Incredible Edible and other readings on biodiversity and more...

read about this here

This strikingly simple image below draws immediate attention to the seeds contained within the pear. Seeds are easily un-noticed in daily life ... unless we somehow work with seeds we may give little thought to them. This images curiously brings the seeds to the fore...

Mary Woodman: Nature in its simplicity. Image found here from artists website.

This morning I found a couple of books through twitter that caught my eye. One non-fiction, the other a novel.

• Paperback

• ISBN:9780521170871

• 630pages

• 111 b/w illus. 10 colour illus. 34 tables

• Dimensions: 247 x 174 mm

• Weight: 1.24kg

• Not yet published - available from February 2012
• £45.00

View other formats: 

• Hardback

The introduction of plant and animal agriculture represents one of the most important milestones in human evolution. It contributed to the development of cities, alphabets, new technologies, and ultimately to civilizations, but it has also presented a threat to both human health and the environment. Bringing together research from a range of fields including anthropology, archaeology, ecology, economics, entomology, ethnobiology, genetics and geography, this book addresses key questions relating to agriculture. Why did agriculture develop and where did it originate? What are the patterns of domestication for plants and animals? How did agroecosystems originate and spread from their locations of origin? Exploring the cultural aspects of the development of agricultural ecosystems, the book also highlights how these topics can be applied to our understanding of contemporary agriculture, its long-term sustainability, the co-existence of agriculture and the environment, and the development of new crops and varieties.

Features

• A synthesis of the most recent research results and implications for the origin of crops and domesticated animals • Provides examples of how crop and animal genetic diversity contributes to sustainability of agriculture, enabling a better understanding of the value of genetic diversity • Explores the cultural aspects of the development of agriculture ecosystems, highlighting the wider context

Table of Contents

List of contributors
Foreword Bruce D. Smith
Acknowledgments
Introduction. The domestication of plants and animals: ten unanswered questions Paul Gepts, Robert Bettinger, Stephen Brush, Ardeshir Damania, Thomas Famula, Patrick McGuire and Calvin Qualset
1. The local origins of domestication Jared Diamond
Part I. Early Steps in Agricultural Domestication: 2. Evolution of agro-ecosystems: biodiversity, origins and differential development David R. Harris
3. From foraging to farming in western and eastern Asia Ofer Bar-Yosef
4. Predomestic cultivation during the late Pleistocene and early Holocene in the Northern Levant George Willcox
5. New archaeobotanical information on plant domestication from macro-remains: tracking the evolution of domestication syndrome traits Dorian Q. Fuller
6. New archaeobotanical information on early cultivation and plant domestication involving microplant remains Dolores R. Piperno
7. How and why did agriculture spread? Peter Bellwood
8. California Indian proto-agriculture: its characterization and legacy M. Kat Anderson and Eric Wohlgemuth
Part II. Domestication of Animals and Impacts on Humans: 9. Pathways to animal domestication Melinda A. Zeder
10. Genetics of animal domestication Leif Andersson
11. Genome-wide approaches for the study of dog domestication Bridgett M. vonHoldt, Melissa M. Gray and Robert K. Wayne
12. Malaria and rickets represent selective forces for the convergent evolution of adult lactase persistence Loren Cordain, Mathew S. Hickley and Kami Kim
Part III. Issues in Plant Domestication: 13. The dynamics of rice domestication: a balance between gene flow and genetic isolation Susan R. McCouch, Michael J. Kovach, Megan Sweeney, Hui Jiang and Mande Semon
14. Domestication of lima beans: a new look at an old problem M. I. Chacón S., J. R. Motta-Aldana, M. L. Serrano S. and D. G. Debouck
15. Genetic characterization of cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) and yam (Dioscorea trifida L.) landraces in swidden agriculture systems in Brazil Elizabeth A. Veasey, Eduardo A. Bressan, Marcos V. B. M. Siqueira, Aline Borges, Jurema R. Queiroz-Silva, Kayo J. C. Pereira, Gustavo H. Recchia and Lin Chau Ming
16. Pigeonpea – from an orphan to a leader in food legumes C. L. Laxmipathi Gowda, K. B. Saxena, R. K. Srivastava, H. D. Upadhyaya and S. N. Silim
Part IV. Traditional Management of Biodiversity: 17. Ecological approaches to crop domestication D. B. McKey, M. Elias, B. Pujol and A. Duputié
18. Agrobiodiversity shifts on three continents since Vavilov and Harlan: assessing causes, processes and implications for food security Gary Paul Nabhan, Ken Wilson, Ogonazar Aknazarov, Karim-Aly Kassam, Laurie Monti, David Cavagnaro, Shawn Kelly, Tai Johnson and Ferrell Sekacucu
19. Indigenous peoples conserving, managing, and creating biodiversity Jan Salick
20. Land architecture in the Maya lowlands: implications for sustainability B. L. Turner II and Deborah Lawrence
21. Agrobiodiversity and water resources in agricultural landscape evolution (Andean Valley irrigation, Bolivia, 1986 to 2008) Karl S. Zimmerer
Part V. Uses of Biodiversity and New and Future Domestications: 22. Participatory domestication of indigenous fruit and nut trees: new crops for sustainable agriculture in developing countries Roger R. B. Leakey
23. The introduction and dispersal of Vitis vinifera into California: a case study of the interaction of man, plants, economics, and environment James Lapsley
24. Genetic resources of yeast and other micro-organisms Charles W. Bamforth
25. Biodiversity of native bees and crop pollination with emphasis on California Robbin W. Thorp
26. Aquaculture, the next wave of domestication Dennis Hedgecock
27. Genetic sustainability and biodiversity: challenges to the California dairy industry Juan F. Medrano
Index.

