- “It is urgent to mainstream urban and peri-urban horticulture, and to recognize its role as a motor in food security and nutrition strategies.” Course it is.
- Top banana conference opens in Trichy, India.
- School grows more than food; pupils and money too.
- Ford has a great idea: Science Tourism. We’ve done a lot of that ourselves, but never categorized it.
- ICRISAT protects non-agricultural biodiversity shock.
- Cancun and agriculture: poised for success … imperiled … and finally, footnoted.
- Meanwhile, our pals at the Climate Change blog ask the tough questions. Answers on a postcard, please.
- Rice has “difficult” seeds, says Kew.
- Michael Pollan leads the charge for DNA Deniers.
- Popped rice in India, via Mexico.
- Obesity more dangerous to US national security than homosexuality!
- Four paradoxes on the ‘lazy man’s crop’.
Nibbles: Nagoya, Pomegranate Juice, Fort Collins, Sudan, Americas, Brachiaria, Chile, Nutrition, Deppe
- Possibly interesting article on Nagoya ABS Protocol, but I’ll never know.
- Pomegranate juice fraud?
- Fort Collins genebank in the (local) news.
- Sudan to become self-sufficient in wheat. Sorghum also involved.
- James of the Giant Corn gives idiot pontificator a well-deserved drubbing.
- Brachiaria forage not a “magic bullet” shock.
- Chile moans about lack of benefit sharing, but fails to do anything about it.
- DG of Bioversity beats agricultural biodiversity for nutrition and health drum shock.
- Carol Deppe has a web site. (she’s the Backyard Vegetable Breeder person.)
Nibbles: Milk deaths, Peas, Botany, Mixed cropping
- The perils of industrial agriculture‘s race to the bottom.
- Heirloom veg nuts play with gene jockeys and everybody wins.
- The roadside botanist, bananas and cassava biodiversity.
- Biodiversity can support a greener revolution in Africa; fine paper. Ignore the press release; it’s rubbish.
Save the date to watch Agriculture, Health and Nutrition linked
December 7th, just after noon on the east coast of the US, will see a live webcast of a seminar at IFPRI. The teaser lists five big names, and says three of them will speak. Here’s the pitch:
Agricultural policies influence the quantity and quality of foods farmers produce, as well as the portfolio of crops they grow and the production methods they use. Thus, agricultural policies have a clear impact on human health and nutrition. In turn, health and nutrition policies can affect agriculture by influencing whether farmers and their families are healthy and strong enough to do the labor required on their farms. Yet although they may share goals, professionals in agriculture, nutrition, and health rarely have opportunities to discuss areas of mutual interest, exploit synergies and pursue outcomes together that are beneficial to society.
The timing might be a tad awkward, but maybe we’ll try and organize something live of our own around a couple of cold ones. And we’ll be sure to let you know if we have a hashtag. 1 Other upcoming IFPRI seminars are listed here, in case you want to practice.