Agrobiodiversity is crops, livestock, foodways, microbes, pollinators, wild relatives …
It’s potato season at the US Botanical Garden, it seems. There’s a temporary exhibit on the spud. And a number of talks between now and the end of the month, including one on the USDA Potato Genebank. I know because Smithsonian Magazine posted this video on Facebook.
Needless to say, if any of our readers go, we’d love to hear about it.
Detoxifying cassava prompts Ford to ask interesting questions:
I knew about the value of cyanide to deter theft and pests and have also read that it’s a useful pool of nitrogen for the root, but reducing “the social obligation to share” is interesting. As I recall, “Famine in Peasant Societies” puts part of the blame for famines on the expectation that anyone who gets a little ahead will share with relatives, rather than investing in irrigation equipment or whatever. Bank accounts, even if they don’t pay interest, offer a way to hide resources from relatives so, the book claims, famines became less likely. Still, do the risks of sharing outweigh the benefits? Or is there some optimum level of sharing?
One for the game theorists?
The William L. Brown Award recognizes the outstanding contributions of an individual towards the study of useful plants and their conservation. It is administered by the William L. Brown Center at the Missouri Botanical Garden and is made possible through a generous endowment from the Sehgal Family Foundation, in cooperation with the family of Dr. Brown.
If you want to nominate someone for this year’s award, you have until 31 August.
A couple of days ago we Nibbled a set of cacao photos from Sustainable Harvest International. I thought at the time it probably deserved better exposure, and I’m happy to be given the excuse to provide it by the appearance on YouTube of a sweet little cartoon on the cacao tree, courtesy of Kew. And by the start of a series of posts on how chocolate is made, by Rachel Laudan.
And speaking of cacao, this just in: A London hedge fund last week took delivery of contracts for about 7% of the world’s cacao producction, according to a report in The Guardian. (h/t The Tracing Paper). Coincidentally, or not, the price of cacao has increased 150% over the past 18 months.
A recent press release from WWF notes that Russia is gazetting “9 new nature reserves and 13 national parks covering a total area of over 3.8 million ha by 2020”. That’s an area almost the size of Switzerland and almost 3 per cent of Russia’s total area.
Bravo.
But they won’t protect 10 hectares of irreplaceable genebank near St Petersburg?
GMAFB!