Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog
Agrobiodiversity is crops, livestock, foodways, microbes, pollinators, wild relatives …
Nature is reporting on a study that shows that “bees and many other insects may be in decline almost everywhere — but agriculture that depends on pollinators has been surprisingly unaffected at the global scale”. I have not seen the original paper, and I doubt that I am competent to assess it. But the report …
Continue reading “Pollinator decline has no effect on global yields”
INRA and CNRS French scientists and a UFZ German scientist found that the worldwide economic value of the pollination service provided by insect pollinators, bees mainly, was €153 billion in 2005 for the main crops that feed the world. This figure amounted to 9.5% of the total value of the world agricultural food production. The …
Continue reading “The value of pollination: euros 153 billion in 2005”
What’s good here? I love globalization. An organic oasis in Egypt. Today’s crop of the future: Salicornia. English lavender? Florida botanical garden collects plants threatened by climate change. “Los Delirios is a blend of Caturra, Typica, and Bourbon beans grown near Esteli, Nicaragua.” Fungus to help honey bees fight mites. “During our grandfathers’ time there …
Convention on Biological Diversity’s head “Highlights Risks of Agricultural Biodiversity Loss.” Cowpooling. Guess what it means. Training opportunity: A global view of livestock biodiversity and conservation. FAO policy brief on sustainable development and agrobiodiversity. Thanks, Eve. The wonders of solanaceous grafting. Thanks, Jules. Build a better nutcracker. And then analyze all that data. Mapping cyclone …
We’ve had another enquiry about silk-making in Kenya, which is one of our most commented-on stories, so I was prompted to go and look for more information. I hadn’t really taken in before that the reason the projects promote bees and silkworms together is that (some?) African silk moths eat the leaves of Acacias, whose …