Threats

April 28, 2009April 29, 2009

Swine flu roundup

As the numbers keep mounting, it is worth recalling where it all started. The epicentre of the swine flu outbreak seems to be the village of La Gloria in Veracruz. The Times has been there, of course: ((And also The Guardian, to be fair.))

Residents of La Gloria have long complained about the clouds of flies that are drawn the so-called â€œmanure lagoonsâ€ created by such mega-farms, known in the agriculture business as Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs).

But they may or may not be behind the outbreak. In any case, CAFOs seem to be very different to the more traditional methods of pig rearing to be found in Mexico. The area is one of high density of production:

pig-production

No word on which of the nine or so pig breeds recorded from Mexico are involved.

LATER: GRAIN has its say. And New Scientist.

April 27, 2009April 27, 2009

Nibbles: Sheep, Yams, Satellites, Payment for ecosystem services, Museum

Domesticated sheep spread in two waves.
How IITA helps yam farmers in West Africa.
“…it is vital that we develop some sort of early warning system that will enable us to take timely action if we see part of the landscape suffering and signs of the loss of species richness.”
First issue of newsletter on Agricultural Payments for Ecosystem Services online at Ecoagriculture Partners.
Visit Cairo’s Agricultural Museum. If you think you can take it.

April 23, 2009April 23, 2009

Nibbes: Nettles, Rivers, Rare species, Library, Afghanistan protected area, Nordic-Baltic-Russian collaboration, Photos, Disease

George Orwell scythes nettles, then seeks uses.
World’s rivers in trouble. Also other wetlands the world over. CWRs to be affected, along with everything else?
Let’s not get too hung up about rarity.

UNESCO launches World Digital Library. Gotta be some agrobiodiversity in there somewhere, surely. Yes indeedy.
Afghanistan’s first national park has some livestock wild relatives!
Circum-Baltic collaboration on genetic resources conservation.
Mongabay.com publishes lots of cool pictures of biodiversity to celebrate Earth Day yesterday. So does The Big Picture, even some vaguely farming ones. And Adam Forbes has just loaded a bunch of photos too. Luigi comments: Why didn’t we do the same for agrobiodiversity?
Tuberculosis and domestication. Not.

April 22, 2009April 22, 2009

Nibbles: Japan, Bananas, GMO, Bees, Squirrels, Mangroves, Climate change and indigenous people, Goji, Svalbard, Heirloom rice, Dataporn

Japan’s unemployed end up farming.
Somewhat uninformed comments about the perfection of the banana.
“…traditional genetic crosses outperform genetically modified crops by a wide margin.”
Alice Waters takedown.
Brits throw money at bees.
Red squirrel missing link found through DNA fingerprinting. Red squirrel pie, anyone? Ok ok, make it grey.
Mexican mangroves in trouble.
“Indigenous Peoples have contributed the least to the global problem of climate change but will almost certainly bear the greatest brunt of its impact.”
Go go goji.
Secretary General of the Nordic Council of Ministers and former Icelandic Prime Minister waxes lyrical about genebanks.
So there’s a Carolina Gold Rice Foundation. No, not Golden Rice. Via.
Help the Biodiversity Heritage Library decide on a citation format. Or not. whatever.

April 22, 2009April 21, 2009

Another place where the buffalo roam

The post I did yesterday about a small chunk of prairie still to be found in Calvary Cemetery, within the confines of metropolitan St Louis, ((Ah, but is it a remnant? Check out the comments on the original Economist piece.)) prompted Jeremy to tell me about his own favorite prairie remnant.

That would be the one inside the accelerator ring at Fermilab near Batavia, Illinois. Where they do indeed have a herd of bison contributing to the management of the ecosystem, as I — facetiously, I thought — suggested they should in St Louis. Too bad the beasts can’t be seen on Google Earth.

It looks like the Fermilab prairie is used as a resource by local schools, which seems like a great idea. I don’t know whether the teachers make anything in particular of the fact that at least one crop wild relative is to be found at the site. Helianthus mollis is not what I would call a star among crop wild relatives. For a start, it’s pretty difficult to cross with domesticated sunflower. And I don’t think it’s endangered or anything (or not yet). But it could be useful in illustrating to school kids an ecosystem service that is often overlooked — provision of genetic diversity for crop improvement.

Another thing it may well help illustrate is climate change. It looks like there’s really detailed data on many species, and it will be interesting to see what will happen — is already happening? — to their abundance and distribution. Maybe H. mollis will disappear from the Fermilab prairie in due course. Will it be able to go elsewhere? Or will we need to manage its relocation? To Canada…?