There’s a lively discussion on “sack gardens” going on at FSN Forum. ((That’s the Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition Policies and Strategies.)) People have written in with their experiences in refugee camps in Kenya, HIV/AIDS households in South Africa, and Gaza province in Mozambique. I guess sack gardens could be considered a variant of the keyhole gardens we have posted about a couple of times already. In fact, there’s a whole typology of container urban gardening. As coincidence would have it, allAfrica had a piece a couple of weeks ago on the use of sacks to grow vegetables in the Kibera slum of Nairobi after the recent election violence. Interestingly, only kale and spinach are mentioned. I bet local vegetables would grow even better under these conditions.
Nibbles: Desert garden, Funding, Vegetables, Communication, Ecosystem services, Bees, Native grasses, Soil, Raspberries, Ancient ag trade, Soybeans, Ag origins
- “See how beautiful you can make with small water!”
- IRRI redux.
- The problems of vegetable production in Africa, in microcosm.
- “This is a local production, storage and distribution system, a huge exhibit of biodiversity.’’
- PNAS special issue on ecosystem services.
- Bee books.
- Switch to switchgrass.
- More than you probably want to know about earthworms.
- Evil Fruit Lord questions Scotland-China raspberry deal.
- Ancient crop DNA recovered from underwater amphorae. Totally amazing.
- Nutritionist introduces soybeans to Afghanistan.
- Early PNG agricultural site added to UNESCO World Heritage list.
Nibbles: Funding, Grains, Wildflowers, AVRDC, Cloning, Salinity, Education, Sheep dogs, Swans, Writing, Fisheries, Big ag
- Silver lining: IRRI funding up 20% so far this year.
- Foodie discovers diversity: Amaranth, Himalayan Red Rice, Teff, Farro, Triticale, Sorghum … How have I never tried any of these?
- Texans save wildflower seeds.
- “We are not trying to use vegetables as a substitute for food, but rather as an addition to the food basket, to help farmers become better nourished and grow out of poverty.”
- Jurassic Park video.
- Olive varieties differ in response to irrigation with saline water.
- BBC’s One Planet podcast on urban agriculture in Kampala.
- St Kitts kids learn about sweet potato diversity. From the Taiwanese.
- Even in the struggle between shepherd and wolf the issue is uncertain.
- Agricultural biodiversity rituals corner: swan upping. Ah, swan terrine.
- A roundup of Britain’s nature writers. A sort of nature writer upping, I guess.
- Remember that catfish post a couple days back? This completes the trifecta.
- “…the crop from ground, washed, packed and stacked in supermarket-ready trays in just six minutes.”
Nibbles: Mongolia, Fruit & veg, Lima bean, Biofuels, Peyote, Permaculture, Extension
- Isgelen tarag. You heard me.
- Eat up all your vegetables, Timmy.
- Breeding a better Lima bean.
- Kenya will regret its failure to protect the environment. Wangari Maathai against (specific) biofuels.
- Lophophora williamsii showing classic signs of overexploitation.
- “I have been trying to be very friendly to soil worms…They are our friends.”
- Using radio soap operas in extension.
No veggies. But why not?
Blogging comes more or less full circle with Jessica’s letters from Niger. Jessica Bliss is a Peace Corps volunteer in Niger. She has even less internet access than the other front-line people we occasionally link to. But she writes letters home. Using pen and paper and postage stamps; imagine that! And her parents blog them. ((I love the disclaimer: The contents of this blog do not reflect the opinions of the US government or Peace Corps. Because of that it should be kind of fun to read.“)) Beats handing a tattered envelope around.
Anyway, in her latest, Jessica puts the food crisis in perspective; the perspective of “her” villagers. She says that “with the exception of onions and the occasional powdered tomato and okra that they put in sauces, people don’t eat many veggies. (This might change here: working on it!)”
Two questions:
- Why not? Is it because there really isn’t enough water? Or is it that there just isn’t a cultural tradition of growing and eating plants?
- What can she be working on? I hope we’ll find out soon enough.