The new NWFP-Digest is out. At least if you get the alert from FAO by email. If you go to the “Current issue” page on the website you still get the last issue. It should change in the next few days. But why no RSS feed? I’m beginning to think it’s just me that thinks RSS feeds can significantly boost ease of use at no cost.
Rare crops need love too
Professor Stephen Hopper, director of the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, in London, argues that the world is currently too reliant on just a handful of key species of edible plants for food.
Welcome aboard, Prof. Hopper!
Nibbles: Cacao, Forbes, Gum arabic, Bees, Private sector, Kumquats, Maize, Edible weeds, Herbs, Medicinals, Banana wine, Cachaca. Obamas’ dog
- The history of cacao cultivation, breeding and conservation in Trinidad explained.
- The latest update from Adam searching for seeds around the world. Go, dude.
- “Uganda exports 0.1% of the world’s gum Arabica…” Hardly seems worth it.
- Giving bees a hand. It’s hard to be a bee in the city.
- An active participation is required from the private sector and non-government organisations to take technological advances in farming and its practices to the grassroots level.”
- Kumwhat? Kumquat, that’s what.
- Bush sells maize. Maize surrenders.
- Let them eat weeds.
- But don’t let Thais eat herbs!
- Climate change bad for medicinal plants too.
- Banana wine in Malawi. Pass the bottle.
- How to make cachaca. A couple of friends and I once spent a night looking for the best caipirinhas in Santa Cruz de la Sierra. Can’t remember if we found them.
- First Dog found.
Nibbles: Trees, Fibres, Journal, Local sourcing, d’Yquem, Capybaras
- Sacred groves explained.
- Filipinos encouraged to grow fibres.
- New AJFAND is out.
- “Inclusive business models†good for livelihoods, maybe agrobiodiversity too.
- Because it’s there. Disease and fermentation.
- There’s a booming market for chiguiro meat in Venezuela, which is bad for the chiguiro in Colombia.
New crops tapped by ARS
The USDA’s ARS is apparently optimistic about two new crops they’ve been looking at. Or not so new in one case. Guayule, or Parthenium argentatum, was actually used in pre-Columbian times for its latex. It could also now be a source of bioenergy. And milkweed seems to have a lot of weird uses.