- Home gardens in Oaxaca, Mexico, conserve diversity and improve resilience. Good to know.
- Seed saving symposium to take place in Hawaii, April 17-18. Good to know.
- Apomixis for plant breeding a step closer in experimental systems. Good to know?
Nibbles: Potato, Research, Tobacco, Bees squared, Seed diversity, Declaration
- “The Jersey Royal is the only potato that enjoys protected designation of origin…”
- Agricultural research not enough?
- Wild crop relative switches pollinator to escape nasty caterpillars.
- Bushmeat hunters become beekeepers.
- And here’s why beekeeping is such a good thing.
- Diversity deemed a good thing, even for crazed monoculturists.
- ‘Keep biodiversity or face hunger’. Yet another Chennai Declaration.
Nibbles: Svalbard, Consumers, Seed law, Fragrant rice, Five Farms on radio, Invasive plant used, Genetic diversity and latitude, Coffee and tea in history, Coconut disease
- “Sustainable food production may not begin in this cold Arctic environment, but it does begin by conserving crop diversity.” Words of wisdom from the frozen lips of Ban Ki Moon.
- Organic vs local. A survey.
- Civil Society opposes seed laws in Chile.
- Jeremy gets stuck into a bowl of basmati and Five Farms.
- “Pest to pesto.”
- Tropical fruit flies have less genetic diversity than temperate fruit flies, may have trouble adapting to climate change.
- “It is difficult to imagine what the first taste of sugar or coffee must have been like to those accustomed to weak beer and bread.”
- Lethal yellowing spreads in Ghana?
Nibbles: Fruits, Natives, Economics, Artichoke, Gardens
- Beautiful Images of Strange Fruits. Botanical not culinary, mostly
- Hawaiians paid to plant natives.
- Dismal science tells boffins which cattle breeds to save. Yeah, because we all so trust economists these days, right?
- “Cynara 2009, the 7th International Symposium on Artichoke, Cardoon And Their Wild Relatives, will be held in Saint Pol de Léon, Brittany, France, the ‘home town’ of the famous artichoke variety Camus de Bretagne.” Via.
- Pinoy allotment manual.
Sunken billions
A new World Bank publication puts dollar numbers on the world’s approach to fishing:
Economic losses in marine fisheries resulting from poor management, inefficiencies, and overfishing add up to US$50 billion per year.
The book argues that:
strengthened fishing rights can provide fishers and fishing communities with incentives to operate in an economically efficient and socially responsible manner.
I presume it would help conserve marine biodiversity as well.
Also just out is the State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2008, from FAO. Part 1 is a very informative and data rich overview. FAO estimates that 80% of fisheries are fully or over-exploited, and that 47% of fish consumed is from aquaculture (which must become more sustainable, says the WWF).
Part 2 has a chapter on Marine genetic resources in areas beyond national jurisdiction as related to marine biodiversity and the sustainable use of living marine resources. It is about bio-prospecting in international waters, and benefit sharing. They are looking at the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture to help develop policy in this area.