- Insights into Dutch cannabis breeding. Dude unavailable for comment.
- Cotton diversity link-fest.
- Head of World Food Programme on buying locally.
- US bee health: not good. Via.
- Australian sunflowers to improve US varieties; Luigi more confused than ever.
Nibbles: Insects, EMBRAPA, Prices, Cuba, Supermarkets
- Climate change threatens tropical insects and their pollination services.
- Brazil rises in world genebank rankings.
- Food price crisis advice summarized.
- Cuba “sustainable” agriculture at crossroads.
- Supermarkets bad for small farmers?
Nibbles: Camels, kvas, fruits, watermelon, bees, soil microbes
- Camels make a comeback in Rajasthan.
- Globalization comes to Russian kvas production.
- Mangosteen finally allowed into US. NY Times video about exotic fruits. Via.
- While the rest of the world frets about high food prices, US declares National Watermelon Month.
- USDA tries to keep abreast of honeybee Colony Collapse Disorder.
- Teaching about soil microbial agrobiodiversity.
Nibbles: Angola, Peas, Water, Root & tubers, Pollination, Coffee & chocolate, Worms
- Angola gets US$49.5 million to improve agricultural productivity, no mention of biodiversity.
- Yellow sugarsnap peas: an update.
- Guinness wells in Ghana, sorghum farmers not grateful enough.
- Trinidad goes back to its roots.
- More trouble for pollination.
- The Economist on adding value to coffee and cacao.
- “The earth without ____ would soon become cold, hard-bound and void of fermentation, and consequently sterile.” Fill in the blank.
What is the value of pollinators?
Exactly a year ago yesterday Jeremy wrote a post about the dollar value of pollination as an ecosystem service. Now comes an article in Gaia which argues that previous criticism of such valuations in the same journal are unfounded. ((Alexandra-Maria Klein, Roland Olschewski and Claire Kremen. 2008. The Ecosystem Service Controversy: Is There Sufficient Evidence for a “Pollination Paradox� GAIA 17/1:12–16.)) A year is a long time in science.
The criticism in question was based on the observation that “crops depend on pollinators but crop yield does not necessarily depend on pollinators as other factors are likely to limit crop production.” Jaboury Ghazoul called this the “pollination paradox” ((Ghazoul, J. 2007. Recognising the complexities of ecosystem management and the ecosystem service concept. GAIA 16/3: 215–221.)) in an article which argued that it is impossible to value ecosystem services individually.
The authors of the latest paper dissect the situation with coffee and almond and conclude that “there is currently no evidence for a pollination paradox.” However, they do say that recent figures for the monetary value of pollination may well be media-driven overestimates. Even the often-seen figure that “one third of the caloric value of our food is derived from animal pollination … is still not well supported.” That pollinators are important to food production is not contested. But how important is perhaps not as easy to calculate as has been made out.