People from the Stockholm Resilience Centre and Albaeco interviewed researchers to get usable answers to important questions. They asked Professor Gretchen Daily, of Stanford University, to tackle “Why is biodiversity important?”. Watch her reply here. She gets going at about 1’15”. Could you do better?
Breakfast Nibbles: Blueberries, Tomatoes, Coffee, Assorted seeds, African potato, Branding, Mobiles, Food, Myanmar
- Remember to eat blueberries to remember.
- Darwin’s tomatoes? The genetic change identified.
- Wild coffee conservation. Danny says wild coffee genes assessed at between 0.4 and 1.5 billion US$. Joe not available for comment.
- “But if you don’t grow your seed, you lose your power.”
- Amadumbe being sold to supermarkets in South Africa. Great. But someone please tell me: what the heck is it?
- More coffee? More for coffee!
- “Sometimes our expert is stumped.”
- Mark Bittman makes the case for vegetarianism (and much more) on TED video. Money quote: “It’s not the beta-catotene, it’s the plant.”
- FAO maps Myanmar agriculture.
Carnival time, again
Berry Go Round No. 5 is up at A Neotropical Savanna. There’s a lot celebrating the birthday of Linnaeus on 23 May in the Gregorian calendar. ((If we’d known that last week, we might have made more of it.)) But there are also some dandy posts on food and agriculture, to whit: My Asparagus Adventure, Best Fruit Ever? (the pomegranate), and Drought for Thought.
Berry Go Round is fast becoming a don’t miss carnival; Mary Farmer (no jokes, please) did a great job putting this month’s edition together.
Platform for Agrobiodiversity Research
Bioversity International has just announced the launching of the website of the Platform for Agrobiodiversity Research. You can subscribe to a newsletter, register on and consult a directory of experts, and there’s an online forum coming.
Nibbles: Maize, CWRs, CBD, Icelandic food, Coffee, Incense, Biodiversity Day, Medicinals, Farmers’ rights
- The history of tejate in Mexico illuminates “central irony of globalization.” Cheers!
- WWF says crop wild relatives and landraces in centres of diversity are threatened. Right.
- Danny Hunter reports along much the same lines from COP9, and then reports some more. Such a workhorse!
- The intricacies of Nordic food preparation. Would you say this was cooked, Jeremy?
- Today’s how-x-changed-the-world story brought to you by coffee. Great after rotten shark too.
- Frankincense is good for you. Hippies comment at length.
- Jeremy earns his keep.
- TRAFFIC promotes project ‘Saving Plants that Save Lives and Livelihoods’ at COP9, including with video.
- And the websites just keep on coming. One on Farmers’ Rights launched too.