Information

January 18, 2013

Is a new Cornucopia in the works?

Stephen Facciola’s Cornucopia is the bible of everyone interested in the oddities of the edible landscape. With it’s densely packed pages, numerous lists, and astonishing detail, it is everything you need wrapped in soft covers. It is also quite old. Now Facciola has posted an advert for a “Photographer, ethnobotanist, foodie”

Applicant will be photographing plants, plant parts, food products, food ingredients, etc., at ethnic and gourmetfood markets, farmers’ markets, germplasm repositories, market gardens, orchards, farms, botanical gardens, and seed banks in the U.S. and overseas. Must be willing to make long term commitment.

I can’t wait to see the results.

January 17, 2013

Fellowship available on Agrobiodiversity and Climate Change

The Basque Centre for Climate Change (BC3), offers a one year full time research fellowship (with the possibility of extension) with the level of financial support according to the academic and professional profile of the applicant.

There is a need to understand what policies can efficiently and equitably enhance farmers’ livelihoods by increasing their capacity to adapt to climate change. Climate change is expected to increasingly threaten the conservation of wild and domesticated biodiversity, including, agrobiodiversity, as changing local climates place habitats and species at increasing risk of extinction. Agrobiodiversity and associated ecosystem services are key factors that affect the resilience of agroecosystems and food security. However, the largest investments in food production continue to be associated with agricultural innovations to increase the productivity of some major crops and livestock, which are often advocated as crucial for agricultural climate change adaptation. Much less emphasis is being put on local systems that rely on existing natural, human and social capital assets such as agrobiodiversity, traditional knowledge and collective action institutions, such as seed systems, to reduce vulnerability and ensure food security.

Full details if you scroll down on the BC3 website.

January 17, 2013

Nibbles: Maya nut, ARTCs, Pedal power, Cacao, Conservation, Dietary diversity, Ecosystem services, Climate change, Open access, Training, Drought resistance is futile, Organic farmers speak

Maya nut blogs.
And then there are the ARTCs. What do you mean, you don’t need another acronym?
Pedal powered grain cleaning – with a link to a video of the thing in action. Could it be adapted for poorer places?
A new research project on cacao in the Dominican Republic, and how it could support more biodiversity.
Because we all know that crops compete with conservation, right?
Cash, food or vouchers? In one study, vouchers result in greater dietary diversity.
Speaking of which, maybe you can use varietal diversification to manage climate risk in East Africa.
Or perhaps you can leave it all to ecosystem services.
Speaking of which, someone actually asked Kenyan farmers how they perceive and respond to climate change.
Speaking of which, the University of Nairobi has embraced open access.
Speaking of which, in March there’ll be International Training Course Plant Conservation Biology: Science and Practice, which you can find here, with a little effort.
The executive summary of a Union of Concerned Scientists report on drought-resistant crops.
At a loose end? Listen to an hour of economics podcast on organic farming from that link.

January 15, 2013January 15, 2013

Nibbles: Genome assembly, Congo livelihoods, Tilman, Peak farmland, Lima bean project, Cotton award, Translocation, Sudanese seed, Pachyrhizus, Conference, Agro-ecology, SEAVEG, Indigenous foodways,

The latest genomic whiz-bangery.
CIFOR’s Congo slideshow makes The Guardian. About as far from genomic whiz-bangery as you can get.
Speaking of which… Very long talk by David Tilman. Almost certainly worth watching in its entirety. Eventually. It all depends on trade-offs. See what I did there?
Agriculture stops expanding. Is it all that genomic whiz-bangery?
U. of Delaware gets big Lima bean grant. Yes, Delaware. They got whiz-bangery in Delaware too.
Meanwhile, Texan cotton breeder gets award. For a certain amount of whiz-bangery.
Translocation and restoration: cool, but a last resort, whiz-bangery says.
Support for the seed sector in S. Sudan. Any landraces? No whiz-bangery in sight.
And likewise for the yam bean in Africa.
Wonder whether that’ll be on the agenda at the First Food Security Futures Conference in April. Probably not.
Nor, probably, will anyone be thinking too hard about agro-ecology; but you could be, with this handy-dandy introduction to holistic management.
SEAVEG; no, not nori etc, but veg in SE Asia.
Different animals need different kinds of fodder, ILRI shows how.
Wishing success to the Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative launched at the University of Arkansas today.

January 14, 2013May 3, 2018

PAGxxi tweetstorm of sorts

PAGxxi, billed as “The Largest Ag-Genomics Meeting in the World” is off and running in San Diego, with its full complement of social media bells and whistles. I’m quite enjoying the Twitter feed. Not the official one, mind you, which is pretty boring, but there’s a half a dozen or so people (so far) who are taking the hashtag very seriously. I hope they keep it up.

https://twitter.com/plgepts/status/290626742916378624