I’ve just come across two Flickr groups which are intensely interesting from an agrobiodiversity perspective. Flickr is a photo sharing site, and I have in fact blogged about it before here, for example on how it could be used to map crop diversity. The two groups bring together photos taken in markets, with a lot of fruits and vegetables featured. As with my previous post on tomatoes, have a look at the mapping option in particular. A great time-waster, but I bet it could be used to look at geographic patterns in vegetable diversity in markets.
Twittering sustainable agriculture
If you’re a twitter and are interested in sustainable agriculture issues, including agrobiodiversity, you may like to participate in the chat that is being planned for this coming Sunday from 8pm ET to 10pm. The focus will be education and the messaging around sustainability. The shape of things to come?
Latest AJFAND arrives
The latest issue of the African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development (Vol. 9 No. 2) is out.
Nutrition features prominently as a result of the Ugandan Nutrition Congress which was successfully held in mid-February 2009 and we shall continue to announce the upcoming International Conference on Nutrition to be held in Bangkok in October 2009 and which will give prominence to African issues
That extends to Editor-in-Chief Prof. Ruth Oniang’o’s editorial.
“Edible Expeditions” exhibition excites exceedingly
The Conservatory of Flowers in San Francisco, “North America’s oldest existing public conservatory,” has an exhibition on until November called “Edible Expeditions.”
It’s a chance to see food in the wild as visitors take a discovery journey of edible plants from around the world. Arranged in lush demonstration gardens, Edible Expeditions highlights the many delicious products that we enjoy from tropical countries like chocolate, vanilla, coffee, rice and spices galore. Interactive demonstrations help visitors understand how their food goes from vine to dine. And families will enjoy the many hands on Edibilicious activities that allow children to explore tropical roots, fruits, leaves and seeds with their senses.
Sounds great, but we’d like to hear about it firsthand. If anybody out there goes, let us know what you thought of it. Via.
Press alerted as to importance of agrobiodiversity
USDA had a nice press release out yesterday about the importance of conserving crop diversity. The example used is the Russian wheat aphid threat to the United States back in 1986. But why do this just now? In preparation for the Third Session of the Governing Body of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture? But that’s two weeks away. Maybe for the International Day of Biodiversity? That’s still a week away, though. I don’t get it. I like it: the time is always right to bang on about plant genetic resources conservation. But I don’t get it.