AGRA Watch is on the lookout

Concerned citizens and activists have begun a new CAGJ program called AGRA Watch whose objectives are to monitor and question the Gates Foundation’s participation in the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). Upon researching this initiative and its historical precedents, AGRA Watch finds the current approach politically, environmentally, socially, and ethically problematic (to read more, see “Four Categories of Problems” in blog posts). We support sustainable, socially responsible, and indigenous alternatives in Africa, and connect these movements to those occurring in our local communities.

But who’s watching the watchers? Well, I guess we are. The AGRA Watch blog has gone into my feed reader.

LATER: Ooops, sorry. Turns out that feed is for the whole CAGJ website, not just the AGRA Watch blog. But we’ll be keeping an eye on the blog anyway.

LATER STILL: As you were, I’m informed all blog posts are included in the central RSS feed.

Nibbles: Databases, Hell squared, Genebanks, Goats, Olives, Safe movement, Pouteria, Roman wine

Rare crops need love too

Professor Stephen Hopper, director of the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, in London, argues that the world is currently too reliant on just a handful of key species of edible plants for food.

Welcome aboard, Prof. Hopper!