Are you going to the international symposium on “Underutilized plants for food, nutrition, income and sustainable development” in Arusha, Tanzania on 3-7 March? John Sowei certainly is, all the way from Papua New Guinea, to talk about sago. My old friends from the Pacific Lois Englberger (her Let’s Go Local activities in Pohnpei have featured regularly in these pages) and Mary Taylor are also presenting papers. And I believe another old friend, Hannah Jaenicke, is already in Arusha, helping with the organization. John, Lois, Mary, Hannah — or anyone else: do let us know if you’d like to blog the event for us.
Building a better chocolate market
It is possible there may be too many ethical cocoa schemes out there. There’s Fairtrade and the Cadbury Cocoa Partnership. And the Good Inside Cocoa Programme, with Mars and Nestle on board. Is it all getting a bit too complicated? Do we have too much of this good thing?
Of rats, bamboo and semelparous mass flowering
Over at Ecosystem and Poverty, our friend and occasional guest contributor Andy is asking whether anyone has a use for bamboo flowering culms… BTW, thanks for linking to our latest posts, Andy.
Yet more potato salad
And part 38. “La papa es peruana.” Chileans unavailable for comment.
More hot cocoa
Never rains but it pours. Mars and Nestle jump on the ethical cacao bandwagon.