You may recall a number of posts over the past few months about how Europe intends to protect traditional farmers and producers — and the agrobiodiversity which underpins their livelihoods — in the face of globalization through, for example, the use of appellations of origin. A recent article in The Economist told the success story of one such appellation — prosecco, a sparkling wine made from the grape of the same name in a restricted area north of Venice. It seems to be taking off in a big way, and I’m not surprised: a chilled glass of good prosecco on a summer evening can be pretty much guaranteed to hit the spot. There is, however, a cloud on the horizon, in the unlikely shape of Paris Hilton. You see, everyone’s favourite socialite has been appearing in ads for a down-market prosecco (sold in cans!), and the president of the wine growers association of Treviso doesn’t like it at all: “Paris Hilton is sensationalism. It’s not good. It’s not adequate for Prosecco.” ((Thanks to Michael Hermann for pointing out this story. I don’t google Paris Hilton much so I doubt I’d have ever found it.)) Meetings will be held, fingers will be wagged, strong letters will be written: it’s pretty clear no stone will be left unturned by the good vintners of Treviso in their effort to protect the good name of prosecco. ((BTW, this post is further proof — if any were needed — of a very acute observation about Paris Hilton made by the great Rex Sorgatz some months ago now.))
Life goes on
Well, I’m back in the office and eager to get back into the blogging groove, once I catch up with work stuff, which should be within the next month or two. It wasn’t the most stress-free of holidays, though I am oddly refreshed. I wont say much about what’s been happening in Kenya, apart from that it was both worse and not as bad as the punditry would have it. On the home front, my mother-in-law finished her “water project” up at the farm. The tank shown below is now up and delivering running water to the compound.
Nigerian farmers do their own research
From allAfrica.com, an astonishing story of what farmers can achieve, with a little assistance, when they start investigating their options.
Abdul Malik, a farmer aged 30, says he gathers 15 to 17 100kg bags of millet using improved varieties, where he used to gather only 10. With his increased income, he bought two new soil tilling machines this year, where before he had just one. “I’m satisfied at this level [of production,]” he says, “but I continue to hope for more improvement.”
The improved varieties were gathered from 16 African countries and trialled by the farmers on their own land in northern Nigeria. The project, supported by IFAD, also examined fertilizers and methods to control weeds, and promises to deliver benefits beyond the farmers and their immediate families to middlemen and others. There’s a lot more in the article and an accompanying photo essay. ((Slightly worried that allAfrica.com may put articles behind a paywall at some point in the future, so here’s a link to a site scraper that perhaps will keep it available. Hard to understand, though, where they got the “hybrid” in their title from, or why they tagged it “biotechnology” and “IITA”.))
Tangled Bank 96
Yes, it is back … and after only one extra week of waiting (which sped by thanks to holiday sloth). Tangled Bank 96 is up at aardvarchaeology with a New Year’s helping of good biological blogging. And we’re in, under climate change, which is fine, because as any fule kno agriculture is not biology. Alas, there really is very little this time of an agro/eco bent, but there’s still a lot worth reading. And if you’ve just landed from there, looking for some hard-rocking biology, there’s some of that here too. I think.
Dust my broom
Back in the late 1700’s, Benjamin Franklin found a small seed on a whisk broom that a friend had brought him from France for dusting his beaver hat. Next spring he planted that seed and it grew into a tall corn-like plant with a flowering brush of stiff fibers bearing seeds.
Can that possibly be true? That the entire American broom industry is based on a single accidental sorghum seed? Must be, I got it from an official document, here. And I got that from this merry flight of fancy: A Farrago On Brooms, Broomcorn, and Broom Dusting. Full of interesting nuggets, some wicked satire, and whole lot of entertainment.