- Do you have a small parcel of land in the Netherlands that you would not mind being used to test soybean varieties? Non-GMO, mind.
- Kew has a couple of new online resources on Neotropical plants.
- We need an international early warning system for cassava problems.
- “Is there anyone in Bangladesh to look deep into the workings of the biocrats who are bent on advancing the cause of giant companies at the expense of the people’s long-term food security?”
Nibbles: CWR, Agroecology, Innovation, Tree domestication, Ancient pigs, La vida locavore
- Our friends at CIAT showcase our friend Colin showcasing crop wild relatives.
- The latest from Olivier De Schutter on agroecology.
- How to identify and nurture those elusive agricultural entrepreneurs.
- So that they can help you with tree domestication, for example?
- Pigs in ancient Egypt.
- Is the whole local food thing being taken too far?
Nibbles: European diversity, Cassava bugs, Livestock funding, Malnutrition
- Genetic diversity in European men and one of the organisms they exploit. And another.
- CIAT cassava entomologist rings warning bell.
- ILRI boffins point out why they don’t have enough money. Yeah, but what’s to be done about it?
- Malnutrition in Kenya and Guatemala. Are school gardens an/the answer? FAO thinks so.
Nibbles: Mongolian pastoralists, Kenya pastoralists, UK meadows, Specialty crops, Adaptation
- And we’re back: Desertification threatening Mongolia. Will Biden talk about that on his 6-hour visit today? No, I don’t think so either. Fortunately some people are trying to do something.
- Life not great for pastoralists in Kenya either. But some people are looking to camel milk to see them through. Alas, the latest effort to boost food security research in E. Africa doesn’t have much for livestock-keepers.
- Kew tries to reform UK native grassland seed business. Hope they are taking latest figures on species migration speeds into account.
- Specialty Crops for Pacific Islands book out. Alas, it includes coffee.
- But don’t worry, adapting to climate change is easy.
What causes famines?
The terrible famine in the Horn of Africa has brought forth torrents of comment, much of it about the cause of the famine. Fortunately, perhaps, cause is such a very slippery word. Causes can be very close in time and space to their effects, or they can be way the hell and gone. (Likewise solutions, although that’s another story.) So we can have experts of various stripes telling us that the famine was caused by climate change, wasn’t caused by climate change, was caused by civil unrest, was caused by low rains, was caused by the western agro-military hegemony etc etc etc. One of my favourites is Bill Easterly’s comment on Ethiopia:
It’s not the rains, it’s the rulers. … drought has not been as devastating to Ethiopians as their own autocratic governments.
The Lancet likes that quote too, in it’s call today for “a collective response” to health in the Horn of Africa. But while The Lancet acknowledges that there are many “causes,” each with its own peculiarities, it also seems to think that the famine is unacceptable because we live in “an era of advanced agricultural productivity and transportation networks”. In other words, food from somewhere else did not arrive in time.
The Lancet does say that “More and longer-term investments in agriculture and health in Africa are needed alongside a collective global response” and looks for leadership to China which feeds 20% of the planet’s population on 7% of its arable land. 1 What kinds of solutions are we likely to see, aside from food from somewhere else arriving more quickly next time? I’m not nearly expert enough to offer advice, but one thing does sound very fishy, and that is the idea of using irrigation to grow more crops. ILRI, which has long experience working with pastoralists in the area, is keeping a close eye on the famine, has published several recent blog posts that suggest that using water for forage for livestock, and allowing pastoralists to move freely to better grazing are sensible long term solutions. The latest post at ILRI Clippings is about a book, Risk and Social Change in an African Rural Economy: Livelihoods in Pastoralist Communities, and sports a conclusion that a lot of people probably don’t want to hear.
[F]uture development activities need to be built on the foundation of the livestock economy, instead of seeking to replace it.
That surely requires some understanding of the role of livestock in the life support systems of the region, and a recognition that, you know, maybe there are local limits to carrying capacity. Of all the many causes of the famine, that seems to be the one that dare not speak its name, at least not in public.
The Lancet draws itself up to its full height to declare, ringingly:
“Such a humanitarian disaster must never be allowed to happen again.”
Which is the standard formula for ending that kind of piece.
But it will be.