Are you interested in blogging on sustainable agriculture? Well, then Change.org might be interested in you.
A way out of hell?
Jacob dropped me a line saying that there is light at the end of the tunnel, a roadmap out of genebank database hell. He’s right, of course. What they’re doing at IRRI 1 and elsewhere will definitely help users of genebanks avoid the digital quarmire I described in my earlier post. But how did we ever let ourselves get into this mess in the first place?
Organics examined
David Zetland, the aguanomics blogger, has rounded up a couple of choice items on organic agriculture. There’s a report from UNEP and UNCTAD on Organic Agriculture and Food Security in Africa.
According to a newspaper report,
An analysis of 114 projects in 24 African countries found that yields had more than doubled where organic, or near-organic practices had been used. That increase in yield jumped to 128 per cent in east Africa.
The article goes on to say that
[O]rganic practices outperformed traditional methods and chemical-intensive conventional farming. It also found strong environmental benefits such as improved soil fertility, better retention of water and resistance to drought. And the research highlighted the role that learning organic practices could have in improving local education.
David doesn’t like that because he says that UNCTAD is “known for its anti-globalization perspective”. But how, exactly, would this invalidate the conclusions or the report? Furthermore, he says that:
[T]he 114 analyzed projects involved 1.9 million farmers on 2.0 million ha. Those are SMALL farms, and it’s hard to imagine expanding organic practices everywhere, at all scales.
Indeed they are small, just over a hectare each. But actually, that’s big, for most subsistence farmers. and I would argue that it is less important to expand organic practices everywhere at all scales than it is to give the smallest landholders (and, more so, those who don’t even own land) access to sustainable practices that can boost resilience and yields and deliver environmental benefits. Not necessarily organic, but soundly based on agricultural biodiversity.
P.S. Follow the other links in David’s piece if you’re more interested in “truth” than rhetoric.
What’s a bison worth these days?
$4906.25, according to a post by David Willcove, excellent conservation biologist. He points out that a Colorado rancher was fined $157,000 for illegally killing 32 bison that had wandered onto his land last winter. Willcove discusses the conflict between wildlife and livestock in terms of the fear of disease. Bison could transmit brucellosis to cattle, but, Willcove says,
There has never been a documented case of a wild bison transmitting brucellosis to a cow, but the mere possibility that it could happen is enough to cause the State of Montana to insist on the death penalty for all bison that wander outside the park boundary (unless they can be chased back into the park…but try making a bison go where you want it to go).
You would think it might be possible for livestock and wildlife to co-exist, especially in a place where it really is not a matter of life and death, and Willcove has some suggestions to achieve that. But don’t hold your breath.
I’ve never met an axolotl, But Harvard has one in a bottle
The axolotl is a salamander that was an important part of Aztec legend and diet but is now barely hanging on in the tourist canals of Lake Xochimilco in Mexico City. It’s on the IUCN Red List of threatened species, as a result of the draining of the lake on which the city was built, increasing pollution and the introduction of tilapia.
Local fisherman Roberto Altamira, 32, recalls when he was a boy, and the axolotl was still part of the local diet. “I used to love axolotl tamales,” he says, rubbing his stomach and laughing.
Scientists are proposing captive breeding and re-introduction, and “a pilot sanctuary is expected to open in the next three to six months in the waters around Island of the Dolls, so-called because the owner hangs dolls he finds in the canals to ward off evil spirits.”
I hope it works out. I’d like to taste one of those tamales some day. And since we’re on the subject of edible Mexican agrobiodiversity, another example came to my mind today when I read that the new First Family-elect needs an hypoallergenic pooch. They have lots of options beyond the somewhat boring goldendoodle. My personal choice would be the Xoloitzcuintli. And not because its meat is said to have healing properties. Or not primarily for that reason.