- No member of the plant kingdom has ever been so willfully and stubbornly misunderstood.
- EU funds US$ 300 million to develop galip nut (Canarium indicum) in New Britain.
- Happy Birthday, Fort Collins.
- First, pocket pigs. Now, mini-cows. Watch our hits go through the roof.
- The story of the mother who went to Hell to protect her daughter.
- Kiribati to get atoll agriculture development centre. But where will they put it?
News from the road
Apologies for the light blogging lately, but both Jeremy and I are on the road and busy with other stuff. When last seen, Jeremy was on vacation in Maine, dealing what will probably be the mortal blow to its lobster population. And I’ve been in and out of meetings all week, but I’ve got a couple of days off now and may have time to catch up on the old feed reader.
This is a good place to do that. I’m visiting the Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza (CATIE) in Turrialba, Costa Rica. They have a very pleasant campus in a spectacular area with a well-developed ecotourism industry:
CATIE has a botanic garden and an active seedbank for forest species. But it also has an interest in agrobiodiversity conservation, with very important field genebanks of cacao, coffee and peach palm, and a crop seed genebank specializing in local vegetables, maize and beans. More later.
Nibbles: Qat, Tomato, Climate change squared, Documentation, Food diaspora, Mapping Africa, Gout, Chicken origins, HealthMap, Olive, Crop mixtures
- Catha edulis bad for Yemen economy. Having been waved a gun at by a qat-chewing Somali teenager, I can testify it’s bad for other things as well.
- Amy Goldman on the heirloom tomato.
- Biology Letters special feature on climate change and biodiversity.
- And more on climate change, this time its likely effect on livelihoods.
- All you ever wanted to know about plant genetic resources conservation in Germany.
- “Isn’t it crazy to think that everything we eat or use that comes from plants at one time grew completely wild?” Well, not so much.
- Africa: Atlas of Our Changing Environment. (Watch out, very large file.)
- Another reason not to drink sugary soft drinks: gout. Coconut water anyone?
- Pre-Columbian Chilean chickens could have come from anywhere, not just Polynesia.
- Mapping diseases.
- A 12th century olive genebank in Morocco.
- Traditional Ethiopian barley/wheat mixtures (hanfets) have some advantages over pure stands.
Nibbles: Health, Figs, Biocontrol, Small, Tomato
- US to spend $2.25 million to find out whether preserving biodiversity could reduce disease. We say “what, no ag? Again?”
- Fancy a fig?
- Mud pot formulation brings unbelievable benefits.
- More small is beautiful: artisanal weed. Via.
- Meet the Tom-Anto.
Kenya short of beer
This one really raises more questions than it answers. An article in Kenya’s The Nation newspaper, reprinted by allAfrica.com, says that:
The Government Monday donated traditional crop seeds to farmers as it moved to ensure food security.
So the first question is: seeds of traditional crops or traditional seeds of traditional crops? Ok, probably the former. Then:
The seeds released Thursday were destined for western Kenya which is experiencing poor rains.
Well, western Kenya has experienced poor rains before, and I never heard of such government munificence before. Ah, but:
Production of these crops has declined due to unavailability of planting materials, little interest from seed companies due to low demand and low investment in research.
The crops which do well in dry areas have also been affected by limited knowledge among farmers, change of eating habits and limited knowledge on agro-processing to add value and improve marketability of the crops.
Well, very true, but all that’s been the case for ages. So, probably politics, I guess. Ruto is from the opposition party, and western Kenya is an opposition stronghold, although he’s not from there. No, wait, that’s too cynical, here’s the explanation for the urgency:
“We have been informed that Kenya Breweries Limited require 24,000 tonnes of white sorghum per year for brewing lager. Towards this, we will be distributing over 100 tonnes of white sorghum seeds in 62 districts,” Mr Ruto said.
Anyway, what varieties were used? It would be nice to think that maybe the Genebank of Kenya was involved in sourcing diverse, locally adapted material, but somehow I doubt it.