Three articles on the benefits of diversity for your delectation this weekend. Evolutionary Applications has a paper suggesting that restoration of degraded landscapes is best done with “high quality and genetically diverse seed to maximize the adaptive potential of restoration efforts to current and future environmental change.” Meanwhile, in The Economist, how structurally complex and diverse betel nut plantations ((Ok, ok, “betel nut.”)) can be almost as good for bird diversity as the surrounding forest, and how it is better for a crop to be attacked by two pests rather than one.
Nibbles: Chickens, Realpolitik, Apples, Kew, Maize, Local food
- 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.