We like toddy here. We like to drink it, when we can. And we like to blog about it. We don’t like to read that it is threatened by nasty phytoplasma diseases which “have weakened the health and vitality of coconut trees resulting in scarcity of Kuttanad’s-own pure toddy (Madura Kallu).” Can nothing be done?
Commons not tragic after all
Elinor Ostrom has challenged the conventional wisdom that common property is poorly managed and should be either regulated by central authorities or privatized. Based on numerous studies of user-managed fish stocks, pastures, woods, lakes, and groundwater basins, Ostrom concludes that the outcomes are, more often than not, better than predicted by standard theories. She observes that resource users frequently develop sophisticated mechanisms for decision-making and rule enforcement to handle conflicts of interest, and she characterizes the rules that promote successful outcomes.
And for that very agrobiodiversity-relevant insight she has just won the Nobel Prize for Economics.
Nibbles: Teaching vegetables, Truffles, Freakonomics of farmer markets, Crops used for art, Seed storage, Organic farming in Spain, 2050
- Pamela Akinyi Nyagilo wins prize for teaching Kenyan kids to grow indigenous greens. In 2007, but better late with the news than never.
- The Great War did for truffles?
- “Does a local food system truly enhance the integrity of a community, much less make the peasant the equal of a prince and eliminate greed?” And more. And more. And more. And…
- Crop art, and more. And more.
- Brassica seeds survive 40 years in a genebank with no loss of viability. Phew.
- “It seems that, while discount and low-end retailers face more difficulties selling organic products, specialised organic shops and high-end retailers continue to develop beyond expectations.”
- “As Andy Jarvis, an award-winning crop scientist, puts it: ‘When you look at the graph, under even small average heat rises, the line for maize just goes straight down.’ “
Nibbles: Cowpea storage, Expensive Japanese apples, Nutrients in vegetables
- Sometimes breeding better cowpeas is not enough, they need to be bagged properly.
- Sometimes breeding better apples is not enough, they need to be bagged properly.
- Biofortifying brassica through breeding. No bags involved.
Nibbles: Fruit tattoos, Nutrition, Traditional food, Chinese houses
- What I’ve always wanted: laser machine to “tattoo” fruit for identification.
- Latest version of USDA’s Premier Nutrient Database. Nothing below the species level that I could see.
- Traditional food fair at National Museum of Kenya. Sounds like fun.
- Photos of Chinese rural dwellings. And some of the surrounding agrobiodiversity. Very fine.