Californian agriculture schools are on a recruiting drive, apparently. They’re adding things like “environmental studies” to their names and using slogans such as “Agricultural Research is UDDERLY Awesome” to broaden their appeal. But why not make more of the astonishing variety of crops, livestock and associated organisms — agrobiodiversity — to attract students? People love diversity. How about: “Save the Knobbed Russet: study horticulture.” Ok, you can no doubt come up with something better…
Agrobiodiversity around the home
British homegardens to be surveyed.
Cheese and olives
A column in the current issue of The Economist uses the example of Gruyère and Emmental cheeses in Switzerland to make the case that, if Europe wants to protect its traditional farmers and producers — and the agrobiodiversity which underpins their livelihoods — in the face of globalization, moving upmarket and selling expensive niche products to rich foreigners may be a better bet than “to deploy subsidies and tariffs to compete artificially on price.” Which is mostly what’s happening now.
[EU farm Commissioner] Mariann Fischer Boel … has urged food producers to focus on quality, heritage and new markets. This summer, she told exporters that import tariffs will move in only one direction in the coming years: “downwardsâ€.
Of course, that will require marketing savvy. It will also require a robust quality-monitoring and labelling systems. Because, as a New Yorker piece on the “slippery business” of trading in fake Italian extra virgin olive oil entertainingly demonstrates this week, there are plenty of wise guys around ready to exploit loopholes and weaknesses.
Later: Cheese, olives, and wine!
Bon appetit
Never rains but it pours. More food stuff from bookforum.com.