Via the Facebook page of Home Grown: Ireland comes a wonderful little programme from RTE on the history of oats in Ireland, from weed to significant crop, including an interview with a grower who seems to be every stereotype about Irish farmers rolled into one irresistible package. Apparently around 1200 AD the Anglo-Norman parts of Ireland grew mainly bread wheat, whereas oats was the main crop in the bits under Gaelic control. Check out the photos too. The genebank in Kildare referred to is the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries & Food’s Cereal Genebank at Backweston, Leixlip, Co. Kildare.
Nibbles: Fruit-tree fundraiser, Bangladesh seed crisis, Mead, Early farmers, Fruit genebank
- Bioversity promotes a fund-raiser for forgotten fruit trees.
- Seed crisis in Bangladesh. It’s complicated. Really complicated.
- Belatedly, mirthful report on mead.
- “…during the advent of agriculture … early farmers may have at first come together in communal activities, prior to congregating in villages.”
- USDA’s fruit genebank at Corvallis in the news.
Nibbles: Genebanks, PNG Forests, Peruvian potatoes, Haitian extension, Mungbeans
- The Santa Barbara Independent does genebanks. You heard me.
- Papua New Guinea suspends Special Agricultural and Business Leases. Maybe they’ll now use the land for special agriculture and business?
- Native Peruvian potato chips prized in Europe (Spanish).
- US opens new centre to train Haitian farmers. Because, y’know, they’ve done such a fine job in the past.
- Australia taps World Vegetable Center for mungbean genes.
Nibbles: #Agchat, AGree, Tree genebank, Potato genebank
- Straws in the wind or portent of change? Why Farmers Are Embracing Social Media: the #AgChat Story
- Straws in the wind or portent of change? AGree (geddit?) Transforming Food and Ag Policy. See also Marion Nestle’s commentary and comments therein.
- More on the medicinal trees genebank in Nairobi.
- And just look at the new website of the International Potato Center genebank. Part of a complete makeover.
You say diversity
From the way she’s linking it to health in this snippet from her speech at FAO today, I suspect Hillary meant crop diversification when she talked about the work on “crop diversity” being done by Feed the Future. I wonder if anyone will be able to point out to her that there’s another, often overlooked, dimension to the diversity in farmers’ fields, which underpins the other, very sensible stuff she said about the need for improved varieties.