- New genebank! For microbes!! In Gujarat!!!
- Why the sorghum genome is hot.
- Bamboo and the Hmong and bamboo. PAR has a Word document.
Fair deal for rooibos
Before fair trade, small-scale farmers like Hendrik lived close to the breadline as prices for rooibos were squeezed by the market. But fair trade has tripled the farmers’ income. Plus, with the extra money they now get for the tea, Hendrik and his friends can invest in their future, buying their own farming equipment and their own tea court where the raw rooibos leaves are chopped and dried.
“Hendrik” is Hendrik Hesselman, from the Cedarberg region of South Africa. He’s one of 5,000 farmers from Cedarberg who produce the world’s supply of rooibos (or redbush) tea.
Mr Hesselman is a founding member of the 50-plus strong Heiveld Cooperative, which was established in 2003 — with backing from UKaid from the Department for International Development — “to get their tea recognised as Fairtrade, and to get a fair price for it.”
There are also photos, and a video on the community’s attempts to adapt to climate change. One of the things they’re doing is evaluating different “wild types” of rooibos for tolerance of drought conditions. I can’t find any reference to ex situ conservation activities, alas.
Nibbles: Corn, Saffron, Pacific, Carrots, Food, Quarantine, Medicinal plants
- “Can corn be taught to fix its own nitrogen?” Probably not.
- Many saffron clones identical shock.
- New Agriculturist on agrobiodiversity conservation and use in the Pacific in general and Pohnpei in particular. Go Local!
- An idiosyncratic take on carrot diversity and history.
- The Indigenous Food Systems Network has a new website. h/t PAR
- Landscape of Quarantine, an exhibition that addresses, among other things, the spread of pests and diseases.
- Semillas Sagradas — Sacred Seeds.
Nibbles: Rabbit, Evolution, Water purification, Micronutrients, Report, Diversification, Pest epidemic, Drylands
Nibbles: Climate, Shitstorm, Fish, Food, Biotech, Talk, Drought, Bananas
- Community-based adaptation to climate change. A book from IIED.
- This really is outrageous. Manure is now a pollutant in the world’s most wasteful economy. h/t Ethicurean.
- Where have all the fishes gone, gone to flowers every one.
- Dept. of Uh-huh: Innovation in traditional foodstuffs could harm their image.
- Dept. of Uh-huh Pt 2: An over-dependence on genetically modified organisms to boost agricultural production eclipses other biotechnologies and their potential to benefit poor farmers in developing countries.
- Adam Forbes is giving a talk about his seed-searching travels, March 22, Princeton, NJ. Go! Report!
- Malawi’s miracle laid low by drought?
- IITA leads seven African nations against banana diseases.