- Indigenous people take video evidence to Copenhagen. The big site. (Cool map.)
- Congratulations to Biofortified, winners of an interview with foodie god Michael Pollan (and $1500).
- What colour is a banana? Linguist understands diversity, everyone else fails.
- And an orange?
- Google rescued my potato harvest. Long, dull article about a short, sharp story.
Oneida corn story goes home
Last night we received a very nice message from Eve Emshwiller, who teaches an ethnobotany course. She had some welcome things to say about the blog, and then told us this story.
I looked at the site you nibbled yesterday on Oneida corn, and then sent it on to a Menominee graduate student who began working with me this semester, Diana Peterson. She had done her master’s thesis on Oneida three sisters agriculture, including that same maize. She then sent the link on to Jeff Metoxen, the Oneida man pictured and quoted in that article. He hadn’t seen the article previously, and was excited to see it in print! So, thanks to your blog and a sequence of forwarding of links, the news finally got back to the Oneida farmer himself. I’m glad to have been part of that path, and extra glad to have learned of it from your blog.
Which kind of summarizes in a few sentences why we do this. Thanks, Eve and Diana.
Nibbles: Camelids, Vineyards, Fermentation, Herb, Aquaculture, Bolivian interview, Sponges
- 5th European Symposium on South American Camelids.
- Wine makers count on biodiversity to help them out against pests.
- Sandor Katz, fermentation guru.
- Uttarkhand farmers turn to “herb.” Maybe they went to college here. Luigi comments: I’m on next flight.
- Kenyan governments counts on fish. Wont be holding my breath.
- Moises Jimenez, Bolivian farmer.
- Farming sponges. Not Luffa, the stuff in the sea!
Building on coconut
The World Bank’s Development Marketplace 2009 is continuing to feature stories from the winners on its web site. And that’s good because we can scan them as they come up and draw attention to those that involve agricultural biodiversity. Today’s pick, a project from Samoa to build traditional houses “as models of ‘safer, accessible, resilient, and sustainable housing'”.
What’s particularly nice about this is the idea that traditional Samoan houses depend absolutely on agricultural products like the coconut fibre rope that people use to lash the components together. Modern houses built from steel reinforced concrete and corrugated metal cannot withstand cyclones, and their materials become deadly flying objects during storms. Hence the “innovation” of rediscovering traditional methods and material. Might help conserve coconut diversity too, I suppose.
Oh, and in case you were wondering about more obvious, though no less traditional, things to do with coconuts, why not download Coconut Recipes, from Bioversity International and COGENT?
Nibbles: Satellites, Nutmeg, Thanksgiving food, Fungi, Moroccan wine
- Farming from space.
- (Part of) the history of nutmeg.
- “Eat Like a Pilgrim.”
- Biggest fungal collection in the world created.
- Loss of indigenous grape varieties not holding Moroccan winemakers back.