Papers on African leafy vegetables online.
How rhizobia work
Another attempt to persuade non-leguminous plants to enter into a nitrogen-fixing symbiosis with rhizobia.
Insect diet
A Kenyan researcher tries to get people to eat more insects.
African hope
It is all too easy to concentrate on the bad news out of Africa, so for a change on Biodiversity Day I’d like to point to three feel-good stories about how Africans are using biodiversity to make better lives for themselves. Via Timbuktu Chronicles come pieces on traditional medicine in Mali and local leafy greens in Kenya and Tanzania. And there’s also a World Vision report out today on how farmers in Tanzania are turning to an unusual crop.
Eco-entrepreneurs
The Independent newspaper has a great story about people in Britain who are trying to make a buck (or rather a pound, I suppose) from nature’s bounty. There are five examples, ranging from a guy making sloe gin to another who sells a chopped up, boiled seaweed called purple laver (Porphyra umbilicalis). That’s apparently the basis of an intriguing traditional Welsh treat called laverbread. How do these products reach consumers? A separate article – this one in The Times – on country markets provides one answer.