- More on that thing about how the Amazon was once pullulating with people. And why.
- Why conserve livestock genetic resources. And one possible way to do it.
- The American people are bringing back the American chestnut.
- COP-watchers, something to amuse yourselves with if things get dull.
- Even Neanderthals understood the benefits of a diverse diet. Though not, perhaps, of jewellery.
Share Fair set fair to share
The “AgKnowledge Africa Share Fair” is off and running at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in Addis Ababa, and will continue until 21 October. You can follow proceedings in all sorts of web 2.0 ways, detailed on the blog. There’s no specific “learning pathway” on agrobiodiversity, but that’s ok, there’s still plenty of interest to us here. Including a “food fair” which will focus on “sharing the indigenous/local content embedded in African food.” Wish I was there for that!
The social life of taxonomists
If you have full access to the journal Nature, you’ll be able to read Jonathan Silvertown’s correspondence about a pet project called iSpot. Silvertown says:
Through social networking, the identification process can be made more efficient while simultaneously spreading real taxonomic knowledge. The facility is available to anyone, unlike other technologies that require specialized equipment.
In its first year of operation, the website … helped 6,000 users to identify 25,000 sightings of some 2,500 species, from lichens to birds. The website works by linking experts (including amateur experts) with beginners through a sophisticated reputation system that encourages users to help and learn from each other.
This, Silvertown says, is “social networking on the Internet”. 1
And it is, of a sort. Not the sort that we’ve championed here more than once, most famously in connection with some globetrotting taro. It is good that people can get good identification of things they’ve seen, and been able to photograph. My argument with iSpot is that it perpetuates the dichotomy between nature and agriculture, probably unconsciously, although very directly: “your place to share nature”.
So, while you will find crop wild relatives in there, there is no mention of the fact that that is what they are. You won’t find a single entry for Triticum. And so, while there may be lots of discussions of willow warblers vs chiffchaffs, the essential and fundamental differences between the raw materials of beer and bread go unremarked. And where would all those twitchers be without a sandwich and a pint?
Silvertown clearly knows about and cares about agriculture, and is not afraid to use agricultural examples in his teaching and popular writing. I wish he had extended that to his Citizen Science projects.
And while I’m moaning, where’s the site that will allow anyone anywhere to upload a photograph of a crop direct from a mobile phone and get it identified, preferably to variety level?
It’s big, it really is
Nibbles: Pigeonpea, Livestock breeding, Ecotourism, Data
- Pigeonpea gets the genomics treatment.
- Animal genetic resources for the poor: “…one of the highest priority interventions for the smallholder systems is the development of innovative approaches for the strategic use of appropriate genotypes from the available range of global breed resources.”
- How good is ecotourism?
- Gapminder does per capita food supply.