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Resilient scientists

I don’t know enough about resilience science, only that I would like to know more. A large body of knowledge has built up around the ideas associated with C.S. “Buzz” Holling that, as far as I can tell, focuses on the system in ecosystems. There’s a Resilience Alliance blog that we have linked to before, and where I learned about the launch of a wiki version of the key document Assessing and Managing Resilience in Social-Ecological Systems: A Practitioner’s Handbook.

The practitioners in question do indeed discuss agricultural systems from time to time, but I have neither the time nor the practical experience to know whether the workbook would be any use to people whose main focus is agricultural ecosystems. I have a feeling that it would be, so I’m putting out a plea:

Can anyone out there enlighten the rest of us as to the ways in which resilience assessment might be put to work to understand farming systems? As a corollary, has resilience science learned anything from agricultural systems?

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Happy Robigalia!

Today is the Major Rogation. Big deal, I hear you say, what’s that got to do with agrobiodiversity? Not so fast, friend-o. Fact is, this Christian holy day is nothing more than a relatively recent take-over of the ancient Roman festival of Robigalia, which was meant to ward off the fungal disease of cereals we know as rust (and probably others). I think we are all the poorer these days for not observing such festivals anymore, when people could paint their eyes like prostitutes, dance and play cymbals in vile tiberian rites.

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Competition news

First, a word of explanation. We took a vow of silence yesterday. No posts, no nibbles, nothing to detract from the global gloriousness of Miss Hathorn and Robert, competition winners extraordinaire. But of course we were both hot to trot this morning, so much so that we both nibbled independently. 1 That has now been fixed, with today’s monster bowl of nibbles.

Anyway, that has given us a chance to do the needful as far as our winner and runner-up are concerned, and adhere them to Association Kokopelli. Proof below. In addition, Miss Hathorn gets a packet of seeds of something called New Red Fire, a lettuce.

Of course, we could have faked the whole thing, and in a world of cut-throats and frauds we forgive your general skepticism. But we didn’t, and we hope that Miss Hathorn and Robert will return to share the joy they are getting from their prizes.

Thanks

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First winner of agricultural biodiversity competition announced

For immediate release
Rome, Italy, 22 April 2008

The No. 1 web site for agricultural biodiversity, the Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog, today announced the winners of the first annual agro.agro.biodiver.se competition.

On being told the news by email Miss Hathorn, creator of My Favorite Things, a video tribute to backgarden biodiversity, wrote: “Well, (blush), I don’t know what to say. I want to thank …”

“We think this is as fitting a way to mark Earth Day as any we’ve seen,” said Luigi Guarino, beer enthusiast and co-blogger.

Miss Hathorn, working at her allotment, trumped the multi-million dollar International Rice Research Institute by 23 votes to 6.

“The people have spoken. Who am I to argue, some sort of aging African tyrant?” Robert Hijmans, IRRI researcher, asked rhetorically.

Being a cutting-edge sort of person Miss Hathorn already owned an iPod, the competition’s munificent prize. She asked that the prize money be donated to Association Kokopelli, recently fined for having the temerity to place unregistered crop varieties on the market, thus encouraging agrobiodiversity where it isn’t wanted.

“Kokopelli has no easy way to donate money,” said co-blogger and aesthete Jeremy Cherfas, “so we decided to buy a year’s membership for Miss Hathorn. There was enough left over to get membership for Robert Hijmans, runner up.”

There will almost certainly be a new competition announced soon, according to Cherfas and Guarino.

“We also have something up our sleeves for 22 May, the International Day of Biodiversity,” they said, in unison, “so stay tuned.”