Visit this site for the story and images on this fascinating artist... Alexis Rockman.
Alexis Rockman
Found at 'but does it float' a wonderful painter Alexis Rockman takes us on a journey into oft hidden worlds...
NB: not sure why but the link function is not enabling at the moment ... if you google this artist you can read about this work at the Smithsonian American Art Museum site. Apologies!
I found this important story via twitter from The great Beyond - nature bringing ground-breaking news from the world of science. Visit nature.com here.
Egyptian seed bank looted -- updated - February 01, 2011
Mummies aren’t the only research resources threatened in Egypt, after a tumultuous week of anti-government protests that has resulted in a security vacuum. The Egyptian Deserts Gene Bank, a seed and plant collection in the North Sinai region, was looted, according to the Global Crop Diversity Trust. The vandals stole equipment and destroyed the bank’s cooling system.
According to a Worldwatch Institute blog, the bank is a repository for Egyptian desert plants, including wild fruit and medicinal plants, and also includes a herbarium, a tissue culture laboratory and an 18-acre field. Many of the plants and seeds housed there are not found in another Egyptian seed bank in Giza, which has not been looted, according to the Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog.
“This is yet another sobering reminder of how fragile the diversity in genebanks can be, and the importance of safety duplication,” said a statement on the website of Global Crop Diversity Trust.
Cary Fowler, director of Global Crop Diversity Trust, says the bank's collection includes wild relatives of tomato, eggplant and watermelon. Damage to the cooling system wouldn't necessarily cause immediate harm to the seed collection. "The seeds would not instantly die," he says, but "this could certainly damage them."
There have also been reports of looting in Egyptian museums over the past few days. The country’s most prominent archaeologist Zahi Hawass - who was yesterday appointed Minister of Antiquities - said that looters at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo robbed the gift shop and damaged a statuette of King Tutankhamun. Two mummies were also destroyed, their heads torn off and bones strewn across the floor, according to MSNBC.
Image of Egyptian Deserts Gene Bank from Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog
This story found at the same site was also pause for thought. Click on title to read more!
The drought last year in the Amazon basin was even more widespread and intense than the supposedly once-in-a-century dry spell in 2005.
The second extreme drought to have hit the region in five years raises concerns that world’s largest rain forest – a major sink for atmospheric carbon dioxide – could be approaching a tipping point.
“If drought events continue, the era of intact Amazon forests buffering the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide may have passed,” a team led by Simon Lewis of Leeds University in the UK writes in tomorrow’s issue of Science.
The team compared rainfall anomalies and water stress to trees across 5.3 million square kilometres of the Amazon basin during 2005 and 2010. Last year’s drought affected a larger area than the oen in 2005, and was most pronounced in southwestern Amazonia, north-central Bolivia and in the state of Mato Grosso in Brasil, they report.
Drought conditions during the dry season last year have led to numerous forest fires and extremely low water levels in many rivers, including the Rio Negro, which in October reached a record low at Manaus, the capital of Brazil’s Amazonas state.
A bit of a deviation tonight on the Homage blog... but given the summer experienced here in Qld you will I hope allow me this slight detour... anyway .... seeds and weather. There are endless stories there!
Cyclone Yasi approaching the northeast coast of Australia, as captured by EUMETSAT's polar-orbiting satellite Metop-A at 2355 UTC on 2 February 2011. Photograph: Eumetsat
I'm posting a story here from the Guardian's environment blog:
Will cyclone Yasi push Australia into action on climate?
The 'monster, killer storm' is the biggest for at least a century, with 400,000 people in its path. Will this latest extreme weather affect attitudes to global warming?
Immediate attention should be upon those in danger from Yasi. But a big question in the aftermath will be whether the battering Australia has taken from extreme weather, on top of its recent long drought, will shift the country's stubborn streak of sceptical opinion on climate change. Climate sceptics, as elsewhere, are firmly in the minority, but their viewpoint appears to have become more popular in recent years. Following the recent general election - seen by some as the world's first climate change election - cyclone Yasi could be a tipping point for opinion, suggest observers.
