I am painfully aware of the risk we run here at the Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog of becoming single-issue bores. 1 To a hammer, everything is a nail. And if your thing is agrobiodiversity, you’ll naturally be tempted to think that every problem can be solved by the judicious application of an agrobiodiversity thwack. How refreshing it must be to occasionally think against the grain, and question your most cherished assumptions. That possibility is why — apart from my native contrariness — I so enjoyed a recent paper in Field Crops Research very appropriately entitled “Conservation agriculture and smallholder farming in Africa: The heretics’ view.” 2 Even though it didn’t really have much to do with agricultural biodiversity.
Nibbles: Fisheries, Mangroves, European bison, Dormouse, Eating & drinking heirlooms, Apios, Kombucha, Organic and health
- Donwload a guide to sustainable sushi.
- It was World Mangrove Day last Sunday. Who knew.
- Poland/Belarus’s Bialowieza Primeval Forest and its bison threatened by climate change, politics.
- Endangered dormouse found crossing highway, but is it the edible sort beloved of the Romans?
- “Endangered heritage breeds have one saving grace: They’re generally tasty.” Even in cocktails.
- Radix gets to grips with Apios americana. Good luck!
- Did someone say fermentation?
- Did someone say single-issue bores?
Nibbles: Pork, Cocoyam, Farmers markets, Social media
- Roast pig in Bangkok. Wish I’d known about this place when I visited a few weeks back.
- Do you have Xanthosoma diversity and are you willing to share it? Mary would like to hear from you.
- Amazing diversity at an LA farmers market.
- Social media in the CG, including us!
Conference roundup
We’ve mentioned all of these before, probably multiple times, but let’s do it again. There are two important global conferences coming up in late August.
- 1st International IFOAM Conference on Organic Animal and Plant Breeding
- 2nd World Congress on Agroforestry
Then later in the year there’s another humdinger. It’s like a perfect agrobiodiversity gabfest storm.
As ever, we’re very happy to hear from participants, either as it happens or after the dust settles.
Nibbles: Crops for the Future, Fertile Crescent, Canadian First Nation
- A common collection of publications on neglected crops.
- Crescent, maybe, but fertile, not so much.
- “The beaches now are empty of herring roe, its harvest a lost art.”