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Bee shortage? What bee shortage?

An article in the New York Times this week suggests that the current scare over colony collapse disorder is nothing extraordinary. It has happened before and will probably happen again. What has been missing from the debate, some scientists say, is historical context. Records show that colonies were vanishing in the 19th century, when the cause was seen as lack of moral fibre. Bees that weren’t returning to their hives had “weak character”. And it happened in the late 1970s, when it was called “disappearing disease”. The disease too disappeared, and no cause was ever isolated.

One day we may know, and extra money for long-term monitoring (none has been forthcoming) may help. In the meantime, if the “crisis” has helped people appreciate the importance of bees as pollinators, and prompted deeper investigations, then that is surely A Good Thing. To prove the point, two deeply fascinating papers have been published in the past month showing that genetic diversity in honeybees and other social insects is also A Good Thing.

This is counterintuitive, because the reason social insects are social is that they are genetically uniform.

Continue reading “Bee shortage? What bee shortage?”

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Rescuing the American chestnut

You know, these Nibbles (the short, soundbite-type things which appear at the top of the right sidebar of this page) are fun to do, but sometimes you end up downplaying, or over-simplifying, an important, interesting — and interestingly complex — story. Take what I said about the American chestnut a few days ago. The recent history of Castanea dentata is proud and tragic ((Looking further back, it also played an important role in native America agroforestry.)), and efforts to bring it back from the brink of annihilation well-nigh heroic. To imply, as I did, that these efforts were confined to hybridizing the American with the Chinese chestnut was justified only by the necessity for extreme brevity. In fact, of course, it is not just hybridization but repeated back-crossing. And not just interspecific crossing but also painstaking crossing among the few remaining pure American chestnuts, as reported in the article that prompted me to revisit the original story and hopefully make amends for my earlier flippancy.

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LEISA speaks up for itself

I’ve done quick nibbles about LEISA Magazine before, most recently on the issue on seed systems, but it really does deserve more of a write-up than that. Which is why it’s such a pleasure to welcome the following contribution to our blog by Karen Hampson, Editor/Researcher at the Centre for Information on Low External Input and Sustainable Agriculture.

The LEISA Magazine on Low External Input and Sustainable Agriculture documents and exchanges information on practical field experiences covering technical, ecological, social and economic aspects of small scale sustainable agriculture. It offers an opportunity for those working in agricultural development, particularly in diverse, risk-prone and resource-poor regions, to publish their experiences and to read about the experiences of others. LEISA Magazine is published four times a year, and each issue deals with a particular theme.

In the current issue of the LEISA Magazine, “Securing Seed Supply,” we present articles from around the world, in which communities describe how they have used various methods to secure their own seed supply. Examples include efforts to conserve traditional rice seed in Sri Lanka, farmer’s seed clubs in Vietnam who rehabilitate and select preferred varieties, and how farmers have improved seed potato in Kenya, using very simple methods. You can also read about how farmer managed natural regeneration has transformed Niger, and how farmers in the Philippines ensure they have enough sweet potato vines to plant, despite difficult local conditions. As a follow-on from our issue on ecological processes (Issue 22.4), the Field Note is from Iraq, describing some experiences with testing out the system of rice intensification (SRI). You can also see our regular items, suggesting books and websites where you can find more information and contacts about this topic.
 
We are also looking for articles relating community experiences in the following upcoming themes: “Ecological Pest Management” and “Green and Fair Trade.” Details and author guidelines can be found on the website, or contact me at k.hampson@ileia.nl.

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Forest products generate income

Rural workers and indigenous people are lobbying the Brazilian government for a policy and start-up cash for small-scale community-level projects on the extraction and processing of non-timber forest products from the Amazon. They say it would be good for them and good for the rainforest, and have a hefty report to back that up with. Meanwhile, in the cerrado, things seem to be developing on an altogether larger scale for local fruits, including the pequi. Via FreshPlaza.

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Summer-grass winter-worm

We went to the opening of a new exhibit at the Bioparco di Roma called Bioversitalia last night. The exhibit was fine, although as usual agricultural biodiversity got short-changed a bit, and so was the food on offer. The introductory talk, however, was a thorough disappointment. Not at all inspiring. What the boffins on display should have talked about, perhaps, is things like Cordyceps sinensis, aka དབྱར་རྩྭ་དགུན་འབུ་, aka the “summer-grass winter-worm.”

The summer-grass winter-worm is a parasitic fungus from Tibet which attacks and takes over the bodies of moth larvae living in the soil. Livestock really like to eat the resulting worm-like mummies, which are also used in traditional medicine. They’re a really valuable commodity: what alerted me to their existence was a newspaper piece today about a fatal gun battle that exploded when neighbouring villages clashed over access to this resource.

Now, it is stories such as this one of the medicinal moth-mummifying fungus of Tibet that would really have got people excited in the Bioparco last night about the wonder and importance of biodiversity!