- What’s it like being the only vet in a country? The BBC tells us.
- The CBD on how to be a good pastoralist.
- James does a mini-roundup of the India GM brinjal to-do.
- Mapping the fast food culture.
- Mexico wants Unesco to recognize culinary traditions. As if tamales were in danger of extinction. Didn’t France ask for the same last year?
- Heirloom chickens don’t taste like chicken.
- Deconstructing the cultural significance of the colour of corn.
- “GM crops: still not a panacea for poor farmers.” In other news, still no cure for cancer.
Nibbles: Artichoke, Barley, Aquaculture, Organic farms, Pig conservation, Involuntary parks, Chokeberries, Grass evolution, sustainability
- Jeremy says: Put an artichoke in your tank!
- American boffins say: I know what, instead of making beer with it, let’s feed barley to fish.
- Ugandan fishermen say: Want a “boutique” fish?
- USDA says: “The nation’s organic farms and ranches have higher average sales and higher average production expenses than U.S. farms overall…”
- South African animal genetic resources experts say: Save our pigs!
- The Economist says (we paraphrase) war is good for biodiversity conservation … but where are the wild relatives?
- Right here, in the boreal north, and we need to conserve it, and the knowledge to use it, say Canadian conservationists.
- Rainfall, not temperature, was the trigger for C4 grasses say other American boffins.
- “It’s a sloppy use of language to equate vegetables and food,” says Rachel. We agree.
The challenge of keeping up with information on the challenge of improving nutrition
SciDev has a blitz on The Challenge of Improving Nutrition. It looks like it might repay closer scrutiny.
Nibbles: Freakeh, Communication, CBD, konjac
- Freekeh, the New Quinoa? Mebbe. Meh.
- Biodiversity loss matters, and communication is crucial. Uh’huh.
- “We’re all gardeners in some way or another, so we can play a role.” Convention on Biological Diversity gets it?
- Got konjac? The Toad’s has flowered.
Vote for innovative nutrition solutions
We had an email from Yvonna Tan alerting us to the Ashoka Changemakers competition for innovative solutions to improve nutrition. Yvonna wanted us to recommend her project to our readers, but we’re uncomfortable doing that. There are lots of great-sounding projects in the list, from fake goats to vegetable gardens. So while we’re greatful to Yvonna for poking us, we’ll leave you to choose the projects you want to support. You have to register, and that requires responding to an email, so it is a bit time-consuming. But the winning project gets $5000 so you might consider it time well spent. You have till 8 February.