- “New study warns that climate change could create agricultural winners and losers in east Africa.” Any other possibilities?
- “Researchers to perform sex change operation on papaya.” Bang goes a bunch of sexual diversity.
- Inherited wealth is good for farmers, better for herders, lousy for hunters.
- AGCommons is a CGIAR project to deliver information to farmers in Africa. Watch their new video, with added Andy Jarvis goodness.
Nibbles: Chocolate, Bloggers, Tokyo rice, Breeding, Nutrition
- Yesterday was National Chocolate Day. ((In the US, the only nation that counts, right?)) Who knew? Not even the experts.
- Oxford 2009; report of the veg bloggers and breeders get-together.
- Ginza rice farm. What happened?
- How do we fund plant breeding? You will let us know, won’t you.
- More Food May Not Mean Less Hunger. Say it isn’t so.
Nibbles: Cryopreservation, Hunger, Rice
- US scientists put ash diversity in the deep freeze, for when they’ve solved the emerald ash borer menace.
- Millions fed: proven successes in agricultural development. A talk on 12 November in Washington DC. Jeremy sez: “To a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail”.
- War! Huuh! What is it good for? Hybrid rice! Huh?
Agricultural biodiversity at the Diversitas conference
Harry Biggs, of South African National Parks, was at the recent Diversitas conference in Cape Town, and summarized his impressions on the conference web site: What I learnt from the Diversitas conference.. The stuff we wanted to hear:
Achim Steiner (now Exec Director UNEP) spent his keynote talking about how development and conservation have to, and can, find constructive mutuality. He is concerned that much of the renewed development drive is actually re-initiating old formulae which are not sustainable. At the meeting there was considerable emphasis on appropriate agro-biodiversity and dove-tailing of needs. He also feels that as a community we still see climate change (whatever we think about it) as a hindrance or competitive force to our agenda, rather than as an opportunity.
Here’s Steiner’s speech. Was anyone else listening?
Nibbles: Cassava, Success, Fish, Models, Videos, Radio, Grazing
- South Africans produce virus-resistant cassava.
- Success stories in agricultural development documented. Some agrobiodiversity in there.
- Fisheries and food security. And more. And more: why not eat “weedy”fish?
- A crop modeler speaks.
- African agriculture is on youtube, but just barely.
- Forage grasses for beginners. Straight from the grazier’s mouth.