- Adam Forbes updates us on his travels in Ethiopia and Peru in search of seeds. Check out his pix too.
- “…sea cucumber populations across the globe, from Asia to the Galapagos, are increasingly in trouble.” Oh dear.
- Satellites help reindeer herders by looking for snow melt. Sounds very cost-effective.
- IFPRI says agriculture will be “dramatically” affected by climate change. Oh dear.
- Keeping bees in cities.
- All you ever wanted to know about taro diseases. With pic goodness! Via.
- Walking London’s markets.
- Navarre: “276 varieties of autochthonous apple tree have been described.”
Nibbles: Advice, Bees, Chops, Delights
- Students offer organic advice.
- First Beekeeper.
- Mangalista pigs, from Hungarian obscurity to top tables.
- The latest botany carnival Berry Go Round 15 is up.
Visionary carp farming
The Ecologist has nominated its “10 visionaries with 10 big ideas for a better world.” The full article is behind a paywall, but the names are there, and Jimmie Hepburn gets the nod in agriculture.
That was a new name on me, but he and his wife Penny turn out to have become celebrities of a sort in the UK for running an organic aquaculture business in Devon.
“There’s great interest in the fish,” said Jimmie. “The truth is that we have forgotten how to eat fish like carp. In medieval times they were very popular. Now they are usually grown to huge proportions for anglers who take a photo of them and throw them back. Hardly anyone thinks of them as food.”
Congratulations to the Hepburns.
Down on the farm
“Now the cow’s status has changed. They’re no longer family members but seen as pieces of meat.”
A nice story from the LA Times of an elderly farm couple from Korea and their attachment to an old ox.
“This cow is better than a human. When it dies, I’ll be its chief mourner — and I’ll follow. I’m alive because of this cow.”
Nibbles: Rats, Capsicum
- Rats! And more rats!
- Looking for wild chilis in Bolivia.