• © Cambridge University Press 2012.

The other book:

This is the village where much of the action took place.

see more photos 

The novel is selling for US $ 2.99 on kindle and around $14 in hard copy here.

I added it to the homage to the seed page on Facebook this morning:

Homage to the seed

All profits from the sale of this book will be distributed to the Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines of Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders and the Institute of Biodiversity Conservation in Ethiopia.

Amazon.com: Through These Veins (9780983249801): Anne Marie Ruff: Books

www.amazon.com

Amazon.com: Through These Veins (9780983249801): Anne Marie Ruff: Books

 ·  · Share · 2 hours ago

I hope you noticed that fine print:

All profits from the sale of this book will be distributed to the Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines of Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders and the Institute of Biodiversity Conservation in Ethiopia.

SO where does Incredible  Edoble come into the story? This morning I posted this wonderful story on Tumblr:

Incredible Edible: 'It's not all about free food'

Image found through title link.

In 2008, as the economy was going downhill and fears about climate change were on the rise, Pam Warhurst, a businesswoman and former council leader in Todmorden, Yorkshire, decided to do something positive in her community. Her bright idea involved food and the use of public spaces and it quickly caught her neighbours’ imagination. Now the seed Warhurst planted in Todmorden is not only bearing fruit – it’s taking root in other towns across the UK and as far away as New Zealand.

The idea was beautifully simple. All over town, green areas of public land were going to waste. Even cultivated areas were not being used to their potential. Meanwhile, people were buying their food from far-flung places. Why not put these public spaces to more productive use? Before long, edible things were cropping up all over town in green spaces the organisation refers to as “propaganda gardens”.

“At first, we had trouble getting people to help themselves,” says Mary Clear, “because we’re from a country where people say, ‘Get off my land’, so we had to tell people it was OK.” Now, locals are volunteering as well as picking: there are 273 people on Incredible Edible’s “muck-in” list. Local food shops have come around to the idea and, says Warhurst, “nearly 50% said it had had a positive impact on their income”. “It’s not all about free food,” Clear stresses. The propaganda gardens exist to remind people that food can be grown close to home.

The project has been welcomed by the local authority and has also attracted outside interest. “People came from New Zealand and are now adopting edible spaces in the rebuilding of Christchurch,” says Warhurst. The Incredible Edible movement has now spread to 30 other towns around the UK and beyond.

Click on heading above to go to guardian and see video!

posted from Guardian article by sophie munns

Well.... i hope you are inspired as I was....
Sophie
PS Enjoy you weekend everyone!

Rethinking the greenhouse... Joost comes to Sydney

I just posted a longer story on this fabulous project that is located temporarily on Sydney's wonderful Harbour with views of the Opera House and ferries coming in.

