Category: Policy

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Haiti turns to its local crops

The Economist had an article on food security in Haiti in last week’s edition. It’s worth reading in full, but I’d like to highlight two points here. First, the official in charge of “arable policy” at the ministry of agriculture, one Marcel Augustin, is said to think that

…Haitians should be encouraged to change their eating habits and adopt the diets of their grandparents. Locally grown crops such as yam, manioc, sorghum, sweet potatoes and maize were the staples of previous generations, who had rice [only] as a Sunday treat. They grow easily in Haiti and provide a nutritious alternative to rice… 1

Second, the article points out that USAID has changed its policy from simply handing out foodstuffs imported from the United States to distributing cash vouchers instead, which of course people can spend on locally produced food. Encouraging developments, the effects of which, on agrobiodiversity as well as food security, it will be interesting to follow.

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Nibbles: Tea nomenclature, Medicinal plants, Robert Fortune, Gender gap, Japanese women farmers, AnGR conservation, Herbarium databases, India & Africa

  • Tea diversity 101.
  • Tea is medicinal, isn’t it? Certainly some other plants introduced to the West by the same person are.
  • I could tell you all about the gender gap in tea cultivation in Kenya.
  • And I bet there’s one in Japan too.
  • Not to mention in livestock-keeping. But I don’t suppose that will affect (ILRI’s) plans for a Kenyan livestock genebank.
  • Crowdsourcing herbarium data. Maybe there’s some specimens of wild tea species in there…
  • India reaches out to Africa. ICRISAT involved. Debal Deb, probably not so much. Chai, anyone?
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Nibbles: Global health journal, Agroecology, Sachs & the MVP, British trees survey, Tunisian pear disease, Obama & biofuels, Seed Savers, Chaffey, Indian phenotyping

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Impact of climate change on business apparently does not include loss of crop diversity

I suppose I should have expected it. A new UNEP report is out, entitled GEO-5 for Business: Impacts of a Changing Environment on the Corporate Sector. GEO-5 being, of course, the fifth Global Environment Outlook, “a consultative, participatory process that builds capacity for conducting integrated environmental assessments for reporting on the state, trends and outlooks of the environment.”

These are the risks the consultative, participatory report highlights for the food and beverage industry:

  • Changes in availability, quality, price, and sources of agricultural products due to climate change and other environmental changes
  • Increased cost of fossil fuel-based energy
  • Reduced crop yields due to water scarcity
  • Conflicts among different users of limited water resources
  • Increased competition for arable land
  • Depletion of seafood stocks
  • Increased consumer and regulatory pressure to reduce environmental impacts of meat production and of chemicals and fertilizers

And these are the opportunities:

  • New markets for alternative supplies or more climate-resilient food varieties
  • Opportunities for businesses in new agricultural growing zones
  • Expanded markets for organic foods and sustainable food production
  • Reputational benefits from sustainable food product certifications

Nothing, however, about the risk of loss of crop diversity, and how this would impact the ability to supply those burgeoning, beckoning markets with the needed “climate-resilient food varieties.”

Which, as I say, should probably not have surprised me. But still.

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Nibbles: Assam and CC, China ag landscape, Breeding for CC, Patenting pros & cons, Quinoa sustainability, Nordic cheeses, Italian endangered breeds

  • Rethinking rice-based agriculture in Assam.
  • And China, maybe?
  • By breeding your way out of the problem, maybe?
  • And then patenting the result? Well, maybe not.
  • Here comes fair-trade quinoa.
  • Nordic cheeses to go with those insects from a few days back. Lack of Norwegian representation pointed out, as well as a remedy.
  • I wonder how many Italian cheeses are made from the milk of endangered breeds. Well, now the relevant association has a Facebook page, so I can ask them.