Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog

March 18, 2013March 18, 2013

Food security is not about scarcity

The idea of scarcity is perhaps the biggest challenge we face in addressing the world’s food needs. As long as food security policy and programs remain focused on solving scarcity, food security will remain focused on technical fixes for hunger: greater technology, greater inputs, greater efficiency. This narrative of scarcity has trumped any reasonable effort to measure actual levels of production in the world today, the return on greater technological inputs versus solving the causes of waste in existing systems, and even served as a useful foil through which to obscure the deepening unsustainability of the very agricultural systems that are often treated as a model, those here in the United States and Europe.

Edward Carr’s first blast on Doing Food Security Differently. No disagreement from me, yet.

March 18, 2013March 18, 2013

Brainfood: Perennial wheat, Tree diversity, Fire, Dog domestication, Coffee diversity, Uganda cassava diversity, Sorghum structure, Japanese pastures, Maize diversity, Protection, Pigeonpea hybrid, Wheat nutritional composition, Pollinator diversity, Cajanus gap, Tree diversity, Resilient seed systems

Perennial cereal crops: An initial evaluation of wheat derivatives. Early days still.
Effects of silviculture on native tree species richness: interactions between management, landscape context and regional climate. Encourage mosaics, and don’t harvest everything.
The global fire–productivity relationship. It’s humped, and will be changed by climate change, though for different reasons for different productivity levels. Wonder about the fire-diversity relationship, though.
Ancient DNA Analysis Affirms the Canid from Altai as a Primitive Dog. Bit of a judgement call though.
Genetic structure and diversity of coffee (Coffea) across Africa and the Indian Ocean islands revealed using microsatellites. Just what you would expect, given the “morpho-taxonomic species delimitations and genetic units.”
Genetic diversity among farmer-preferred cassava landraces in Uganda. Landraces only a bit more diverse than elites overall, but half of them quite different.
Correspondence between genetic structure and farmers’ taxonomy — a case study from dry-season sorghum landraces in northern Cameroon. Genetic units = farmer-recognized landraces.
Plant diversity, productivity and nutritive value change following abandonment of public pastures in Japan. The best way to restore productivity (diversity doesn’t change much) in abandoned pastures is to start grazing them again.
Genetic variability of maize stover quality and the potential for genetic improvement of fodder value. You can improve stover and grain yield simultaneously, in hybrids. In theory.
Governance regime and location influence avoided deforestation success of protected areas in the Brazilian Amazon. Total protection better than sustainable use. Ouch. Meanwhile, in the USA…
ICPH 2671 – the world’s first commercial food legume hybrid. Yet another milestone on the road to the complete eradication of farmers’ rights.
Genetic improvement of grain protein content and other health-related constituents of wheat grain. Need to figure out the genetic control mechanisms, and then exploit “alien” germplasm using MAS. Oh, and GMOs too.
Quantifying the impacts of bioenergy crops on pollinating insect abundance and diversity: a field-scale evaluation reveals taxon-specific responses. Diversity begets diversity.
Diversity and geographical gaps in Cajanus scarabaeoides (L.) Thou. germplasm conserved at the ICRISAT genebank. Now collectors know exactly where to go.
Tree species diversity increases fine root productivity through increased soil volume filling. Below-ground complementarity is good for everyone’s roots, presumably good for the community too.
Making seed systems more resilient to stress. Foster informal innovation, but also information exchange (presumably including of the formal kind).

March 17, 2013

Peas that surpasseth understanding

Today is Carlin Sunday. That’s a Carlin Pea up there. There is a lot more one could say about carlins. Indeed, I’ve said some of it myself. For now, let them be a reminder of all the choices we’ve been denied as a result of EU legislation.

March 14, 2013March 14, 2013

Is this really a Roman mosaic of a pineapple?

Roman Mosaic 1, a photo by mharrsch on Flickr.

Originally from the environs of the Villa Rufinella. Is it legit? And if truly ancient Roman, what is that in the upper right hand corner if not a pineapple?

LATER: I should add that I was pointed in the direction of that mosaic by a long, but fascinating, talk on “Mapping the Ancient Environment: The Contribution of Manuscripts and Texts,” ¹ which in turn came to me thanks to a tweet from @mem_somerville.

March 13, 2013March 13, 2013

“Expert” admits: I don’t know the story of the Enola bean

A couple of days ago, when I Nibbled Steve Savage’s “robust defence of plant patents” I said that I did not agree, and that this would never stop me linking to things. I also left a brief comment on the blog post in question. Matthew went far further in challenging Savage’s view in a lengthy, detailed and deliciously snarky comment here. Matthew also cross-posted his comment at Applied Mythology, Savage’s blog, where Steve kinda sorta replied to the points Matthew raised. You can read the exchange there and make your own mind up. But what really, really struck me about Savage’s replies was this:

I don’t know the story of the Enola bean. Perhaps you could summarize that so I and others don’t have to go searching for that information.

I’m sorry? You set yourself up as having some sort of authority in the matter of plant patents, value of, and you “don’t know the story” of one of the most important cases in plant patent lore in recent years? Forgive me if I perhaps don’t take some of your views too seriously.