My good friend Cesar Azurdia has alerted me to the publication of the book Guatemala y su Biodiversidad. Chapter 9 focuses on agricultural biodiversity. There’s a lot of great stuff on homegardens, crop wild relatives, effects of climate change etc., all subjects very dear to our heart here.
Nibbles: Turkey, Core, Cattle, Aquaculture
- “Third biggest genebank in the world” to be built in Turkey.
- Hari honoured!
- Kudos for Cundiff!
- Aquaculture. What is it good for?
- “The oldest domesticated animal known…”
Plan of action against UG99
Despite reassuring words from the Indian Minister of Agriculture at the start of the meeting ((A while ago the Indian Council for Agricultural Research also suggested that UG99 was not a major threat to wheat production in India)), FAO announced that delegates of the 31 countries represented at the “International Conference on Wheat Stem Rust Ug99 – A Threat to Food Security” in New Delhi have pledged to support prevention and control of UG99. They agreed:
- to share surveillance information;
- that a global early warning system should be immediately established;
- that plant breeding research should be intensified; and
- that rust resistant wheat varieties should be distributed to farmers.
Who Owns Nature?
There is a new report, “Who Owns Nature? Corporate Power and the Final Frontier in the Commodification of Life” from the ETC group.
It talks of corporate concentration in:
- farm input (from thousands of seed companies and public breeding institutions three decades ago, 10 companies now control more than two-thirds of global proprietary seed sales);
- food output (supermarkets);
- pharmaceuticals; and
- the New Post-Petroleum sugar industry (“the so-called ‘sugar economy’ will be the catalyst for a corporate grab on all plant matter –- and destruction of biodiversity on a massive scale”).
Their (not so new) bottom line on seeds:
So-called climate-ready genes are a false solution to climate change. Patented gene technologies will not help small farmers survive climate change, but they will concentrate corporate power, drive up costs, inhibit public sector research and further undermine the rights of farmers to save and exchange seeds.
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.