- Mulberries preserved twice, in the Pamirs and with a Slow Food Presidium. Kudos to Bioversity.
- Gardeners eat more veggies, but not fruit. Press release and paper.
- Banana peels concentrate heavy metals. Article and paper.
- Where tropical timber goes. GOOD Infographic.
Nibbles: ABS in ITPGRFA, Wheat Yield Consortium, Plasticity and climate change, Sustainable intensification, Early agriculture
- Outstanding Issues on ABS under the Multilateral System – a background study paper. Wait, there’s outstanding issues?
- Wheat geeks meet.
- Plastic plants will cope with climate change. Not what you think.
- Nice write-up of the UK Foresight Food and Farming Futures report on Sustainable Intensification of Agriculture in Africa from Farming First.
- First farmers not as productive as last foragers. One wonders why they bothered.
Nibbles: Book, Treaty, Prices
- Pope Mary and The Church of Almighty Good Food. Sounds like a fun read.
- IIED massages Treaty in Bali: protect farmers’ rights.
- “[T]he peak of the current cycle of headline food inflation is already behind us,” Indian economist tells Wall Street Journal.
Balinese news massage
I’m sure our readers do not have to be reminded that they can follow the deliberations of the Fourth Session of the Governing Body of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture online. Almost as good as being there in a fancy hotel in Bali. As ever, we will publish all gossip, the more scandalous the better.
The CGIAR’s impact spelled out
The collaborative work of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) has resulted in development impacts on a scale that is without parallel in the international community.
And there are 40 of them, more than half in crop improvement, half a dozen in natural resources management, a few in the policy arena. Anyone out there disagree? Anything left out? Anyone think some of “impacts” included are not so great after all? Let us know.
Let me start the ball rolling. I happen to think that putting together and maintaining the international germplasm collections, and placing them under the aegis of the International Treaty, is a significant technical and policy achievement in its own right. After all, they underpinned all that crop improvement. Maybe that doesn’t count as an “impact.” But perhaps it should.