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“Am I going to have to fight my Audi for lunch?”

Watch this for two reasons:

  1. It explains briefly and in an easy-to-understand way just some of the ramifications of the drought in the US. Note that the downside is almost all the result of using corn as feed for intensive livestock production.
  2. It is a masterclass on how to communicate simply and directly.

Major kudos to Bruce Babcock.

P.S. What would happen to prices if Colbert’s Audi was not a competitor for corn?

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Mexican maize biodiversity documented

Via El Cuexcomate, news that CONABIO now has information on the maize races of Mexico on its website, including photos and distribution maps. It’s all part of a huge project to document native maize diversity (including the wild relatives) which was stimulated by fears 1 about the influx of GM maize. And since we’re on the subject of maize, today also saw an informative post on pellagra, complete with very dramatic illustrations.

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AVRDC’s shiny new website

AVRDC has a nice new website. You can subscribe to a couple different newsletters, and also follow the institute on Facebook and Twitter. You can buy a porcelain coffee mug and donate money. And there’s a decent RSS feed at last. The first thing that popped up when I subscribed to it was, almost inevitably, a fact sheet on the baobab. Yet another fact sheet on the baobab. Incidentally, I know I’ve already nibbled this, but also newly online is CABI’s Plantwise Knowledge Bank, an “online resource with information for all involved in plant health.” Where, almost inevitably, you can get information on the baobab.