Murder to produce sustainably, that is. And here are three stories to prove it. In the arid West of the US, overgrazing has been stripping away the ground cover, and the soil, for decades. Some enterprising ranchers have finally seen the light, however, and are experimenting with how they graze cattle, moving their herds more, giving the vegetation time to bounce back, mimicking the behaviour of the mobile herbivores of the African savannas. But the jury is still out on whether it works, whether “sustainable ranching” is just the oxymoron many environmentalists have always said it is. Meanwhile, in Tibet, climate change is drying up streams. Shepherds have to go twice as far to take their flocks to water. Farmers have to dig twice as far down to strike water in their wells. And finally, all over the world, frogs are being driven to extinction because of our taste for their legs. It’s enough to drive one to vegetarianism.
Nibbles: Spices, Tequila, Tea, Potatoes, Archive, Africa, Carotenoids, Calcium, AGR, Ethiopia, Wheat blast
- Where do spices come from, mummy?
- Even “good” tequila can be bad for you. Well I never.
- Sparkling tea? Call it a microwine. Via.
- More potatoes. …
- … but the kicker is the historical archive she links to.
- AGRA and Earth Institute to collaborate. Africa not available for comment.
- More Pacific food crop nutrition goodness from Lois et al.
- Children may not like their veggies because of the Ca content.
- Canada down to 95% Holsteins. Oh dear.
- “The large crop genetic diversity that already exists in Ethiopia will make adapting agricultural systems to the locally changing conditions relatively easy.” Well, maybe…
- Screening Kansas wheat varieties for resistance to wheat blast.
Nibbles: Earth, Cheese, Silkworms, Biodiversity, Food, Cows, Pigs, Blog, Oysters, Organic
- Stunning images of Earth from space. Direct agricultural (biodiversity) interest at 3, 6 and 15.
- A cheese that’s full of agrobiodiversity. In more ways than one.
- Agrobiodiversity useful in space. And from space.
- Biodiversity in Africa. Agriculture mentioned, and not just in a bad way. Nice maps too.
- Eggplants. Agrobiodiversity. Cooking. Sex. Video.
- Sad story of a farmer losing his cows. Not just cows, “the oldest pure breed on Earth.”
- Farmers bred colourful pigs for the sheer hell of it.
- CABI blog reviews 2008.
- Keeping oysters healthy is hard.
- Legendary breeder Khush says organic rice not a good idea.
- Variation Under Domestication. Darwin’s Origin blogged.
Turkey to get yet another genebank?
The news that a genebank will be built in Ankara in 2009, which we nibbled a couple of days ago, is problematic for a number of reasons. But let’s just deal with an error of fact first.
The ministry announced that it will set up Turkey’s first seed bank in Ankara in 2009. The bank, which will reportedly be named Noah’s Bin, will be the fourth largest of its kind in the world.
This will not in fact be Turkey’s first seed bank, as even a Turkish tourism site knows. ((Or did. The site sems to have disappeared.)) The Aegean Agricultural Research Institute (AARI) at Izmir has in fact housed a genebank since 1964, and contributes data to EURISCO, and thence Genesys, to the tune of some 13,000 accessions.
Am I missing something? Is the Izmir genebank going to close, in favour of a larger, newer facility in Ankara? If that is the case, it will not just contain Turkish material.
Some 160,000 wheat types and 27,000 maize types currently registered at the International Wheat and Maize Improvement Center (CIMMYT) will also be included in the gene bank. Turkey will be the third country to have such a center.
What is the metric according to which this genebank would be the third in the world? The only thing I can think of is that it would be the third place to house the CIMMYT collection, after CIMMYT itself and Svalbard. But what would be the rationale for that? Why would Turkey want to go to the expense of maintaining a triplicate of “160,000 wheat types and 27,000 maize types” when it could just get the ones it wanted from CIMMYT at any time at the drop of an email?
It is very laudable that the Turkish government is taking the threat of climate change to agriculture so seriously as to contemplate an expense of this magnitude on ex situ conservation, but the article does raise some interesting questions.
Nibbles: Bees, Bourbon, Cattle, Ug99, Horses, Neanderthal, Bear, Organic, Flowers
- Bees? We don’t need no stinkin’ bees.
- “…a distinct product of America…”
- Friesians? We don’t need no stinkin’ Friesians.
- Kenya tests for Ug99 resistance.
- Iceland’s horses walk funny.
- Neanderthals ate snails.
- Bear meat? We don’t need no stinkin’ bear meat.
- Organic agriculture in China gets NPR treatment, survives.
- Rice? We don’t need no stinkin’ rice.