- The Guardian has a leader on the potato. Please let this year end soon. And thanks, Danny.
- Lucy Appleby RIP.
- Inner city farming in the UK.
- Gary Nabhan on where apples came from, and where they’re going. And more. Thanks again, Danny!
- Tracking bees’ response to climate change by satellite.
- Mars thinks cacao biodiversity is important. No news from Earth.
- The “keyhole gardens” of Lesotho.
Farming and tourism
You may remember my recent post from Lima bemoaning the lost opportunity of linking agrobiodiversity education with tours of an archaeological site. Here’s an example of such an opportunity emphatically grasped. An historic farmhouse in Rhode Island is offering “visitors, particularly children, a glimpse into the lost world of small-scale farming in New England, when the distance between the chicken coop and the dinner plate was much shorter.” And that includes heirloom varieties, for example of tomatoes, of which the staff grow 30. They also keep some local ((Later: Ok, Jeremy, how about “locally important”?)) livestock breeds, including Red Devon cattle, famous for pulling settlers’ wagon trains West.
“One of the things we’ve worked on since we’ve been here is constantly trying to cultivate in people’s minds and hearts a preservation ethic, not just about preserving an old house,” he said, “but preserving landscapes.”
Molasses in January
There really is no length to which we will not go to bring you all the agrobiodiversity news that’s fit to print. Case in point coming up. Jeremy gets a heads-up from his Google Alert on sorghum. It’s from an unlikely — even suspicious — source, but he dutifully clicks on the link and is rewarded with a reference to the “Sorghum Molasses Purity Act of 1837.” He dismisses it as a joke, but also shares the link with me, knowing I’m in need of a laugh after a heavy week wrestling with a recalcitrant donor report. Being of a more trusting disposition, and never having run across error, humour or misinformation on the internet, I quickly google, fully expecting to hit a learned wikipedia article on the said piece of legislation, surely a notorious example of anti-diversity agricultural protectionism of the most egregious kind.
Right. No such thing, of course. Google knows nothing of any Sorghum Molasses Purity Acts, of 1837 or any other date. But my efforts on your behalf are most emphatically not totally wasted. For now I — and you — know about the
Great Boston Molasses Flood of January 1919 when a molasses storage tank owned by the Purity Distilling Company burst, sending a two-story-high wave of molasses through the streets of the North End of Boston.
And who wouldn’t give up a slice of lunchtime to be able to quote such a fact?
Oh, and by the way. There may not have been a Sorghum Molasses Purity Act of 1837, but there was a Sugar and Molasses Act of 1733, which seems to be an example of agricultural protectionism of the most egregious kind.
Nibbles: Maize, CWRs, CBD, Icelandic food, Coffee, Incense, Biodiversity Day, Medicinals, Farmers’ rights
- The history of tejate in Mexico illuminates “central irony of globalization.” Cheers!
- WWF says crop wild relatives and landraces in centres of diversity are threatened. Right.
- Danny Hunter reports along much the same lines from COP9, and then reports some more. Such a workhorse!
- The intricacies of Nordic food preparation. Would you say this was cooked, Jeremy?
- Today’s how-x-changed-the-world story brought to you by coffee. Great after rotten shark too.
- Frankincense is good for you. Hippies comment at length.
- Jeremy earns his keep.
- TRAFFIC promotes project ‘Saving Plants that Save Lives and Livelihoods’ at COP9, including with video.
- And the websites just keep on coming. One on Farmers’ Rights launched too.
Nibbles: Fungi, Cacao, Neolithic, New fruits
- Blogger waxes lyrical about African mushrooms.
- Nigeria’s cacao tree need replanting. Will they be? And if so, which varieties will be used? And will they be grown organically?
- Arabidopsis followed farmers into Europe.
- “With the kiwi, there is adventure.“