- USDA goes to the closets.
- Brazil to teach Tunisia how to grow wheat. Exchange of germplasm involved.
- ICRISAT DG makes a pitch for dryland farmers. And aquaculturists?
- A plan for cacao sustainability in Africa agreed. Germplasm not involved?
- Americans eat a lot of corn. A lot.
- The romance of cheese-making. Romance? These people should get out more.
- Peru offers Obamas a “cute” puppy. I still prefer the Mexican version.
Diversity rules
Three articles on the benefits of diversity for your delectation this weekend. Evolutionary Applications has a paper suggesting that restoration of degraded landscapes is best done with “high quality and genetically diverse seed to maximize the adaptive potential of restoration efforts to current and future environmental change.” Meanwhile, in The Economist, how structurally complex and diverse betel nut plantations ((Ok, ok, “betel nut.”)) can be almost as good for bird diversity as the surrounding forest, and how it is better for a crop to be attacked by two pests rather than one.
Nibbles: Chickens, Realpolitik, Apples, Kew, Maize, Local food
- Chicken wild relatives to rescue breeds.
- Politics as theatre as politics: report from Terra Madre.
- Little shrines to bottled water … Levazza peddling an industrial and inferior product: more from Terra Madre.
- Season of mists and apple biodiversity. Thanks Sarah.
- The wonder that is Kew Gardens and its Millennium Genebank.
- What’s wrong with the maize seed sector in Africa?
- Some reasons to buy local food, though maybe not ten as advertised.
Nibbles: Big tent, Certification, Macadamia, Wild harvest, Last meals
- Biodiversity and ecosystems experts to enter big tent: any room for agriculture?
- Japan to recognize sustainable practices that value biological diversity in agriculture, forestry, and fisheries via cute logo.
- Saving drought-resistant macadamia.
- Free food!
- Endangered food.
Pickled olives
During my recent trip to Syria I visited the world’s largest restaurant. I thought that was really cool and I wanted to at least mention it here, but could think of no excuse until a couple of stories appeared about a Middle Eastern food staple appeared in the news and I could resist no longer. I wonder how many olives the Bawabet Dimash needs to haul in every day to supply its 6,014 tables. Olive cultivation has really been booming in Syria during the past 20 years, expanding into large areas that were formerly little more than rocky pastures. I saw some huge newish plantations around Aleppo, for example. There are lots of different varieties in Syria, but I got the feeling that only one or two account for most of the expansion. These areas are likely to get drier with climate change, so I don’t know how sustainable the expansion is.
Meanwhile, further south, the olive harvest in the West Bank is being affected by some very unpleasant incidents. The olive is a mainstay of what remains of the Palestinian economy, and this is bound to impact people’s already sorely stressed livelihoods. I suspect not much of the West Bank’s production in currently being exported, but if and when it does start being marketed in Europe, it will have to cope with some sharp-nosed Italian police officers.