The 2nd International Conference on Health and Biodiversity will kick off next week in sunny Galway, Ireland. As ever, if you’re going to be there, and would like to tell the world about it, you’re more than welcome to use these pages to do so. Meanwhile, in Maccarese, Bioversity International has a space on its website for discussion on how biodiversity can be used to fight hunger and malnutrition: have your say!
Oekologie #14
Another of those pesky blog carnivals is up for your reading pleasure. We’re in there, with Luigi’s Modest Proposal to mash walkers with missing species. There’s also an interesting link to Coffee and Conservation, a new one to me, with a close look at just what shade-grown coffee means on the slopes of Panama. Eye-opening.
A devoted gardner speaks
Michael Pollan looks at things from the point of view of agricultural biodiversity, and concludes we are all being manipulated by corn. 1 2
BBC World to screen biodiversity documentary
People with access to BBC World TV channel, stand by for a treat. Tomorrow night (i.e. Friday 15 February 2008) at 20.30 GMT you can watch Forbidden Fruit, latest in the Earth Report series produced by Television Trust for the Environment. The programme follows two somewhat different scientists. Stefano Padulosi, of Bioversity International, works with colleagues from the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation in India to reinvigorate millets for nutrition and income. Isabella dalla Ragione runs Archeologi Arborea, an Italian organization dedicated to rediscovering, conserving and distributing long-lost varieties of fruit.
https://agro.biodiver.se/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/fruittve.movAbove (if the technology works) you should be able to see a clip from the film. (If not, consider going to the Earth Report page at TVE, and accept my apologies. Consider, too, getting a decent web browser.)
Agricultural Biodiversity Symposium
In celebration of UC Davis’ 100th anniversary, the campus will host an international conference focused on agricultural biodiversity — the concept that it is important to make use of and conserve a variety of plant and animal species in commercially viable agricultural operations.
More details of the symposium — scheduled for 14-18 September 2008 — from the web site. And, as ever, if anyone who is going wants to write it up for us, we’re always open.