Author: Luigi Guarino

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Nibbles: Global health journal, Agroecology, Sachs & the MVP, British trees survey, Tunisian pear disease, Obama & biofuels, Seed Savers, Chaffey, Indian phenotyping

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Ancient American agrobiodiversity podcasts galore, and more

No sooner had I digested (as it were) Jeremy’s latest offering, that I ran across two other recent podcasts also on subjects related to ancient American agriculture. Archaeologist Dr David Lentz discusses the Pompeii of Central America in the latest Academic Minute. And environmental journalist Sam Eaton talks about the resurgence of amaranth in Mexico. Never rains but it pours.

Well, since it’s raining so hard, let me throw in a couple of related tidbits. If you’ve got a paper on amaranth or any other similarly downtrodden crop, you have until 15 July to put in an abstract for the 3rd International Conference on Neglected and Underutilized Species, to be held in Accra, Ghana on 25-27 September 2013. And if you’re Brazilian, and you’re interested in studying agrobiodiversity in Latin America, including NUS no doubt, you have until June 30 to apply for a studentship. And finally there is the IX Simposio Internacional de Recursos Genéticos para América Latina y el Caribe in El Salvador in November.

LATER: Talk about zeitgeist. Here’s another little something for the weekend for all you NUS aficionados: there’s a special issue of Sustainability in the works on “Underutilized Plant Species: Leveraging Food and Nutritional Security, and Income Generation.” Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2013.

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Impact of climate change on business apparently does not include loss of crop diversity

I suppose I should have expected it. A new UNEP report is out, entitled GEO-5 for Business: Impacts of a Changing Environment on the Corporate Sector. GEO-5 being, of course, the fifth Global Environment Outlook, “a consultative, participatory process that builds capacity for conducting integrated environmental assessments for reporting on the state, trends and outlooks of the environment.”

These are the risks the consultative, participatory report highlights for the food and beverage industry:

  • Changes in availability, quality, price, and sources of agricultural products due to climate change and other environmental changes
  • Increased cost of fossil fuel-based energy
  • Reduced crop yields due to water scarcity
  • Conflicts among different users of limited water resources
  • Increased competition for arable land
  • Depletion of seafood stocks
  • Increased consumer and regulatory pressure to reduce environmental impacts of meat production and of chemicals and fertilizers

And these are the opportunities:

  • New markets for alternative supplies or more climate-resilient food varieties
  • Opportunities for businesses in new agricultural growing zones
  • Expanded markets for organic foods and sustainable food production
  • Reputational benefits from sustainable food product certifications

Nothing, however, about the risk of loss of crop diversity, and how this would impact the ability to supply those burgeoning, beckoning markets with the needed “climate-resilient food varieties.”

Which, as I say, should probably not have surprised me. But still.

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Nibbles: Assam and CC, China ag landscape, Breeding for CC, Patenting pros & cons, Quinoa sustainability, Nordic cheeses, Italian endangered breeds

  • Rethinking rice-based agriculture in Assam.
  • And China, maybe?
  • By breeding your way out of the problem, maybe?
  • And then patenting the result? Well, maybe not.
  • Here comes fair-trade quinoa.
  • Nordic cheeses to go with those insects from a few days back. Lack of Norwegian representation pointed out, as well as a remedy.
  • I wonder how many Italian cheeses are made from the milk of endangered breeds. Well, now the relevant association has a Facebook page, so I can ask them.