Read my longer post here:

Visit the greenhouse website here:  

from the website:

Born into a dynasty of Dutch flower growers, Joost is a discipline-crossing creative who constantly draws on his ‘horti-culture’ to make artful commentary on the world’s wasteful ways. Working exclusively with the discard of human activity he has fashioned such extraordinary forms that the word ‘rubbish’ has risen from the scrap heap.Joost has been commissioned to design furniture, vertical gardens and event spaces in his trademark style juxtaposing nature and industry.  In March 2006, Joost set about the construction of a new home for his family, employing a unique building system; a contemporary take on a great sustainable construction method utilising straw bales set into a 100% recyclable steel framework. In 2008, the same building principles were used to construct the first‘Greenhouse by Joost’, an exhibition and event space at Melbourne’s Federation Square which was open from November 2008 to January 2009 and attracted 1,000 visitors per day, global media attention from major publications and over 2.5 million viewers on YouTube. A permanent Greenhouse by Joost is currently located on St George’s Terrace in Perth, Western Australia and in 2010 received the Restaurant of the Year in Perth and attracts 800 to 1,000 visitors per day.

strawberry pots

OK.... THis you have to read... from here

I have designed the restaurant in reverse. I’ve started at the end and worked back. My dream has always been to build a restaurant that creates no waste and now I believe I can achieve it!” – Joost

Suppliers will only be able to supply fresh produce in returnable Chep crates. Like in Perth, fresh milk will be delivered from the farm straight to us in returnable stainless steel buckets with which we will make our own butter, yoghurt and mozzarella cheese. In Perth we stone grind almost 1 tonne of wheat every week and I anticipate we will use more here in Sydney.

A local wheat grower will provide us with wheat direct from the farm every week, we cut the thread on the bags in such a way that they can be returned and re-used. We will use our Flour Mill to grind the wheat into fresh flour to make bread, pastries, pasta and wood fired pizza. Oats will also be rolled fresh.

All our waste from the kitchen will be organic. This organic waste will be composted on site using a JoraForm in-vessel composter. This will grind and produce 10 litres of compost for every 100 litres of waste. Our  compost will be required to maintain the roof top garden. In Perth this year we have added almost 6000 litres of compost to our roof top garden (that’s 60,000 litres of waste we have composted!) Our cutlery is made from plantation timber and will be composted in the JoraForm, even the baking paper we source from Finland is unbleached and can be processed through the composter.

The rooftop garden is planted in Chep liquid bins that are traditionally used for transporting olive oil. The rooftop bar serves wine from returnable kegs or barrels. The beer will only be available on tap. I have also been working with Mitch from Hepburn Springs Mineral Water. Greenhouse Sydney will be the first to use carbonated water derived straight from the aquifer into kegs. This pure Australian carbonated water will be used to make our own Tonic, Soda and Cola. The house pours of Gin, Rum, Vodka and Whiskey are also Australian made and owned. Mark Douglass (glass artist) will transform the empty bottles into beer glasses as he does now for Greenhouse Perth.

The staff t-shirts designed in collaboration with Space-craft and Joost, re-printed using natural dyes, are overruns of political and business t-shirts salvaged by the Salvation Army.

The Greenhouse Sydney interior walls will be completely clad in MgO board (magnesium oxide board).  Joost has developed MgO board impregnated with Bio-Char so that The Greenhouse can store carbon within its walls! The Greenhouse steel framed walls are filled with straw and its doors and windows recyclable steel framed.

The toilets are Australian made Caroma Dorf, with the sink above the cistern using water from the hand wash to fill the next flush!  Waterless urinals are used and the kitchen and bathroom floors are lined with natural linoleum.

Joost has designed & made chairs out of old aluminium irrigation pipes.  They are incredibly light & have been named Squirt Chair! The leather used for the seats are off-cuts from a saddle makers in Ballarat (Victoria’s last tannery).  Lights have been made from willow trees and rolls of old fencing wire.

Sydney Peace Prize - 2010: Dr Vindana Shiva

Biodiversity as Green Oil ?

Seed Copyright?

Seed Sovereignty?

what is this?

Dr Vindana Shiva

In October last year I posted on Dr Vindana Shiva at Navdanya, Grandmother's University where some of her initiatives were presented - such as a learning centre Bija Vidyapeeth (School of the Seed) on biodiversity conservation at an organic farm in Doon Valley, Uttranchal, north India.

Bija Vidyapeeth is Sanskrit for “Seed Learning Centre” with “bija” meaning literally “seed” as well as “origin” or “source.” The Bija Vidyapeeth seal also says “vasudhaiv kutumbakam” in Sanskrit. This means “one world family.”

Today I am adding this information Give Mother earth a Chance about the lecture given by Vindana Shiva at the Sydney (Australia) Opera House in November 2010 when she was awarded with the Sydney Peace Prize.

Give Mother Earth A Chance

(click on this heading to go to website and see lecture video!)