Im going to link here now to an article I read 2 weeks ago from Germaine Greer :
Australian-born writer Germaine Greer spends three to four months every year in her home country where she runs the Cave Creek Rainforest Rehabilitation Scheme in Queensland. What's going on in Australia is rain. British people might think that they're rain experts. Truth is that they hardly know what rain is. The kind of cold angel sweat that wets British windscreens isn't proper rain. For weeks now rain has been drumming in my ears, leaping off my corrugated steel roof, frothing through the rocks, spouting off the trees, and running, running, running past my house and down into the gully, into the little creek, into the bigger creek, and on to the Nerang river and out to sea at Southport. We've had more than 350mm in the last four days. My creek is running so high and so fast that I can't get out and my workforce can't get in. I can't even go for a walk under the dripping trees, because I'll come back festooned with leeches. In these conditions you can end up with a leech in your eye, and there's no one here to help get it out. Continue reading here. I will add this excerpt as I thought it very noteworthy... the comments that come at the end of the article are, in some cases, quite heated. There was much food for thought in this article and if you did not already read it consider doing so!
The colour of the water reveals a terrible truth. What is being washed downstream is topsoil. The water moves so rapidly because so much of the land has been cleared. Any wooded land will be, like mine, high in the catchment. As long ago as 1923, Sydney Skertchly, an Englishman who had been working for the Queensland government as a geologist before he retired to what is now the Gold Coast suburb of Molendinar, pointed out that rain that fell in the upper part of the Nerang rive catchment that used to take five days to reach him on the coastal plain at Molendinar, now reached him in five hours.When the settlers first arrived on the coast of northern New South Wales and southern Queensland, the rivers were navigable. As the "scrubs" (the settlers' way of referring to rainforest) were ripped out, the seasonal rains carried the topsoil into the rivers, which silted up and then began to flood. Thats sobering .... in the Seed Lab last year talk often centred on the destruction of habitat and the consequences of that. Due to land clearing, commercial use of land, housing development, farming.... all the factors that destroy intact habitat... if heavy rain could once take 5 days to reach the coast and is now taking 5 hours... than any wonder we saw the tragic loss of life, homes and livelihood in the valley at the base of the range behind Brisbane recently!
Last year I had loads of plans for the residency.... many of those did come to fruition... but one in particular I ran out of the necessary time for .
Being a curious soul I wanted to discover what indigenous plants we had growing in this region that were edible and quite suited to back-yard cultivation. I talked to people... from friends who were experimenting with various plants to nurseries with indigenous plants and then to the Library to read up on what has been here for a very long time.
I documented various ones in my journal pages last year... see some of those at this post.
At my other blog I posted this story on finger limes last year... a native citrus fruit called Citrus australasica that are sensational. Rereading that post brought back a delicious memory. Why have I not bought one of these plants?
These videos below I found at the Seed Savers site ...both showcase Davidson Plums - Davidsonia which I've only tried in jam so far. They've been quite popular with chefs and foodies, are high in antioxidants, are naturally sour but can be used in all kinds of ways.
You will find more excellent videos at Seed Savers. Read about this wonderful organisation below:
The Seed Savers' Network is a national organisation dedicated since 1986 to the preservation of local varieties of useful plants. We work in Australia with our more than a hundred Local Seed Networks. We also work in other countries, forty so far. See an overview of our activities, the countries in which we have worked, our story so far with archives of our work and how you can get involved.
Founders, Jude and Michel Fanton, have authored and published three books, "The Seed Savers' Handbook", "Local Seed Network Manual" and "Seed to Seed Food Gardens in Schools" and produced a one hour documentary, "Our Seeds" - purchase our publications or film. Our new documentary "Our Roots" that we filmed in Vanuatu for CIRAD the French research institute will be out soon. Please use the resources we offer at no cost to you and without sponsored links.
The first six months of 2011 will be exciting for The Seed Savers' Network. We will give presentations at the Rare Fruit Society of SA in Adelaide in January, workshops in Tasmania and north Queensland in April. Starting 19th March we will have five Saturday workshops on the Nexus between Garden and Health at the Seed Centre in Byron Bay, NSW, Australia. You might like to plan to come to our week-long live-in course on the Politics of Food Growing at the Seed Centre in Byron Bay from 28th March to 2nd April 2011.
The short but illustrious history of Brighton and Hove Seedy Sunday began in 2001, when two members of Brighton and Hove Organic Gardening Group (yes, BHOGG) went on holiday to Vancouver, Canada. There they happened upon a seed swap, organised by Sharon Rempel of Saltspring Seeds.
A seed swap is a sort of fair, where growers exchange seeds from plants they have grown themselves, meet kindred spirits, and reassure each other that preferring home-saved seeds to bought ones does not mean that they are just stingy or eccentric. The Brighton gardeners were so impressed that when they got back to England they persuaded a group of fellow growers to help organize a similar event. The result, the UK's first ever seed swap, took place in St George's Hall, in Kemptown in Brighton, in February 2002.
