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December 20, 2012December 20, 2012

Crowdsourcing money for Dutch heirloom pigs

Among the 2012 Arca-Deli® Awards for Prestige and Marketing Value (announced in October but only coming across my radar screen now, via Facebook), this one particularly caught my eye:

Extraordinary Pigs! 100’000 Euro raised through crowdfunding for rearing rare breed pigs in the Netherlands, producing good tasting pork and for increasing animal welfare. An innovative project which combines conservation of the old with modern methods. “Like” their Facebook page to keep up with their news or visit their website.

Alas, both seem to be exclusively in Dutch, which is a pity as I’d really like to know more about how they managed to raise all that cash.

LATER: And thanks to Twitter, here’s the secret revealed:

@AgroBioDiverse Dutch pigs: invest €100, get 3x€40 ruro pig product packet delivered (1x/year), plus day at farm. Good offer for "investors"

— TalkingNutrition (@DSMNutrition) December 20, 2012

Thanks, @dsmnutrition!

December 20, 2012December 20, 2012

Nibbles: Rice farming, Funny teas, Funny fruits, Christmas fare, Online course, Seasonal genomes, Malaysia shares, School shares

The most beautiful rice farm in the world. No, wait.
Jasmine tea gets protection. But does it need it? Let’s ask the South Africans what they’re doing with their tea.
Today’s funny fruit picture. Think it’s one of these Cuban mutants?
How many micronutrients in a Mexican Christmas dinner? And how many in a British one, featuring parsnips of course.
People’s University has online Appreciation Programme on Sustainable Management of Biodiversity starting January 2013.
First farmers were first carpenters.
And today’s genome story is very seasonally appropriate. Oh no, here’s another one!
Malaysia implements the ITPGRFA. Cool, but why is that even news?
School sends okra seeds to Haiti. But… No, I’m not playing the Grinch on this one, it’s too sweet.

December 19, 2012November 20, 2017

Nibbles: Manioc gastronomy, Wilting revolution, Turrialba cheese, Conservation and poverty, Beans breeding, Dye plants, Plant Cuttings, Amazon fires, Balm, African silver bullets, Heritage food, Potato politics, Native seed meet

Cassava gets a makeover in Brazil. And another, of a different kind, in East Africa.
Revolution turns into Terror. Where’s our Napoleon?
Designating Costa Rican cheese.
Conserving poverty?
No poverty for bean breeders in the US.
The uses of Oregon Grape. Which is of course not a grape.
Chaffey Style.
Coconut water is a major conservation issue for 2013. It says here.
Fewer farmers, more fires. In the Amazon. It says here.
Yeah, what is balsam anyway?
So the Next Big Thing in African ag development is agricultural growth corridors. What could possibly go wrong? Will they learn from wildlife corridors? Will they be using these four apparently key technologies? Or bolstering extension? And will it all mean a decrease in bush meat consumption?
Heritage foods book. Yummie.
Like potatoes in Peru, I guess. And various street foods in West Africa.
Conference on native seed use in the US. Probably even some crop wild relatives in there.

December 18, 2012May 3, 2018

Compliments of the season

The movers are packing up my office as I type this, and I don’t know how long I have before the computer is taken away from me, so let me quickly link to the (2018 PDF of the) Storify thing I did for the crop wild relatives genomics meeting last week, and also say that blogging might be a bit slow this week from my part, and non-existent next week as I take some well-deserved vacat…

December 18, 2012December 18, 2012

Nibbles: Xmas trees, Xmas parasites, Resilience, Pitogo bananas, Crowdsourcing, Writing, Chickpea bread, Seed laws, Futures, Cassava genomics

Fir trees holding their value. It must be Christmas.
Mistletoe is good for trees. Is it still Christmas?
An indicator framework for assessing agroecosystem resilience. Santa is being good to us this year.
“Banana-shaped” takes on a whole new meaning.
How to do crowdsourcing, right? Right!
How to write good about agricultural research.
Testing other kinds of grain and other kinds of bread.
The East African Regional Intellectual Property Organisation comes in for some stick over draft policy on plant variety protection laws. This deserves way more than a Nibble. Perhaps some well-informed policy wonks will chime in.
Blame 18th century Japanese rice traders for the futures markets.
Who do I blame for Cassavabase?