- Locavore carnivores learn their chops.
- Researchers from Michigan to study drought in East Africa.
- Researchers from Michigan to improve African access to research.
- Get online to save the Amazon.
- “When the National Animal Germplasm Program (NAGP) opened its doors a decade ago, it started out with genetic material from 40 lines of chicken…”
- And today’s genome sequencing project is…
- Hunting wapato.
- Mexican agriculture comes to LA.
- Today’s answer to climate change is…
Farmers embrace the International Year of Biodiversity
Conserving biodiversity is a shared responsibility of stakeholders worldwide, and farmers are willing to do their part.
So says the International Federation of Agricultural Producers, “the farmers’ voice at the world level, representing 600 million family farmers grouped in 120 national organizations in 80 countries”.
“The main issue for farmers is gaining recognition for the multiple roles that agriculture is expected to fulfil and identifying appropriate mechanisms in order to achieve them. We need to help and encourage farmers to improve their current practices, while ensuring they can sustain their families and remain competitive in the markets. These efforts all need be undertaken simultaneously, otherwise you will have food security problems or a compromised ecosystem,” said Ajay Vashee, IFAP President.
No response yet from conservation-wallahs.
Nibbles: Conferences, Banana satire, Green rice, Fairchild, Slippery cabbage
- Advance notice of the IAALD 13th World Congress in Montpellier, France. Sounds like a blast.
- Likewise for the Society for Economic Botany’s annual bash.
- “Rabid banana consumption in the last 100 years has led to a precipitous increase in natural disasters.” Satire.
- I’ve heard of green wheat to eat, but never green rice.
- Protecting tropical trees from frost at a Florida botanic garden.
- “Collecting germplasm is the first step in helping a nutritious island vegetable set seed.” Indeed it is.
News from the Pacific
Our friend at the Island Food Community of Pohnpei, Dr Lois Englberger, sends us news that her wonderfully agrobiodiversity-friendly NGO is now on Facebook. Go on and become a fan. Lois also points us to a great series of photographs on local foods by Anna Herforth, a PhD student at Cornell University: “Her thesis work examines the nutritional benefits gained through traditional African vegetables in the diets of certain Tanzanians and Kenyans.” Speaking of photographs of agricultural biodiversity…
Nibbles: Vavilov on couscous, Molecular studentships, Goat genetics, Svalbard Global Seed Vault, Sweet potato, New Agriculturist, Vietnam and CC, Liberian ag research, Cuisine
- Couscous deconstructed.
- China and Bioversity collaborate on molecular marker training.
- Neolithic legging helps unravel the history of the goat in Europe.
- Dag’s cool Svalbard pix.
- CIP launches Sweetpotato Action for Security and Health in Africa (SASHA).
- The new New Agriculturist does markets.
- Climate change and rice cultivation in the Mekong Delta.
- The perils of agricultural research in Liberia: one trial up in smoke, another stolen. Bummer.
- Ok, I had no idea there was a Tasting Cultures Foundation. Thanks, Facebook.