversity†is informative and relatively captivating for young people of all interests.
It was an engaging movie that could draw in students of many different hobbies and academic focuses and relate the issues and topics to all of them. Science enthusiasts can appreciate all aspects of the movie, and students with a love for food, cooking, and/or nutrition might enjoy the experiment done in the movie. Also, kids who love nature would be attracted to the section about farming, in which the organic farmer Chaw Chang describes working in the outdoors, and the social sciences are employed in the historical anecdote about hemlock, the poison that killed Socrates, and in aspects of the film that involve raising awareness about the issues and making a difference in society. Finally, in the community project proposed at the end of the film, talents of artists, technicians, and leaders among student groups are all employed. The universal appeal of the DVD make it appropriate for the classroom and other educational settings.
The content presented was also beneficial and informative. The film got into aspects of “biodiversity†that pertained to the value of the many different species of crops and organisms. The film explored the positive aspects of two specific crops, carrots and rice, by describing why they are important in both developed and third-world countries for nutrition and dietary appeal. It also shows students what work is being done currently to promote healthy, organic agriculture and to continue research on different varieties of crops by interviewing two professionals: Chaw Chang, an organic farmer, and Philip Simon, a scientist working with USDA. The only content flaw in the movie pertained to the presentation of the concept of “biodiversity.†It was described in the context of crop-by-crop preservation, but not as much on the level of preserving diversity of varieties within a species. This was touched on in the portion about the different types of carrots, but the movie did not get into the importance of preserving the different varieties of carrots (and other crops), other than for their nutritional value.
Lastly, the DVD’s interactive nature makes it a positive addition to the classroom with access to internet sites and supplementary documents provided. Within the film, itself, the classroom can become involved by choosing the topics from each menu about which they would like to learn; therefore, they are capable of controlling the depth in which they learn about each topic. They can get a brief overview, or choose to also watch the supplemental interviews and short subtopics.
Overall, the Global Science Encounters “Discovering Agricultural Biodiversity†is a useful introductory DVD for students who are first learning about genetic diversity and agriculture.
Nibbles: Migration, Micronutrients, Taste, Kava, News, Data, Ozone, Chillis
- Rats to New Zealand.
- 300 grand grant to develop an iron bullet.
- Yummie, that tomato tastes very umami!
- “When they call their toxic products ‘kava’, they are misusing the word.”
- Subscribe to the Semilla Besada newsletter.
- Gates Foundation helps FAO improve African agricultural statistics. About time someone did.
- How to conserve rare plants.
- As if climate change is not bad enough, there’s also ozone to worry about. Thankfully, Michigan is on it.
- Boffin uses nanotubes to measure chilli hotness. Useful because some don’t like it hot.
Nibbles: IK, Environmental change, Peasants, Sugar, Indians, Ancient wine, Water, Poverty, Food crisis
- Hanging out with farmers. Sounds like fun.
- UNEP maps Africa, then and now.
- Small farms are beautiful?
- How sugar changed everything etc etc.
- “Last week, descendants of the early Pueblo nations returned to plant a summer crop of corn, beans and squash, donating some of their traditional seed.” How cool is that?
- Balisca wine at the root of it all.
- California’s farmers waste water — because they have to.
- University of Leeds to spend GBP2.8 million studying poverty, agriculture and nutrition.
- “We have already lost three-quarters of the genetic diversity of agricultural crops.” Right.
The Filipino roots of mezcal
“Clash of civilizations” is a common rhetorical trope these days. But it is as well to remember that good things can — and often do — happen when cultures come together. A paper just out in GRACE gives an example involving agrobiodiversity. ((Daniel Zizumbo-Villarreal & Patricia Colunga-GarcÃaMarÃn (2008) Early coconut distillation and the origins of mezcal and tequila spirits in west-central Mexico. Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution 55:493-510.)) In it, Daniel Zizumbo Villareal — the doyen of Mexican coconut studies, among other things — and his co-author set out the evidence for the origin of mezcal, the generic name for agave spirits in Mexico. ((So “tequila” is a DOC for the mezcal made from Agave tequilana Weber in the state of Jalisco and others, for example.))
It turns out that this most Mexican of drinks is unknown from pre-Columbian times, although of course the cooked stems and floral peduncles of various species of Agave were used as a carbohydrate source by the ancient populations of what is now western Mexico, and drinks were made from both these and their sap. But, apparently, distillation had to wait until a Filipino community became established in the Colima hills in the 16th century. They were brought over to establish coconut plantations, and started producing coconut spirits, as they had done back home. The practice was eventually outlawed in the early 17th century, and this prohibition, plus increased demand for hard liquor by miners, led to its application to agaves instead, and its rapid spread. The first record of mezcal is from 1619. Mexicans (not to mention other tequila afincionados the world over) have a lot to thank Filipinos for.