Mapping agrobiodiversity, then and now

france ag map

I found this great 19th agricultural map of France at Mapping the Marvelous, a feed I’ve only recently subscribed to which is proving a real find. It was linked there to a post about city orchards at a blog called Food Mapping, a “visual exploration and mapping out of the issues surrounding local food, including the associated debates regarding economics, environmentalism, geography, sustainability and taste.” That’s also gone into the feed reader.

Nibbles: Easter Island, Quail, Kimchi, Assisted migration, Solar, Training materials, Ancient wine squared, Economics, Wild food

Mapping sustainability

Resilience Science points to many efforts to use community mapping as a force for development and empowerment. Sometimes, in our cups, we dream of a set of globally connected maps devoted to agricultural biodiversity. Something really simple, like performance reports from specific crops, varieties and types of farm could be linked with geodata which in turn would allow it to be linked to all manner of environmental data. It would grow into the database that ate the world, but more to the point could help feed the world.

Of course, dreaming doesn’t make it so, but Green Maps seems to put all the tools at anyone’s disposal. Is anyone out there doing anything for agrobiodiversity? I searched, but couldn’t find anything except for urban outlets for the products of sustainable farms. Important, but not enough.

Mapping the environment

A UNEP press release about the launch of the “Kenya: Atlas of Our Changing Environment” led me to the website of the global project to which the Kenya publication contributes. It does include agriculture and aquaculture: check out the drop-down menu in the top right-hand corner. You click on the icon on the map and get more information on specific sites, such as Balanta rice farming in Guinea-Bissau, for example. You can download imagery and leave comments about each site.

Nibbles: Bananas, Sorghum, Agave, Big vs small, Cauliflower, Wine, Chestnut, Farmers’ rights, India, Aquaculture, Medicinals, Tarpan