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November 25, 2013November 25, 2013

National Geographic launches “Year of Food”

Pretty interesting 20-minute talk from Dennis Dimick, National Geographic Magazine’s Executive Editor for the Environment. NatGeo will be launching a Year of Food in May 2014, and I’m guessing that some family farms will be involved. While I’m not a betting man, I’ll offer two wagers:

NatGeo will reach, and influence, more people than FAO.
NatGeo will not explain the difference between oca and potato.

In case you’re wondering, I do believe those are oca at 16’43” in.

Near the end, Dimick says “maybe we just need to grow more farmers”. Now there’s a thought …

November 23, 2013

Quinoa is dead, long live family farms

Yes indeedy. A new international year has begun, the International Year of Family Farming. Could be fun to keep a vague eye on, especially to see how it includes — or excludes — these family farmers. And do families who farm quinoa now get a second bite at the cherry of global awareness?

November 22, 2013

Nibbles: Intensive livestock, Genetic erosion, Genetic diversity … in India, NUS, Domestication, Seminars, Nutrition, Prince of Wales

With sincere apologies for the lack of service. It’s just been that kind of week. For both of us.

“[H]ow a powerful and intransigent agriculture lobby has successfully fought off attempts to reduce the harmful environmental and health impacts of mass livestock production.” Say it isn’t so.
“[A] planet that has lost 75% of its plant genetic diversity between 1900 and 2000.” Mythbusters? FAO don’t need no stinkin’ mythbusters.
Here’s a little historical context for ya, on Seed Collection and Plant Genetic Diversity, 1900–1979
Striving to gain insights into agro-biodiversity through surveys in Bijapur, India will doubtless add, er, something.
Round up the usual NUSpects:
And the unusual: Alpine rice, aka Microlaena stiphoides, a newly domesticated grass down under.
You want more on domestication? AoB blog has you covered, with pointers to wheats and the artichoke cardoon nexus.
A little learning … Is a wonderful thing?
- Functional agrobiodiversity in North-West Europe: What does the future hold? 11 December, Brussels.
- Improving agriculture’s impact on under-nutrition: What do we know and what do we need to know? 27 November, London.
- EndingHunger Online University. Seriously, everyone’s an expert now.
Cynical, moi? Not compared to the guy who wrote Implausible results in human nutrition research. Definitely one to cut out, boil lightly, season, and eat.
Speaking of cynics, “The Prince of Wales writes passionately about the future of farming and the countryside in this week’s Country Life, which he has guest-edited on the occasion of his 65th birthday.”

You really can’t make this stuff up.

November 16, 2013November 15, 2013

Nibbles: Climate change communications, Seedmap, Ancient chili peppers, African AnGR, Buffaloberry, Ancient coconuts, Water-based map

“Too many journalists overlearned the point that you have to report both sides.”
Like at scidev.net, which tries to do the even-handed thing for seedmap.org.
Ancient spicy beverages – oldest use of chili peppers to date?
Workshop report on conservation and use of African animal genetic resources.
The new superfood for the next five minutes: Shepherdia argentea, better known (huh?) as buffaloberry.
Coconut palms are past their prime, it says here.
Speaking of which, here’s a little something for lovers of old maps: The United Watershed States of America. The site will make your eyes bleed; focus on the maps.

November 15, 2013November 15, 2013

Nibbles: Dog fight, Deforestation maps, CWR maps, Food fight, Limpopo, Maize uses, CC adaptation breeding, Global Tree Campaign, Intensification & deforestation, American ginseng, Fish & crop yields, Fish oils, Perennially watching annual grains

A third take on dog origins. Lock them all up in a small room and don’t let them out until they figure out a way to solve this. And more.
Great new maps of deforestation. Same as the old maps? I’m confused.
Ah, to be able to mash them up with crop wild relatives gap-maps! Or others, for that matter…
Clear, balanced take on how to fix the food system. (And a great potted summary of why it is necessary to do so by the sainted Lawrence Haddad. The interviewer is not bad either.) Except maybe for the bit which sort of implies that the only way to improve crops is via GM. And for the other side…
Bioversity comes up with a strategy for community seed banks in Limpopo and other areas of South Africa. Coincidentally, another CGIAR report on the same region, looking at wider food security issues. I wonder if the two could/should be mashed up? But really my main reason for linking to the second thing is to see how many people read the title as a plea for a return to old-fashioned cartography, as I did.
Dual-purpose maize, shmaize. I just love that building.
Latin American consortium looking for potatoes and wheat varieties adapted to new climatic conditions. Amazing that it is news, in a way.
Global Tree Campaign launches new website. Sill no RSS feed though, that I can see. LATER: Here’s the feed, sorry to the GTC!
Speaking of trees… Will agricultural intensification save tropical forests? Well, maybe. Demand elasticity comes into it, apparently. Dismal science indeed. I suppose those maps above come in useful for this kind of thing?
In other news, the Middle Tennessee State University has a ginseng initiative.
Teach a woman to aquaculture, improve her crop yields. No wait: Fish? We don’t need no stinking fish.
10 Ancient Grains to Watch. The usual suspects. This was pretty boring even when it was news.