The latest issue of Oekologie, a blog carnival, is up at Laelaps. ((And thanks, Brian, for accepting a late entry.)) Some choice gems there in our line of work. 21st Century Citizen has a list of “six classic books on organic growing” that is (seeks delicate word) idiosyncratic. There are a couple in there that I would definitely agree with. A couple that I personally would ditch in favour of others. And a couple that I haven’t read. But hey! It’s her list. Maybe some day I’ll do my own. Then there’s a good post from Living the Scientific Life about a research paper suggesting that African farmers use African bees to manage African elephants. The idea is full of holes, as the authors ((One of them an old colleague. Hey Fritz, how’s things?)) are the first to admit, but nevertheless an interesting approach to a difficult problem.
Creating and curing obesity
Better late than never, I guess. I’ve only just realized that the September issue of Scientific American was entitled Feast and Famine, and juxtaposed the ironic twin killer trends of hunger and obesity. Most of the material is unfortunately behind a paywall, but I have borrowed a hardcopy from a colleague and will be reading through it in the near future. If you’ve already done so and have any comments on what the various high-profile authors involved say about agrobiodiversity, let us know. One commentator has said:
This issue of Scientific American tells us there’s money to be made by creating and then curing obesity. That’s what the science approach to obesity is about and what the prevention-based approach is up against. ((I’ve borrowed my title from this article.))
Do you agree with this take?
Food Security and Nutrition Forum
The Agricultural Development Economics Division of FAO is launching a Food Security and Nutrition Forum (FSN Forum) on 16th October.
The purpose of this Forum is to provide an online platform where practitioners can share their experiences and resources, provide peer coaching and support and find collective solutions to issues related to Food Security and Nutrition (FS&N), with a focus on FS&N Policies and Strategies. Discussions will take place on the Forum’s mailing list and directly on the Forum’s website. The Web site is also an important pool of relevant resources and information on FS&N. The forum is public. Joining the forum is free, voluntary and open to anyone interested in contributing advice, experience and expertise for use by others, or for adapting others’ advice, experience and expertise for their own use.
I’ll keep an eye on the discussion and post any really interesting stuff that comes up on the role of agrobiodiversity in food and nutritional security.
Farmer Field Schools
I think we may have blogged before about a series of educational videos on the management of the rice crop aimed at your actual rice farmer. But there’s no harm in mentioning them again, especially since it gives me the opportunity of linking to the very useful resource centre of the Global Farmer Field School Network, which brings them all together and packages them with additional information. The site is serchable, and a quick look revealed quite a few interesting things on agrobiodiversity. Again, thanks to the indefatigable Danny for the link.
African Crop Science Meeting
The 8th African Crop Science Society meeting will take place in Egypt from 27 to 31 October. Could be some interesting papers, if anyone survives scrutiny of the conference web page). We keep saying this, and we keep meaning it: if any reader is at the meeting and wants to send a report, we’ll be happy to receive it.