Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog
Agrobiodiversity is crops, livestock, foodways, microbes, pollinators, wild relatives …
“When the disease comes in here, it’s going to wipe you out and you’ll have nothing left.”
That’s Ching Yuan Hu, associate dean for the University of Hawaii College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, talking about legislation that would outlaw genetic modification of taro in Hawaii. Not sure which disease he’s talking about. Maybe our Pacific readers will tell us. Or Danny. Taro Leaf Blight is already in Hawaii, but others aren’t, of course.
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.
Did we note that Will Allen, urban farmer extraordinaire, won the Genius Award last year? Congratulations! Via.