30 Nov 2010, 11:00
“If commerce starts to undermine life support, then commerce must stop, because life has to carry on.” This is the central premise Dr Vandana Shiva’s passionate address for the 2010 City of Sydney Peace Prize Lecture, in which she lambasts global corporations for waging war against nature in the name of profits.

Shiva argues that when commonly used agricultural herbicides have names like “Round Up”, “Squadron”, “Avenge”, one can see there is war being waged against nature…and the humans are winning at the cost of their own future. To Vandana Shiva, fighting for peace for ‘Mother Earth’ is the broadest peace movement we can engage in.

She calls for a form of ‘Earth Democracy’, that re-imagines the biosphere as a citizen, that has universal rights that need protecting and defending.

Dr Vandana Shiva is speaking at the Sydney Opera House for the City of Sydney Peace Prize.

The Sydney Peace Prize was established by the Sydney Peace Foundation in 1998. Each year a prize is awarded to an organisation or individual who has made significant contributions to global peace. Previous winners include Patrick Dodson, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Mary Robinson, Arundhati Roy, Hans Blix and more.

Dr Vandana Shiva is a physicist, environmental activist, author and eco-feminist. As a physicist she trained at the University of Western Ontario and specialised in Quantum Theory. As an environmental activist she has worked for campaigns that focus on the issues of bio-piracy, genetic engineering, sustainable agriculture, intellectual property rights and biodiversity. She has written many books on environmental issues including “The Violence of Green Revolution”, “Bio-piracy: the Plunder of Nature and Knowledge”, “Water, Wars: Privatization, Pollution and Profit”, “Earth Democracy: Justice, Sustainability and Peace” and her most recent book “Soil Not Oil” released in 2008. In 1991, Shiva established “Navdanya” a food security movement based in over 16 states in India, it aims to empower farmers to protect their economic livelihoods and natural resources, especially native seeds. Shiva has been awarded several awards for her efforts including the Right Livelihood Award and the United Nations Environment Program [UNEP] Global 500 Award in 1993, and most recently the 2010 City of Sydney Peace Prize.

Vandana Shiva has been recognised for her work on the empowerment of women in developing countries, her advocacy of the human rights of small farming communities, and her scientific analysis of environmental sustainability.

Vandana is founder of the Navdanya movement and the Bija Vidyapeeth learning centre in India, recognized as a school of the future.

Sydney Peace Foundation director, Professor Stuart Rees, said Dr Shiva was an inspiring recipient of the award. “Many communities are threatened by the consequences of global warming, yet in Australia the movement to address this issue has gone to sleep,” he said. “Vandana’s presence in Sydney in November should wake them up.”

Other distinguished recipients of Australia’s only international prize for peace have included previous Nobel recipients Professor Muhammad Yunus, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and Aboriginal leader Patrick Dodson.

Mary Kostakidis, chair of the Sydney Peace Foundation, said governments around the world sought Dr Shiva’s counsel on issues of sustainable development. “Vandana Shiva’s work highlights the fundamental connection between human rights and the protection of the environment,” Ms Kostakidis said. “She offers solutions to some of the most critical problems posed by the effects of globalisation and climate change on the poorest and most populous nations.”

On a sombre note read the Observer Newspaper's January 2 , 2011 story from India:

India's hidden climate change catastrophe (click on the heading!)

Over the past decade, as crops have failed year after year, 200,000 farmers have killed themselves

By Alex Renton

Images from a Seed Course at Navdanya

Seed Course

Seed Course

Follow on Twitter

From the Vandanya vision:

“Life will not be a pyramid with the apex sustained by the bottom. But it will be an oceanic circle whose center will be the individual always ready to perish for the village, the latter ready to perish for the circle of villages till at last the whole becomes one life composed of individuals, never aggressive in their arrogance, but ever humble, sharing the majesty of he oceanic circle of which they are integral units. Therefore, the outermost circumference will not wield power to crush the inner circle, but will give strength to all within and will derive its own strength from it.”

Message from the Founder:

Over the past three decades I have tried to be the change I want to see. When I found that dominant science and technology served the interests of powerful, I left academics to found the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology, a participatory, public interest research organisation. When I found global corporations wanted to patent seeds, crops or life forms, I started Navdanya to protect biodiversity, defend farmers’ rights and promote organic farming.

