Category: Information

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A request from Gapminder

We are happy to pass on this request from Gapminder for feedback on their agricultural data, which came in as a comment on a recent post. And to apologize for the error it highlights in our characterization of the relationship between Gapminder and Google.

Dear Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog,

Thank you for your enthusiasm! You are so right it takes a while to find the interesting stories from the massive data. It is over 700 indicators which in different combinations can show interesting stuff. But just imagine trying to do that without the visualization. We are as excited as you.

Please, when you or your visitors find some interesting combination or revelation from the graphs, please let us know. We are soon going to implement a new function where we hint of some of the interesting facts that can be found in the graphs with the possibility to add some explaining text to each graph.

We therefore need good stories to tell from the graphs. Just drop us a line if you have an example you want to share with the world!

Just one correction though, Gapminder is not owned by Google. Gapminder is a foundation of its own, totally independent from Google. They only bought the software (Trendalyzer) to improve the technology further. Gapminder continues to use it in order to explain the world in an understandable way.

Thanks again and see you on Gapminder.org!

Staffan, Gapminder

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Gapminder adds agricultural data at last

We’ve blogged before about how cool it would be if agricultural production statistics were available in Gapminder, the visualization tool developed by the great Hans Rosling and his family. Well, the wait is over! Gapminder, which is now owned by Google, announced a couple of days ago that you can now use it to explore the FAOSTAT database. This will take weeks, if not months, to get to grips with, but I just leave you with a tasty morsel: what’s happened to area of fonio cultivation in Guinea and Nigeria in the past 45 years. Note the rapid increase in the past decade or so. And compare to the trend in overall production. Why has Guinea done so much better in increasing yields, at least since 1995? Real, or artifact? Oh, there will be so much fun to be had from this. Thanks, Gapminder! And thanks Jon for the headsup.

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Global Hunger Index goes interactive

The Global Hunger Index for 2009 has just been released with a very cool interactive map (see above). 1 There’s a general release from our friends at IFPRI and one focused on sub-Saharan Africa.

Coincidentally, or not, this just in: 2

Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, on Thursday will urge governments, donors, researchers, farmer groups, environmentalists, and others to set aside old divisions and join forces to help millions of the world’s poorest farming families boost their yields and incomes so they can lift themselves out of hunger and poverty.

Gates will say the effort must be guided by the farmers themselves, adapted to local circumstances, and sustainable for the economy and the environment.

The occasion for both news items is the award, tomorrow, of the World Food Prize to Dr Gebisa Ejeta.

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Nibbles: Markets, Easter Island, Honey, Coffee, Cowpea, Morocco, Urban Ag, Kenya

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Empty vessels and GMOs

You know the old story about the two women ranting at one another from their respective doorsteps on opposite sides of a narrow street. And a passing wit 3 remarked: “They will never agree, for they argue from different premises”. That’s how I feel about almost everything and everyone involved in almost every kind of discussion of genetic engineering.

Watch, if you will, this extract from a longer discussion with Michael Pollan, foodsayer extraordinaire.

Now, tell me, what exactly did he say that might cause someone else to say

I’m thinking he is just another tool. Now he suddenly supports “open source” genetic engineering…absolutely not….playing god/artifically manipulating DNA is not our place.

What’s with the “scare quotes”? How does a self-described seed breeder manage to elide playing god with artificially manipulating DNA?

I’m reminded of another quote, this one definitely attributable to Woody Allen. It runs something like this 4

The great advantage of being smart is that you can always act like an imbecile, while the reverse is never possible.

Hell yeah.