You may remember a little discussion about agrobiodiversity and AIDS that we had here some time ago. Basically, I was wondering why there weren’t more biodiversity-based interventions to support people living with HIV/AIDS. Well, our friend Arwen Bailey now informs us that this came up at a recent seminar given by Dr Tim Johns at Bioversity International HQ in Rome, and he said that at the International AIDS Conference in Mexico last August, there was “a feeling that clinical interventions have gone as far as they can go without addressing the environment and diets of affected people.” Apparently the session on biodiversity and AIDS was standing room only. Arwen found a couple of abstracts on the topic on the programme. Thanks, Arwen.
Downmarket
More on the effect of the economic downturn on agrobiodiversity. First, there’s a series of reports from markets around the world from the BBC. A couple include information on food. From Beijing:
In the face of the economic crisis, Ms Liu said Chinese people are going back to buying basic vegetables like Chinese cabbage and potatoes.
And from Crawford Market, Mumbai:
Even spice sellers are feeling the pinch. Jabbar Prajapati says the cost of saffron has rocketed from 60 rupees (£0.82 / $1.20) per gram last year, to 300 rupees (£4 / $6) per gram. “People are not ready to buy at those prices,” he says.
Also, The Economist has a story about “victory gardens” in Little Rock, Arkansas. The money quote:
Many gardeners are focusing on “heirloom plants” rare varieties from earlier times that do not appeal to agribusiness.
Nibbles: Book, Moral and physical revulsion, DNA bank, Cacao genome, Cassava, Agroforestry, Dung products, Pork brain
- “How One Man Nearly Lost his Sanity, Spent a Fortune, and Endured an Existential Crisis in the Quest for the Perfect Garden.” Thanks, Danny.
- Bitter food=betrayal.
- DNA bank for Irish dairy and beef cattle being established.
- “… a document from 1631 … mentioned threats to the cacao crop.”
- USAID supports cassava farmers in Africa.
- The simpukng forest gardens of the Dayak deconstructed.
- Shit!
- 1170% of your daily cholesterol per serving. Sounds good to me.
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.
The lactose reflux problem
Stephen J. Gould said that “there’s been no biological change in humans for 40,000 or 50,000 years.” Gregory Cochran and Henry Harpending beg to differ and, in “The 10,000 Year Explosion,” point to evidence for a recent acceleration in human evolution (e.g. lactose intolerance) ((Fans of the Coen brothers will recognize the title of this post as a kind of a quote from one of their films, and will indulge me. Others, not, on both counts. So be it.)) and blame it on agriculture. Not everyone agrees. I can’t help finding the idea of the end of genetic change somewhat preposterous, a priori. ((Culture doesn’t replace genetic change, “culture constrains genetic changes.”)) But one must find data. Check out the interview with Cochran at 2blowhards. ((It’s in several parts, and some of the internet buzz on the book is rounded up in this installment.)) What all this means to us here, of course, is that when we assess variation in the nutritional value of agrobiodiversity, we need to remember that that value may differ among human individuals and populations.