Urban agriculture

April 1, 2010April 1, 2010

The Great BBC Veggie Seed Giveaway

The BBC’s Dig In programme is asking people to apply for a “free Dig In pack, containing seeds for five easy-to-grow veg varieties, full instructions and stickers.” A nice enough idea, but why not take the opportunity of promoting some rare and endangered heirlooms? Not everyone is content with easy-to-grow…

LATER: News of another British planting material give-away just out…

March 29, 2010March 29, 2010

Nibbles: Interactive key, Cider tax, Drought screening, Egyptian genebank, USDA animal conservation, Homegardens, Bag farms, Soil movie, Breeding Vigna, Cereals yield gap,

Got a Neotropical flowering plant to identify? Kew has what you need.
New Labour goes out with a whimper, and a swipe at cider-makers.
Drought Timing for Agronomic Screening wins a prize.
“We’ve heard about the Gene Bank project which serves to preserve certain cultivars and seed specimens, but we don’t know much else about this project.” Par for the course.
Meanwhile, another genebank does get decent publicity.
Women and homegardens in Bangladesh.
Bag farms in Nairobi slum.
Review of Dirt! The Movie.
Boffins this close to drought-tolerant cowpeas.
“…actual grain yield in some regions is already approximating its maximum possible yields while other regions show large yield gaps and therefore tentative larger potential for intensification.”
The wife is going to the 1st International Symposium on Tropical Horticulture. Jamaica? No, she really wanted to go.

March 15, 2010March 15, 2010

Chicks with chicks

Proud to steal a great phrase when I find one, here are links to the original and two discussion — at Ethicurean and The Agricultural Law Blog — of a recent article on The Femivore’s Dilemma, about the prevalence of women in the new old food movement. Of course to my literal mind a femivore is one who eats females ((And you can stop giggling in the back right now.)) which, of course is generally what we do. Either females or ex-males. But the more profound ideas behind the article and the commentaries are fascinating. Personally, I’m not sure that there really is a gender divide, and it would be salutary to see this in a global context. Which gives me a reason to link to this little contribution to International Women’s Day last week.

March 12, 2010March 15, 2010

Nibbles: School Gardens, Foods

School gardens. Ho hum. In Uruguay!
10 foods for the future. Yeah, if you can’t tell the difference between 1 and 9. Or 2 and 7.

February 28, 2010February 28, 2010

Nibbles: Rhubarb and the EU, Mexican biodiversity Qat in Yemen, Organic cubed

Rhubarb safe at long last. Rejoice! The BBC does, sort of.
Biodiversidad Mexicana website lists plants with centres of origin/diversity in that country, with references.
Sometimes agrobiodiversity is downright bad for you.
And here’s today’s story on the “organic” urban vegetable gardens of Havana.
But China?
Oh, and, apparently, the US midwest too. And they just had a conference there.