Organic agriculture

March 28, 2009March 28, 2009

Visionary carp farming

The Ecologist has nominated its “10 visionaries with 10 big ideas for a better world.” The full article is behind a paywall, but the names are there, and Jimmie Hepburn gets the nod in agriculture.

That was a new name on me, but he and his wife Penny turn out to have become celebrities of a sort in the UK for running an organic aquaculture business in Devon.

“There’s great interest in the fish,” said Jimmie. “The truth is that we have forgotten how to eat fish like carp. In medieval times they were very popular. Now they are usually grown to huge proportions for anglers who take a photo of them and throw them back. Hardly anyone thinks of them as food.”

Congratulations to the Hepburns.

March 27, 2009March 27, 2009

Nibbles: Conference, Funding, Borlaug, Bananas, Indian genebanks, Cassava cooking, Bees, Beer

FARA-led Conference on Agricultural Biodiversity in Africa, 2010
Switzerland will not cut support to genebank in Africa.
Yesterday’s birthday paean to Norman Borlaug,
Man worries (inchoately) about banana extinction.
“Over 20,000 indigenous varieties of Indian rice and other food grains have been conserved under Crop Germplasm Conservation at the gene banks.”
IITA gets USAID support to come up with better cassava recipes. Luigi comments: “All the money in the world will not be enough.”
Giving native bees a home.
Bespoke organic beer in the UK. Sweet!

March 14, 2009March 13, 2009

That is one of the questions addressed by a paper in Journal of Applied Ecology which looks at the ecogeographic distribution of organic farming in the UK. “Land sparing” means excluding land from intensive agriculture to protect biodiversity. “Land sharing” is a contrasting strategy which would make all agricultural land better for biodiversity. The study recommends

…continuing to use intensive agriculture to meet our food production targets, but using organic farms in suitable areas to provide islands of biodiversity, as well as a smaller amount of food.

So the vote is for land sparing. Ok, fair enough. What gets me, though, is that, as usual, it is only the effect of agriculture on the surrounding wild biodiversity that is being considered. What about the biodiversity that is an integral part of the agricultural system itself? Doesn’t agrobiodiversity count for something in all this?

March 12, 2009March 12, 2009

Nibbles: Fruits, Natives, Economics, Artichoke, Gardens

Beautiful Images of Strange Fruits. Botanical not culinary, mostly
Hawaiians paid to plant natives.
Dismal science tells boffins which cattle breeds to save. Yeah, because we all so trust economists these days, right?
“Cynara 2009, the 7th International Symposium on Artichoke, Cardoon And Their Wild Relatives, will be held in Saint Pol de LÃ©on, Brittany, France, the ‘home town’ of the famous artichoke variety Camus de Bretagne.” Via.
Pinoy allotment manual.

March 11, 2009March 11, 2009

Nibbles: Aquaculture, Philippines organic, Risk mapping, Jatropha, Plum

FAO’s Regional Aquaculture Information System (RAIS) website launched. Covers the Gulf states.
Pinoy farmers urged to go organic.
Climate change risk mapped in SE Asia. Cambodia surrenders.
Local weed makes good in Mexico.
The Prunus mume collection at the Beijing Botanic Garden.

Category: Organic agriculture

Visionary carp farming

Nibbles: Conference, Funding, Borlaug, Bananas, Indian genebanks, Cassava cooking, Bees, Beer

Land sharing or sparing?

Nibbles: Fruits, Natives, Economics, Artichoke, Gardens

Nibbles: Aquaculture, Philippines organic, Risk mapping, Jatropha, Plum