Apologies if you were having a little trouble reaching the site yesterday; so were we. Apparently the server that hosts agro.agro.biodiver.se was under attack from the forces of darkness, but they have now been repelled. We hope we can now resume normal service.
Nibbles: Tangled Bank
- Tangled Bank 109 — a biology blog carnival — is up at Greg Laden’s Blog. There’s livestock!
Sorghum woes in Somaliland
Another farmer speaks:
Worried about the infertility of my farm, the other day, I was sitting alone trying to find explanation as to why my farm was productive in the olden days producing 100 sacks of 50kg each of sorghum in one go and why it is sterile today producing less than 5 sacks a year no matter how hard I may work?
Read the whole lot.
More African silk
A long profile in the Boston Globe of a woman called Catherine Craig. She did field work at Gombe National Park in Tanzania in the 1970s, then became an expert on spider silk, before returning to Gombe a few years ago. The destruction she saw appalled her. So she did something:
In 2003, Craig founded Conservation through Poverty Alleviation International, which took its seemingly simple idea – plant trees, raise larvae, earn income – to Madagascar, a biologically rich Indian Ocean island nation where deforestation is also a problem and which had a tradition of silk production and weaving on which to build.
Which may be good news for Madagascar, but what’s happening in Gombe?
Biodiversity of farms
Let’s apply the concept of biodiversity to the economics of farming. Just as we now recognize that a range of species must inhabit a given habitat for a healthy environment, a variety of farms make for a healthy farm economy. With Ventura County’s diversity of crops, there is not a day in the year that something isn’t being harvested and sent to market. Our large operations are essential to maintain a healthy population of equipment dealers and service providers. Mid-size family farmers often provide much of the leadership in local co-ops and associations. Smaller farms help sustain the agricultural service economy, and often pioneer specialty crops while feeding local markets. There is room for them all. We need them all. Our vision should embrace them all.