Are supermarkets good or bad for farmers? Indians not sure.
Genebanks in the news
Are genebanks becoming sexy or something? In the past few days there have been:
- a VOA News piece on the USDA-ARS Plant Genetic Resources Unit at the Geneva, NY campus of Cornell University, focusing on their world-famous apple collection;
- an article in Farm & Ranch Guide on the USDA’s Small Grains Collection at the University of Idaho’s Research and Extension Center at Aberdeed; and
- an article in Kauai Garden Island News on how to prepare breadfruit which resulted from a cook-off at the National Tropical Botanical Gardens, home of the world’s largest breadfruit collection.
Amidst all the recent media frenzy about the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, it is good to see “normal” genebanks also featured in the news every once in a while.
Native potato marketing wins prize
It never rains but it pours. Peter Ballantyne from AgInfo News has sent us information on another attempt to forge “intelligent markets” linking small rural producers with urban consumers. T’ikapapa, “which packs and markets specially selected Peruvian native potatoes,” has just won a SEED Award. It is part of the Papa Andina Project coordinated by CIP and funded by Swiss Development Cooperation. The SEED initiative is Supporting Entrepreneurs for Environment and Development.
Indications of origin
China and EU agree on DOC. Someone mention zeitgeist?
Transhumance in central Italy
Another interesting thing about the Gran Sasso (pictured above in a photo I took a few days ago) that is related to agricultural biodiversity, apart from the famous lentil I talked about earlier ((And thanks to Lorenzo for adding some useful details to the post.)), is that its grazing lands are at one end of a famous transhumance route.
Transhumance is the seasonal movement of livestock in search of pasture. The route in question, the Royal Shepherd’s Track, has been proposed as a World Heritage Site. Its other end is at Capitanata, near Foggia, almost 300 km away to the southeast.
The Track may have been in use for a thousand years, but until recently the future of this way of life in Europe was bleak:
…though transhumance seemed doomed a few decades ago, all of a sudden — thanks to the commitment of a number of dedicated players as well as support from people in high places (the EU, Slow Food) — it looks like it’s due for a reprieve…
A key player in the transhumance revival is Roberto Rubino of Anfosc, ((Associazione nazionale formaggi sotto il cielo, or the National Association of Cheeses Under the Sky.)) an Italian organisation devoted to quality cheeses made from the milk of animals that live outdoors (‘sotto il cielo’) in ancient pastures rich with hundreds of different grasses, wild flowers and herbs instead of being shut up in stables and pumped with artificial food…
Patrick Fabre of the Maison de la Transhumance in St Martin de Crau, Provence, is singing from the same hymn sheet. Like Rubino, he notes that animals fed naturally and grazing out in the open are healthier, while the meat (and/or cheese) they produce is of superior quality and distinctive flavour. Some of these regional products (Sisteron lamb, fromage d’alpage) enjoy Label Rouge and/or Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) status, and command a corresponding premium.