- Compare and contrast the banana and the Big Mac. Dan Koeppel takes it to the masses.
- Lamenting the loss of “amber waves of grain”. Ingrate.
- Cameroon’s agriculture vulnerable to climate change. I’ll alert the media.
- Look what I got you for National Pollinator Week next week; a World Checklist of Bees. Neat-o.
- Celebrate food and farmers in Eden.
- “The core of the strategy is a short-term provision of improved seeds suited to the local environment and fertilizers like Di-Ammonium Phosphate (DAP) and urea accompanied by advice on how to use them.” Sounds familiar…
- Meanwhile, in non-Millennium Villages: “While his maize cobs were smaller than others, the seed was of a much higher quality; the fibre of his cotton was also much longer.”
- Japanese yam fields in peril. Yams as in Dioscorea or sweet potato or what? So annoying.
- Neolithic myths?
- California apricot grower explores Central Asia, comes up trumps. Jeremy comments: CandyCots? I think I want to be sick.
Nibbles: Medicinal rice, Dairy, Dates, Food, Cuba, Mango
- Red rice extract prevents heart problems.
- Got milk?
- Marrakesh date palms in trouble. But back in 2002 Gary Martin was doing something about it, I thought.
- “Diet for a small planet” revisited.
- Cuba’s urban agriculture revolution.
- “The Mango Mela, an agricultural fair dedicated to the fruit, … featured only 20 varieties, compared with more than 100 last year.”
Nibbles: IT, Banana
- Ordering pizza on your iPhone? Would you like germplasm with that? Thanks, Samy.
- The banana commodity chain unpacked (check out the “brief” too). Thanks, Mary.
Breakfast Nibbles: Blueberries, Tomatoes, Coffee, Assorted seeds, African potato, Branding, Mobiles, Food, Myanmar
- Remember to eat blueberries to remember.
- Darwin’s tomatoes? The genetic change identified.
- Wild coffee conservation. Danny says wild coffee genes assessed at between 0.4 and 1.5 billion US$. Joe not available for comment.
- “But if you don’t grow your seed, you lose your power.”
- Amadumbe being sold to supermarkets in South Africa. Great. But someone please tell me: what the heck is it?
- More coffee? More for coffee!
- “Sometimes our expert is stumped.”
- Mark Bittman makes the case for vegetarianism (and much more) on TED video. Money quote: “It’s not the beta-catotene, it’s the plant.”
- FAO maps Myanmar agriculture.
Farming and tourism
You may remember my recent post from Lima bemoaning the lost opportunity of linking agrobiodiversity education with tours of an archaeological site. Here’s an example of such an opportunity emphatically grasped. An historic farmhouse in Rhode Island is offering “visitors, particularly children, a glimpse into the lost world of small-scale farming in New England, when the distance between the chicken coop and the dinner plate was much shorter.” And that includes heirloom varieties, for example of tomatoes, of which the staff grow 30. They also keep some local ((Later: Ok, Jeremy, how about “locally important”?)) livestock breeds, including Red Devon cattle, famous for pulling settlers’ wagon trains West.
“One of the things we’ve worked on since we’ve been here is constantly trying to cultivate in people’s minds and hearts a preservation ethic, not just about preserving an old house,” he said, “but preserving landscapes.”