- Growing a new agriculture in Poland.
- After açai? Aguaje!
- Hector Mongi is heading to a CTA seminar on Implications of Climate Change for Sustainable Agriculture. Hope he blogs it.
- “Anti-farmer” seed law in Pakistan.
- “Look,” he says. “This was an orchard.”
- Wonderful photos of autumn; agricultural biodiversity prominent.
- Afghanistan’s National Seed Secretariat opens, re-opens hornets’ nest?
Nibbles: Link, Mango, Chickens, Apples, Urban, Aquaculture, More chickens
- Our latest link. Mas du Diable in France.
- The history of mango in Florida discussed.
- Historic poultry publication.
- Did I hear somebody say English apples are not very interesting? Via.
- A wheat crop grows in Manhattan.
- Hands-on aquaculture.
- Animal farm.
Women’s Institute saves the apple
All this musing about worlds and grains of sand lately actually goes back to a discussion I had with Jeremy a few days back about whether or not it was worth nibbling a little piece on the apple fair which will take place this Sunday in the Millennium Orchard at Beverley Parks Nature Reserve in Long Lane, somewhere in East Yorkshire.
More than 40 varieties of apple are growing on more than 100 trees in East Riding Council’s 50-acre countryside attraction.
Unusual East Yorkshire varieties include the Hornsea Herring and Fillingham Pippin, which was found only in the Swanland area.
The council’s countryside access officers and members of the East Yorkshire Federation of Women’s Institutes (WI) joined forces to develop the orchard as a millennium project.
Worthy enough, but too parochial, Jeremy said. (Although he did in fact relent in the end.) And he’s quite right. English apples, for all their diversity, are not going to save the world like ones from Kazakhstan just might. And East Riding Council is hardly at the forefront of agricultural biodiversity conservation science. Fair enough. But I wonder if the Talgar Pomological Gardens in Kazakhstan and the Garrygalla Research Center in Turkmenistan might not have something to learn from the humble efforts of the East Yorkshire Federation of Women’s Institutes.
And vice versa, of course.
Nibbles: Bison, Jordan, Apples, Opium
- More than you’ve ever wanted to know about bison.
- Why can we all just get along? An effort to save The River Jordan. Via.
- Looking for the universe in a grain of sand? Apple diversity in East Yorkshire.
- The pros and cons of legalizing opium in Afghanistan.
Meetings, meetings
Banana researchers are meeting in Mombasa, and conservationists of all stripes in Barcelona. Both are receiving a lot of press. Africa Science News Service, for example, has a piece on the banana conference. And the BBC has a daily diary on the World Conservation Congress, no less. If you’re at either meeting, and would like to share your impressions with us, let us know.