More African silk

A long profile in the Boston Globe of a woman called Catherine Craig. She did field work at Gombe National Park in Tanzania in the 1970s, then became an expert on spider silk, before returning to Gombe a few years ago. The destruction she saw appalled her. So she did something:

In 2003, Craig founded Conservation through Poverty Alleviation International, which took its seemingly simple idea – plant trees, raise larvae, earn income – to Madagascar, a biologically rich Indian Ocean island nation where deforestation is also a problem and which had a tradition of silk production and weaving on which to build.

Which may be good news for Madagascar, but what’s happening in Gombe?

Nibbles: Chocolate, Africa cubed, Green wall

Nibbles: Vine, Food, Soil, Malnutrition squared, Coca

Beer news

In Uganda, the Finance Ministry recently cut the tax on beers made from local ingredients. Nile Breweries responded by dropping the price of its Eagle and Eagle Extra beers, made from local sorghum.

Mr Onapito-Ekomoloit said the company was taking the move in the “interest of strengthening Uganda’s agricultural base through sorghum farmer development.”

Win-win-win. I’ll drink to that.

Meanwhile, on another continent, a newly-brewed sorghum beer suffers “a pervasive taste of iron. Not like sucking on a rusty nail but its definitely there”.