- Chicken wild relatives to rescue breeds.
- Politics as theatre as politics: report from Terra Madre.
- Little shrines to bottled water … Levazza peddling an industrial and inferior product: more from Terra Madre.
- Season of mists and apple biodiversity. Thanks Sarah.
- The wonder that is Kew Gardens and its Millennium Genebank.
- What’s wrong with the maize seed sector in Africa?
- Some reasons to buy local food, though maybe not ten as advertised.
Nibbles: Toms, Virus, Svalbard, CIRAD
- More on those purple tomatoes. And there’s lots more where that came from.
- Virus weakens the response of genes that normally boost defense against pest.
- “Superman had it right.”
- Yeah, but France has genebanks too.
- Dispatches from Terra Madre: “How are you fighting racism in your food community?”
Nibbles: Link, Mango, Chickens, Apples, Urban, Aquaculture, More chickens
- Our latest link. Mas du Diable in France.
- The history of mango in Florida discussed.
- Historic poultry publication.
- Did I hear somebody say English apples are not very interesting? Via.
- A wheat crop grows in Manhattan.
- Hands-on aquaculture.
- Animal farm.
Equator Prize 2008 winners announced
The Equator Initiative, a United Nations-led partnership that supports grassroots efforts in biodiversity conservation and poverty alleviation, has selected 25 winners of the Equator Prize 2008.
And here they all are. Lots of great stuff there on agrobiodiversity conservation and use. Somewhat invidious to single anyone out, but I can’t resist. Check out in particular the work of the Unión de Organizaciones Campesinas e Indígenas de Cotacachi.
Potato news
A couple of Spud-U-Likes. Tuesday sees the opening of the International Symposium on Living with Potatoes (ISLP’08). Yes! And according to the conference organisers:
The objective of the ISLP’08 is to provide an international forum for sharing and exchanging information amongst the growers, associations, academicians, researchers, students, practitioners, and government who are interested in promoting the sustainability of potatoes–one of the top three staple foods.
Right. But what about bloggers? Anyone who is at the Symposium and who fancies joining the hallowed ranks of our Guest Bloggers need only send us an email.
And then there’s the wittily headlined Eyes peeled, a report in The Australian newspaper of writer Judith Elen’s potato-focused agro-tourism in the Andes, starting off at CIP, the International Potato Centre in Lima, Peru. Not just potatoes either, but a host of delicious goodies. Sent abroad to eat for her readers, what a great gig. Her conclusion:
Meanwhile, CIP continues its work in the background, conserving and researching native potatoes. The purple-fleshed varieties are especially high in antioxidants, stored in the pigment, while yellow-fleshed varieties are higher in available iron. Andean highlanders serve red, yellow (yema de huevo, egg-yolk potato) and blue in a single dish. But even along the Inca highway, some native varieties have been lost. In this, the UN’s international year of the potato, awareness is the key to keeping cultivation and research funds flowing.
Judith Elen was a guest of Centro Internacional de la Papa.
Money well spent, I’d say.