Another example of a wild species being farmed: this article in the San Francisco Chronicle tells the story of Hoodia gordonii cultivation in southern Africa. The species is the source of a hunger suppressant which Unilever has been licensed to commercialize, with a royalty payment going to San tribesmen. Another Hoodia species may have potential as a salad vegetable. Prices are such that there is a thriving smuggling trade in wild-harvested product. Some Namibian farmers are trying to cultivate the plant – organically – but it is not easy.
Ocean’s prairies dying
A press release from University of California at Davis says that seagrasses, which deliver considerable ecosystem services, are vanishing, but because they are generally out of sight they are also out of mind. Susan Williams, a UC Davis marine biologist, is one author of a report on the plight of seagrasses in the journal BioScience; unfortunately the journal is behind a subscription wall, so I cannot tell you more.
Livestock at risk
Another report from FA0 says that 20 percent of the world’s livestock breeds are at risk. And the culprits are those we’ve come to know and love; intensification, globalization, modernization. So what’s new? They may be planning to do something about it, that’s what. The report is part of a process leading up to the first International Technical Conference on Animal Genetic Resources, to be hosted by the Government of Switzerland, in Interlaken in September 2007. Anyone out there want to keep an eye specifically on that topic?
Tidings of discomfort and sorrow
Frankincense — traditional gift at this time of the year — is the resin of a tree called Boswellia papryrifera native to the Horn of Africa. Alas, a scientific study in the Journal of Applied Ecology proves that tapping the tree for resin decreases the number of flowers and seeds the tree produces, thus “potentially” harming the regeneration of the frankincense woodlands. Non-tapped trees produce three times more seeds than tapped trees, and those seeds are five times more likely to germinate. The authors say that collectors should make fewer taps per tree and allow long rest periods with no tapping.
Seed relief manual — at last
FAO has just published the conclusions of a workshop on seed relief systems held in May 2003. Why note that, apart from to poke fun at the delay? Because one of the most important conclusions to emerge from the best studies of emergency seed relief is that local informal markets, often focussed on locally important varieties, are often the best sources of seed that will not interfere with local agricultural biodiversity.