Navdanya/RFSTE’s journey over the past two decades has taken us into creating markets for farmers and promoting tasty, healthy, high quality food for consumers. We have connected the seed to the kitchen, biodiversity to gastronomy. And now we have joined hands with Slow Food to celebrate the quality and cultural diversity of our food.

The seed has inspired us to spread the message of sustainability through Bija Vidyapeeth, which I started with Satish Kumar as a sister institution of the Schumaker College in the UK.

My journey on the road to ecological sustainability started with the Chipko movement in the 1970s when women in the region of the Himalayas protected forests by hugging trees.

For me, ecology and feminism have been inseparable. And Diverse Women for Diversity is one expression of combining women’s rights and nature’s rights, celebrating our cultural diversity and biological diversity.

The defence of nature’s rights and people’s rights have come together for me in Earth Democracy – the democracy of all life on earth, a living democracy which supports and is supported by living culture and living economies.

I am happy you have visited us on the web. We look forward to your visit to our farm, our cafe, our school. Let us together build an earth family. Let us in our diversity create an earth democracy.

Inspiration for Monday morning!

Whilst visiting Abigail Doan's wonderful blog this morning I found two article's I wanted to post on here. Read about her at the greenmuseum.org. She describes herself as:

"a writer and environmental fiber artist residing in NYC and Europe. 

My eco-textile and art farming projects are a means to create sustainable 

solutions and visual links to the global challenges we collectively face."

 This eco-art blog I like to visit for inspiration featured artist Kevin Inkawhich some time ago and the Seed Project which I'll focus on  as well.

From Abigail Doan:

'Kevin Inkawhich crafts the most heart palpitatingly natural mobiles. Using dried leaves, seeds, pods, branches, and delicate wire armatures, his floating sculptural pieces make any room or exhibition space flutter with organicism. They are lyrical, resourceful, and an homage of sorts to the fact that the best design is always, in essence, nature-based.'

Kevin Inkawhich

 Also at Abigail's blog:

Ruth Asawa in her San Francisco studio via Community of Creatives

this article below on Abigail Doan is well worth a read:

Returning to and from THE LAND: Connectivity and Crafting Residency

ABIGAIL DOAN
THE LAND/an art site is located eighty miles southeast of Albuquerque in the pinon and juniper-scented foothills of New Mexico's Manzano Mountains. The pueblo mission ruins of Salinas National Monument are situated nearby, as is the train-whistle-punctuated town of Mountainair, the former pinto-bean capital of the world and the now faded hub of the Santa Fe Railway. As THE LAND's September 2006 artist-in-residence, I prepared myself for an immersive week of surveying and studying the unique characteristics of this remote art and conservation site.

all images form the Land Views site.

also from Landviews:

Abigail Doan is an environmental artist and activist. Her work has been exhibited in conjunction with the United Nation's Environment Programme, Art into Action/The Natural World Museum, and in group exhibits worldwide. Abigail is a contributing editor to Supernaturale.com, where she writes about art farming, craft, and the use of fiber in the landscape. She recently exhibited her 'Crocheted Snow' series at Lafayette College's Williams Center Art Gallery, in an exhibit called, "On Ice". Her work appears on Greenmuseum.org, in periodicals such as Knit Knit, and in the recently published book, Craftivity. Her 'Tumbleweeds' will be exhibited this April in the show, "Stretched Threads", at The Atlantic Center for The Arts in Central Florida. For more information on Abigail's projects, go toabigaildoan.blogspot.com.

NOW... the next thing I wanted to share found at Abigail's blog was this:

http://abigaildoan.blogspot.com/2007/04/seed-project.html

From The Seed Project website: 

watch this one minute video!

Matthew Gehring

Monica Hernadez

Joan Fitsimmons

Gina Fuentes Walker - apple seeds

The Seed project began in 2006 by David Cohen, an installation artist.

The Seed project engages people all over the world plant to plant seeds creatively, creating individual art projects. The growth is then documented digitally. The digital images are compiled and placed together to form a “Virtual Field”  that can be seen  online. The components of the actual field exist in many separate places at once; sort of a diaspora of plants.

The plants can be grown freely in any configuration the planter chooses and the images can express the individuality of the grower as well. Planters are also free to choose to grow whatever seeds they choose. The three criteria are that the plants must be:

1 non-spreading,

2 non-invasive and

3 grown legally.

When a person participates by planting the seeds they become connected to a collective group of artists and activists. There are opportunities to meet potential collaborators and work creatively on other projects separate from the Seed Project. The seed becomes symbolic of these new collectives. 

School project

Anyone can join in this seed project!