Too many early warning systems spoil the broth

The EU-funded operation will improve food security of more than 860 000 rural households, over 6 million people. The aim is to boost food production by making improved seeds available to needy farmers and to promote sustainable seed multiplication and certification.

Difficult to argue with the aim of this FAO project in Burkina Faso. One could perhaps offer alternatives as to the methods, but it is difficult to argue with the aim, and with the urgency of the situation. So the only observation I’ll offer — and not for the first time — is that it would be nice if projects of this kind also included a little bit of money for a rapid assessment of whether local landraces are adequately conserved ex situ in the national and international genebanks, and for their rescue collecting as necessary. FAO has a Global Information and Early Warning System on Food and Agriculture which identifies problem situations such as that currently unfolding in Burkina Faso. But it also has a World Information and Early Warning System on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. One sometimes has to wonder whether the two talk to each other.

Nibbles: Maize, Millets, Pollinators, Ungulates, Drugs, Orchids

Two fried oyster po-boys to go!

Our attempt to gauge the effect of the ongoing disaster in the Gulf of Mexico on agrobiodiversity was pretty pathetic, really. Not so, predictably, Gary Nabhan’s. In an article in Grist, he announces that “the Renewing America’s Food Traditions (RAFT) alliance will release a comprehensive checklist of over 240 place-based foods of the Gulf Coast that are now at risk — 138 of them directly affected by the oil spill.” ((Coincidentally (or not?), there’s a new online map out on North America’s marine ecosystems.)) As a companion piece in Grist points out, accompanied by luscious photos, the best way to help these threatened foodways is to keep eating Gulf seafood:

…perceptions to the contrary, not all Gulf fisheries are closed. Plenty of shrimp, shellfish, and other seafood that have been greenlighted by the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program are still making it to market. The problem is that consumers are afraid to buy them. Well, fear not. Safeguards are in place — including federal oil-sniffers!