Agrobiodiversity is crops, livestock, foodways, microbes, pollinators, wild relatives …
SLNRao regrets the mistakes of the past, but sees a bright future ahead for grasspea, and its relatives:
Looking at the likely benefits of Homoarginine on the cardiovasculature and emerging concepts on ODAP itself I am of the firm belief that grass pea in coming years will turn into a rich man’s pulse.
This just in from Alex Lyon, a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He She and some friends are planning a symposium for graduate students interested in plant breeding and seed systems for organic agriculture, and he she asked us to help get the word out. Happy to do so.
We are inviting applications from graduate students in plant breeding and related programs for the first Student Organic Seed Symposium. The event will be held at the Lakeview Inn in Greensboro, Vermont, from August 5 – August 8, 2012. Hosted by High Mowing Organic Seeds and organized by students from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, the Student Organic Seed Symposium aspires to build a community of graduate students interested in plant breeding and seed systems for organic agriculture.
For more information, please visit here.
Space is limited — Funding is available — Applications are due February 15, 2012!
We hope to see you in Vermont!
There’s a USDA media blitz on about the new Plant Hardiness Zone Map for the United States.
The 2012 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map is the standard by which gardeners and growers can determine which plants are most likely to thrive at a location. The map is based on the average annual minimum winter temperature, divided into 10-degree F zones.
You can read the paper. You can read the press coverage. And you can watch the video.
The good news for America’s 80 million gardeners is that for the first time the map is available in an online interactive version, and is a lot more accurate. The bad news is that things are getting hotter, and many of those gardeners are going to have to rethink their choices:
The new PHZM is generally one half-zone warmer than the previous PHZM throughout much of the United States, as a result of a more recent averaging period (1974–1986 vs. 1976–2005).
But then we knew that. As far as I can see, you can’t compare the new version with the old online, side by side kind of thing. That would be one powerful climate change advocacy tool, wouldn’t it. Gardeners don’t like to be messed with, in my experience.
Clare Trivedi reassures Dave Wood on Kew’s ABS policy:
I know it may be a little buried in the Kew website but we have a very well-established Policy on Access to Genetic Resources and Benefit Sharing which covers all aspects of acquisition, use and supply of plant material.
And to avoid you digging around for it, Dave, here it is.
There’s been a whole lot of noise lately about how to feed 9 billion people well, much of it adopting ammunition of silver. Organics can do it. GMOs are essential. Women farmers. Microdoses of fertiliser. Sequence everything. Drip irrigation. Et cetera, et cetera. Mostly special interest groups looking after their special interests. And like Dr Johnson’s apocryphal epigram, they’ll never agree because they are arguing from different premises. In the meantime, though, is it any wonder that some people take umbrage at pronouncements like these:
The United States of America is the world leader in agriculture. We have invested in domestic agricultural education, infrastructure and distribution, and reaped the rewards. Other countries look to us for new technologies and new systems. It is time to teach them more efficient farming methods.
That, from one Christopher Barden, is the prelude to a call to increase the number of agricultural exchanges, which “allow young or mid-career agriculturalists to come to the U.S. and live and work alongside American farmers and learn the work ethics, technologies, organization and honesty practiced in that community. Participants can earn money to invest in their agri-businesses at home while taking back a bank of knowledge and respect.” Mr Barden, as it happens, “is the vice president of Worldwide Farmers Exchange, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit independent of government funding”.
I wonder whether any of the young or mid-career agriculturalists have any solutions to, say, the problems of the Gulf of Mexico dead zone, or the externalities imposed by concentrated pig operations?
Dan Glickman, former US Secretary of Agriculture, tells a very familiar story in an article for Diplomatic Courier magazine. Feeding a Growing World Sustainably and Nutritiously goes through the usual reasons and rounds up the usual suspects, to whit: invest in “basic and adaptive agricultural research,” in “the production of fruits and vegetables and other nutrient-dense specialty crops,” and especially in women.
Investing in women has positive repercussions not just for productivity, but also for nutritional improvement. Women make the majority of household nutritional decisions, and giving women nutrition information is proven to improve maternal and children’s health.
But here’s a thing: Despite Rhetoric, Women Still Sidelined in Development Funding.
Of course, one can’t blame ex-Secretary Glickman for that. Personally, however, if the problems are as pressing as everyone seems to think they are, wouldn’t it be better to try lots of different approaches, and see which ones work best where, and in what combinations. But no, lets just slag off everyone who doesn’t agree with us. 1 One rather wishes a well-meaning psychologist type would come along and figure out why no one group can even begin to appreciate another’s point of view. The world is diverse, and so are the ways in which people secure their food and nutrition. A first step might be to recognise that.