That apocalyptic video from Business Insider that we Nibbled earlier is silly in a number of ways, but someone should really have found better stock footage to illustrate small, family-run coffee farms.
Squashing that old old squash seeds story
As the story goes, some six years ago, during an archeological dig on the Menomonie Reservation, a clay ball was unearthed. It was clear that there was something inside of this clay ball and, when opened, what was found were squash seeds, carbon dated to 800 years old. Some of these seeds were planted and they grew and bore fruit.
You may remember that from an article we Nibbled last summer. Well, sadly, it ain’t so.
It’s a great story, said Kenton Lobe, an environmental studies professor at Canadian Mennonite University in Winnipeg, Manitoba. And though Lobe can attest to the size of the squash as grown for the last three years by his students at the university’s farm, the rest of the story is untrue, he said.
But the real story is still pretty cool.
Organic boost
Interesting news for everyone interested in organic agriculture, whatever exactly that might be.
In India, the ministry of agriculture has decided to set up a research institution devoted to the subject, the National Organic Farming Research Institute (NOFRI).
Setting up the institute in Sikkim assumes significance as it is the only state in the country which has adopted organic farming on a universal basis (as a fully organic state).
Meanwhile, half-way around the world from Sikkim, a couple of organic food companies, Organic Valley and Clif Bar & Co., plus local philanthropists John and Tashia Morgridge, have established a $2 million endowment at UW-Madison’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. It funds the US’s (the world’s?) first endowed chair focused on plant breeding for organic crops. The first incumbent is famous maize breeder and agronomy professor at UW-Madison, Bill Tracy.
Tracy said the funding will establish the first permanent graduate program for plant breeding of organic crops and create an incentive for other professors to teach more courses specific to organic farming.
It’s already happening
It seems the majority of species examined are already affected by #climatechange Camille Parmesan #SpeciesOnTheMove pic.twitter.com/XzH7vZje8c
— Clare Hawkins (@Ottercivet) February 9, 2016
That’s from a summary of 5 meta-analyses, covering 4000 species. Follow at #SpeciesOnTheMove.
GRIN-Global hitting its stride
A couple of months ago we announced that USDA had adopted a new genebank data management system, GRIN-Global. There was some question at that time about whether Portugal was on board as well, but that seems now to be the case. So the ever-growing list of GRIN-Global users is now as follows:
- CIMMYT, Maize Genebank
- CIMMYT, Wheat Genebank
- Crop Research Institute, Czech Republic
- INIAF, Bolivia
- ICRISAT (test phase)
- National Plant Germplasm System, USA
- Banco Portugues de Germoplasma Vegetal (BPGV)
A number of other CGIAR genebanks are also looking at the software. I feel a momentum building up…
LATER: This clinches it: it’s on Facebook.