Here's a great story (via Treehugger) from England about this event held on the first Sunday of February every year.
Based in Brighton, England, Seedy Sunday is an annual event that claims to have "blazed the trail for UK seed swaps over the past decade". Held on the first Sunday of February every year, the seed swap attracts well over 1000 visitors who, in return for a donation or in exchange for seed they have saved, can choose seeds from dozens of traditional varieties of garden vegetables to take home and grow. Seed Swapping as Protest Movement
Although the physical conservation and evolution of cherished seed varieties is a crucial part of the event, Seedy Sunday is also about education and fun, and it is an opportunity for gardeners to protest at the corporatization of the world's seed supply. Peter Giovannini talks about his experiences of Seedy Sunday, painting a picture of gardeners struggling against the systemic "outlawing" of non-approved seed varieties because of European Union legislation:
"The industrialisation of agriculture has caused an erosion of the diversity of crop varieties. Agrobiodiversity is declining at an alarming rate because growers are increasingly relying on purchased seeds, and the dynamic process that produces and conserves agrobiodiversity has been suddenly interrupted. EU seed marketing regulations have also contributed to this decline by imposing criteria for the commercialisation of seed varieties that are rarely met by locally adapted varieties or landraces. Indeed, seed swappers refer to the seed varieties that are not admitted in the national official lists, which list the varieties that can be sold, as "outlawed"."
The next Seedy Sunday is only just over a week away. Get your garden plan ready. More on Seed Swapping and Biodiversity in the Garden A Community-Run Seed Library: Shouldn't Every Library Loan Seeds? (Video) How to Collect Scions for Growing Rare Fruit (Video) Growing Apple Trees from Seed Untouchable Organic Seed Bank: Saving Seeds and Empowering Women Saving Seeds is Critical to Fighting Climate Change Seed Libraries Prove Tough to Sprout Massive Russian Seed Bank at Risk of Demolition
I'm diverting from seeds for a moment to bring attention to another form of biodiversity heritage that's probably not given too much thought these days. This story of a flood-affected farm came from a friend who heard an ABC radio interview with Mark Tully whose family farm is called Blue Hills Poultry Stud. About the farm:
Blue Hills collection has been collected and sourced from around Australia over the past 10 years in earnest upon realising that so many breeds, varieties and colours of fowl were disappearing at alarming rates. Blue Hills Poultry Stud is dedicated to the preservation of rare and heritage breeds of poultry encompassing soft and hard feather chooks, ducks, geese, turkeys, guinea fowl, pea fowl and chucka partridges.
Blue Hills Poultry Stud has over 160 breeds, variety and colour of poultry. We specialise in rare breeds and waterfowl. Chickens are available depending on season and can be ordered if you are after a particular breed of poultry that we may breed. All breeding birds are purebred and show quality.
"He was putting out a desperate call for assistance this weekend – needs help to rebuild fences on the property at Helidon. He lost 50% of his rare breed animals. Pig on the spit will be available for all helpers to have a feed. Please pass onto anyone whom you think might be able to assist."
We need a hand! If you can help us to rebuild it would be a favour to us and also greatly contribute to saving rare breeds of fowl and other domestic livestock. Please phone Mark on 0433 179 844 if you would like to offer physical or financial assistance.
This kind if farming venture takes a great deal of perserverance I imagine at the best of times.
And on another very sobering note... news I just received through twitter - thanks to blogger Elaine from California Living. It details a decision just made in the US that is being seen as setting a precedent for further decisions to come that will affect Organic farming.
@sophiemunns “@SeedLibrary: The Organic Elite Surrenders to Monsanto: What Now?http://tinyurl.com/4loky46”about 1 hour ago these 2 paragraphs are part of an article from Organic Consumers Association. Read more here:In the wake of a 12-year battle to keep Monsanto's Genetically Engineered (GE) crops from contaminating the nation's 25,000 organic farms and ranches, America's organic consumers and producers are facing betrayal. A self-appointed cabal of the Organic Elite, spearheaded by Whole Foods Market, Organic Valley, and Stonyfield Farm, has decided it's time to surrender to Monsanto. Top executives from these companies have publicly admitted that they no longer oppose the mass commercialization of GE crops, such as Monsanto's controversial Roundup Ready alfalfa, and are prepared to sit down and cut a deal for "coexistence" with Monsanto and USDA biotech cheerleader Tom Vilsack.
