- “These young people can’t farm.”
- Let the people tap!
- Wolf sighted in Massif Central. France surrenders.
- Fascinating discussion of how much water farmers “use”.
- “Blueberries have some stiff competition”. From plums.
- Millennium Seed Bank hit by credit crunch.
Nibbles: Cotton, Citrus, Fig, Permaculture, Turtles, Wine, Cacao, Fish
- Wild cotton use lands prize for boffin trio.
- Unesco to protect wild Citrus in India. And read the discussion.
- IV International Symposium on Fig.
- Permaculture: The Podcast.
- The NY Times thinks Americans should eat fewer turtles. And drink more South African wine.
- Meanwile, the WSJ gets into single-source chocolate.
- Nice map of freshwater fish diversity. But will it last? WWF has a plan.
Nibbles: Khush, Reindeer, Rice, Truffle, Quince
- Legendary rice breeder sets example for Punjab students.
- Sami worried about what climate change will mean for their reindeer, try to do something about it.
- Rice tillering gene deconstructed.
- Truffle pirated.
- Ağzınız şirin olsun!
Fowl play
The Rai3 TV programme Geo&Geo had a great little piece last night on AIRPA, which stands for Allevatrici Italiane Razze Pregiate Avicole. That translates as Italian Rearers of Esteemed Breeds of Fowl. But the word for “rearers” is in the feminine form, which means the society is open to women only. The rationale for this is as follows, according to the website: “le donne cercano di vedere le cose dal punto di vista dell’animale, applicano un allevamento compassionevole, solidarietà , maggiore delicatezza.” That is, women try to see things more from the point of view of the animal, and are more compassionate and delicate towards them. That was certainly obvious from the interviews in the programme. Anyway, if you’re interested in a list of fowl breeds in Italy, here it is.
Meat is murder
Murder to produce sustainably, that is. And here are three stories to prove it. In the arid West of the US, overgrazing has been stripping away the ground cover, and the soil, for decades. Some enterprising ranchers have finally seen the light, however, and are experimenting with how they graze cattle, moving their herds more, giving the vegetation time to bounce back, mimicking the behaviour of the mobile herbivores of the African savannas. But the jury is still out on whether it works, whether “sustainable ranching” is just the oxymoron many environmentalists have always said it is. Meanwhile, in Tibet, climate change is drying up streams. Shepherds have to go twice as far to take their flocks to water. Farmers have to dig twice as far down to strike water in their wells. And finally, all over the world, frogs are being driven to extinction because of our taste for their legs. It’s enough to drive one to vegetarianism.