Want to grow a tea-garden? My mother-in-law unavailable for comment.
Educated fruit
This story — EARTH University Bananas and Pineapples Arrive in Whole Foods Markets’ Stores in the Southeast — needs a bit of unpacking.
There is an agricultural university in Costa Rica called EARTH; Escuela de Agricultura de la Región Tropical Húmeda. EARTH was founded in 1990 on a former banana plantation, and has its own model banana farm. Also, two pineapple plots. It aims to teach a kind of ethical agriculture. Profits from the sales to Whole Foods Markets support scholarships and research and investment in pineapple production. The Southeast in the story refers to Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Even though Whole Foods Markets is an 800 lb gorilla, on balance this is probably A Good Thing.
Youth farmstands in the Garden State
Rutgers University’s New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station has something called a Youth Farmstand Program. Farmstands — market stalls selling local produce, often organically grown — offer “a hands-on entrepreneurial experience to youth in the mechanics of owning and operating a small business, based on the premise that experience really is the best teacher.” They also provide “a unifying framework for youth, farmers & communities to achieve success. Each needs the others’ support to grow and prosper, so everyone wins!” Sounds like a great idea to promote agricultural biodiversity, better nutrition and youth development all at the same time.
Rice research highlighted
Video, slideshow and more on IRRI’s work.
Breadfruit overlooked
USAToday has done a nice write-up of the National Tropical Botanical Gardens in Hawaii, but, unaccountably, this does not even mention the work of the Breadfruit Institute, which is a department of the NTBG. I blogged about the Institute and Diane Ragone’s pioneering efforts in breadfruit conservation not too long ago. They really should get more exposure. But so should other NTBG work on cultivated plants, such as the restoration of the taro terraces at Limahuli, which are now used to grow various varieties of a number of traditional Hawaiian crops. There’s a photo of the terraces in the USAToday piece, but the text is entirely about wild plants. Important stuff, but why leave out the amazing work going on in agricultural biodiversity?