In a cleverly worded, but profoundly misleading email sent to its customers last week, Whole Foods Market, while proclaiming their support for organics and "seed purity," gave the green light to USDA bureaucrats to approve the "conditional deregulation" of Monsanto's genetically engineered, herbicide-resistant alfalfa. Beyond the regulatory euphemism of "conditional deregulation," this means that WFM and their colleagues are willing to go along with the massive planting of a chemical and energy-intensive GE perennial crop, alfalfa; guaranteed to spread its mutant genes and seeds across the nation; guaranteed to contaminate the alfalfa fed to organic animals; guaranteed to lead to massive poisoning of farm workers and destruction of the essential soil food web by the toxic herbicide, Roundup; and guaranteed to produce Roundup-resistant superweeds that will require even more deadly herbicides such as 2,4 D to be sprayed on millions of acres of alfalfa across the U.S.
Anyone who visited a few days ago will probably have read the previous post on the Brisbane-based venture Food Connect which supplies local, sustainably produced food in the South East Queensland region. This excellent organisation links producers with the community, bringing greater connection to what's involved in the entire process from farm to table.'
I picked up a lead through this site that took me on a most circuitous journey to find out what was behind the story coming out of the US on Food Safety Legislation. Some may ask why bother knowing what's happening over there ... but in a global landscape the ripple effect does indeed make it smart to take notice of what's occurring elsewhere.... issues travel these days!
The claim circulating was suggesting The Food Safety Modernisation Act of 2009 would eliminate home gardens and put organic farmers out of business.
As I wondered further about this my thinking centred around why something this major had not come to my attention before ... surely if it were true everyone would be up in arms. With the film "Food Inc" coming to mind ... and the track record Transnationals have had in lobbying and pushing for problematic, even disastrous legislation to get through I was left with... surely not.. but maybe!
So I emailed a number of friends and bloggers who either live in the US or whose curiosity about such matters might have meant they would know of this story and consequently set my mind at rest.
Click here if you wish to read about the Food Inc film
What a wonderfully worthwhile call out. Responses filtered back... along with a few from people Id thought of contacting but hadn't got round to who happened to read the post. Some came as comments ... others as emails. I was so pleased to learn that this wasn't anything so sweeping and sinister as rumour would have it. Chinese whispers via social media had successfully resulted in misinformation.
We live with misinformation and distortion of stories on a daily basis. This is one story that needed to be clarified and put in perspective.
The circulating claim: The Food Safety Modernisation Act of 2009 would eliminate home gardens and put organic farmers out of business obviously struck a lot of people as actually believable in the light of recent history.
Snopes.comsaid the claim was "mostly false" (interesting in itself) and went about outlining their take on the Bill closing with Myths and Facts and then referring readers to the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defence Fund ..... which mentions the possibility this bill would place undue financial and regulatory burdens on smaller farms and businesses that primarily engage in the local production and sale of food items. (information supplied by Sharmon Davidson)
You can read the summary of the bill here at Govtrack.us and the truly perservering types might like to read the complete bill here supplied byThe Artist Within Us. Thanks to all who contributed thoughts and links to sites worth reading!
This entire exercise was very telling.
When it comes to Food legislation, safety, food security and the future people are becoming more and more distrustful and skeptical about what they're told...with increasing anxiety over all aspects of food production. Read most of the comments that have come in concerning this story and the signs are there.
Establish closer ties between Australia's rural and urban communities.
Celebrate the broad range and fine quality of the produce our farmers grow and harvest.
Share how Australia is leading the world in farming techniques and innovation.
Highlight the essential role of Australian agriculture to the maintenance of national and global food security.
Promote the role our farmers play as environmental managers, creating and delivering sustainability through best practice management.
Recognise farmers for feeding the nation and sustaining our vital agribusinesses.
Communicate to all Australians the importance of farming and rural communities to our national economy and social fabric.
Encourage Australians to reflect on the origins of the food they consume and the fibre they use every day and perpetuate the call to buy Australian produce.
Focus on -- and prepare for -- the future of farming in Australia by creating awareness of career opportunities in agriculture and related areas.
There's a sense of urgency to this plan. I dont know when it was devised and how it gained momentum... but its clear that there is a need to massively overhaul the position we place our farmers in in the scheme of things.
an image of the contemporary industrialised food scenario
