- Take a tour around the world’s most important cacao germplasm collection.
- “[D]iversified systems were more profitable than monocropping,” but read the whole paper. You have 30 days, free.
- Open source science to measure the impact of biochar.
- “Pro-biochar activists can be as silly as these anti-biochar activists.” Well, duh. But thanks for explaining.
- Gehry builds Panama a Museum of Biodiversity, but seems to forget about agriculture.
- Kano’s fish market takes a hit.
- All about rancio.
Spring is in the air…
…and a young man’s thoughts naturally turn to gardens. Honduran gardens and their role in health. Cuban organic gardens. And via them, Around the World in 80 Gardens, a BBC documentary series that looks like it might be worth getting on DVD. And, finally, let us not forget Kew Gardens, 250 years old this year.
LATER: And there’s also an extensive discussion of the role of homegardens in providing nutrition for people living with HIV at the Solution Exchange for the Food and Nutrition Security Community in India. Thanks, Arwen.
LATER STILL: LEISA rounds up evidence of the worldwide gardening craze.
Mercato di coltivatori
Interesting to see the term “farmer’s market” — in English — being used in Italy, and not particularly for the benefit of tourists. Not sure how long it’s been in currency. I guess the concept has been around for a while.
Nibbles: Student, Sea cucumbers, Reindeer, Climate change, Urban beeking, Taro diseases, Markets, Apples
- Adam Forbes updates us on his travels in Ethiopia and Peru in search of seeds. Check out his pix too.
- “…sea cucumber populations across the globe, from Asia to the Galapagos, are increasingly in trouble.” Oh dear.
- Satellites help reindeer herders by looking for snow melt. Sounds very cost-effective.
- IFPRI says agriculture will be “dramatically” affected by climate change. Oh dear.
- Keeping bees in cities.
- All you ever wanted to know about taro diseases. With pic goodness! Via.
- Walking London’s markets.
- Navarre: “276 varieties of autochthonous apple tree have been described.”
Barking up the right tree
The new NWFP-Digest is out. That’s only if you get it by email, however. It’ll be on the website ((FAO’s link is dead.)) in a couple of days. As ever, lots of interesting links, but the one that really caught my eye was an article on the success of Ugandan bark cloth on the international fashion scene. It was named a “masterpiece of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity” by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 2005. Called lubugu, it is made from the bark of Ficus natalensis. Interestingly, this species is an invasive in Hawaii. Elsewhere in the Pacific, they make bark cloth — tapa — from Broussonetia papyrifera, but the dyes come from a Ficus, among other species.