National Geographic’s eight-month series on food has caught up with Colin Khoury’s blockbuster paper on how many crops feed the world. The infographic on diet similarity looks ok on the printed page, I guess:
But it’s way cooler online.
Strategizing about conservation of horticultural crops
Another report from one of our correspondents at the International Horticultural Congress:
There were some great discussions during the IHC’s workshop on global conservation strategies for horticultural crops. Few of these exist, and even fewer have actively been implemented. The participants heard from several speakers about the state of development and implementation of the strategies on citrus, strawberry, apple and banana. It appears that the banana strategy, which is currently already in its first revision, is the furthest along the road of implementation — largely thanks to the support of MusaNet. Having the backing of the conservation and use community of a particular crop is key for the development and success of a strategy — and it helps if the community is already organized in some shape or form. The fact that many horticultural fruit crops are not on Annex 1 of the ITPGRFA can really hamper the development and implementation process of global conservation strategies (in fact, so far there are no global conservation strategies for crops which are not on Annex 1) and several participants felt that horticultural crops deserve more recognition under the Treaty.
Speaking truth to power
And much good does it do.
@gatesfoundation @BillGates People like @ICRAF @go_vegetables @BioversityInt @ILRI working to get fruits, veg, meat to kids who need them
— AgroBioDiverse (@AgroBioDiverse) August 5, 2014
@rajshah @JohnKerry The world's #genebanks, especially those of @CGIAR, are at the root of food security @planttreaty
— AgroBioDiverse (@AgroBioDiverse) August 4, 2014
Nibbles: Bamboo, Green Wall, Rubber, Cacao, Quinoa
- Fancy a bamboo tour of China? Maybe these guys from Alabama will go.
- You can build with it, of course.
- Even help build a wall, perhaps.
- Rubber won’t be much good for that, I guess. But it has its uses.
- Always has.
- And then there’s cacao.
- Sustainable, of course.
- With all that that entails with regard to land rights, for example.
- And let’s stop saying that all these things poor people grow are somehow bad for them, shall we?
Nibbles: Pig genes, Eating pork, Mesoamerican crops, Apple family farming, Global food security, Wild food in Europe, Student crop videos, Important plants, Teff, Finger millet, Pacific NW grains, African veggies, Genius mangoes
- Asian genes in European pigs are a good thing.
- How about American pigs though?
- Great Spanish language cacao infographic. And more along the same lines.
- Innovative apple family farming in the Tyrol.
- Not sure that will be much use in terms of global food security, as per this recent review, but you never know. Because, you know, climate change?
- Well, there’s always wild food. Though in some places more than others.
- Student videos on the origin of food plants.
- But did any of them change their lives?
- Oxfam thinks teff can change lives.
- Different part of same continent, different grain to revitalize.
- Different continent, different grains to revitalize.
- Bah, who needs cereals when you have indigenous vegetables?
- Wait, what? Seedless mangoes? Why is this not first-page news?
