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The Struggle to Save #Heirloom Rice in India
Long-forgotten varieties of the staple crop can survive flood, drought and other calamities. The challenge is bringing them back
▻https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-struggle-to-save-heirloom-rice-in-india
#Inde #riz #semences #résistance #agriculture
#paywall... mais une citation trouvée sur twitter :“...the long-term #sustainability of #rice farming depends crucially on the restoration of traditional #farming practices based on #biodiversity and use of the full diversity of crop varieties that have survived the onslaught of industrial farming.”
▻https://twitter.com/CriticScienceCH/status/1185169096423432193
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Why India’s farmers want to conserve indigenous heirloom rice
▻https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/aa62832899cd38a40758c6d63bc4ac3de99b38d9/172_0_2640_1584/master/2640.jpg?width=1300&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=d3013eafe0f01ac0e3b3b
India was once home to 100,000 rice varieties, but high-yield, less hardy hybrids have taken over encouraging farmers to safeguard more resistant strains.
India is rice country: the cereal provides daily sustenance for more than 60% of the population. Half a century ago, it was home to more than 100,000 rice varieties, encompassing a stunning diversity in taste, nutrition, pest-resistance and, crucially in this age of climate change and natural disasters, adaptability to a range of conditions.
Today, much of this biodiversity is irretrievably lost, forced out by the quest for high-yield hybrids and varieties encouraged by government agencies. Such “superior” varieties now cover more than 80% of India’s rice acreage.
The Koraput region in the state of Odisha in India’s east was historically among the world’s leading areas of rice diversification. In the 1950s, an official survey found farmers here growing more than 1,700 different rice varieties. Now, more than 1,400 farmers in the region are at the heart of a movement to safeguard what remains of this genetic wealth.
The effort is anchored by a small conservation team led by ecologist Dr Debal Deb. Almost 200 of the 1,200 varieties in Deb’s collection have been sourced from Koraput’s farmers, indicating that villagers have not abandoned their native seeds for modern varieties. Anxious that his collection not end up as the last repository of endangered local varieties, Deb asked some farmers to grow them and circulate their seeds to help safeguard them from extinction.
▻https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/e218073223b65644f3bac998bb82248d6eabcfa4/0_0_2560_1598/master/2560.jpg?width=620&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=4a5008dfc1d64026369f07
Several farmers outlined economic reasons for not abandoning indigenous heirloom varieties, which they refer to as “desi dhaan”, as opposed to modern hybrids, “sarkari dhaan”, quite literally, “government rice”. “With hybrids, we have to keep spending money on buying them,” one farmer said. “With desi, we store our seeds carefully and use them the following season.”
Other farmers wanted to get off the pesticide treadmill to reduce costs and stem the visible ill-effects of chemicals on soil quality and biodiversity. “Hybrids demand ever-increasing pesticide applications and our costs go up in an unsustainable way,” said farmer Duryodhan Gheuria.
Gheuria cultivated four desi varieties – Kolamali, Sonaseri, Tikkichuri, Kosikamon – “just like generations of my family”. After encountering Deb’s team, Gheuria began growing three more endangered heirlooms: Samudrabaali, Raji and Governmentchuri.
Heirloom varieties, adapted over centuries to local ecologies, also proved hardier in the face of problems such as pests and drought, the farmers said. In contrast, modern varieties bred in faraway labs were designed for the neat routines of intensive agriculture. They were tailored for mechanised farming, intended to absorb large doses of chemical fertilisers and predictable supplies of water. But farmers reported that such varieties were unsuited for the variable conditions they cultivated in, from undulating land to increasingly unpredictable weather.
The nephew and uncle farming team Laxminath and Sadan Gouda said that on flood-prone land along a riverbank like theirs, modern varieties fared poorly. “They barely grow, pests attack them … we face a world of trouble. But desi dhaan grow well, which is why we will never abandon them.”
Many farmers reported that some heirloom varieties were able to withstand cyclones better than the modern ones, while others could cope better in conditions of drought or low rainfall.
Farmers had other reasons to prefer desi varieties. Their taller paddy stalks yielded valuable byproducts: fodder for cattle, mulch for the soil, and hay for thatching the roofs of their homes, unlike the short-statured modern varieties.
And then there is the universal motivation of taste. Scented varieties like Kolaajeera and Kolakrushna has a sweet aroma, making cooking and eatingthe rice a pleasurable experience.
“With sarkaari rice, even if you have three vegetables accompanying it, it does not taste that good,” laughed farmer Gomati Raut. “Our desi rice, you can eat it by itself.”
▻https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/d4ddc6149c0a517c2317657e233723e473842fa3/0_71_4000_2753/master/4000.jpg?width=620&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=4ebbe4cd8b9bf43414d7e2
Deb has said that having a huge number of rice varieties is not an end in itself. “Rice conservation is a handle to ask ourselves, how do we build sustainability in our societies?” he said.
It is a question India must increasingly confront, with increasingly depleted water tables, infertile soils, greenhouse emissions and debt that pushes farmers to suicide.
Meanwhile, hundreds of farmers in Koraput embody an alternative model of agricultural development. Drawing on centuries of knowledge and skills, these farmers sustain 200 rice varieties. In the process, they are reducing their dependence on external agencies, from the seed company and the pesticide seller to the government subsidy and bank loan.
By reviving seeds, they are also reviving food, taste, ritual, nutrition, and sustainability – attributes often forgotten as a result of the obsession with yield. Attributes that make rice more than just a bundle of calories and starch.
▻https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/sep/24/why-indias-farmers-want-to-conserve-indigenous-heirloom-rice
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#bitcoin’s inescapable, inconvenient truth
▻https://hackernoon.com/bitcoins-inescapable-inconvenient-truth-da0f0219cda6?source=rss----3a814Bitcoin has a dirty secret, and the community rapidly running out of excuses for it.It’s time to start making Bitcoin environmentally sustainable.When Satoshi Nakamoto created the digital currency Bitcoin, he also decided there would never be more than 21 million coins. These coins would slowly be released over time, as a reward for those participating in the block creation process for Bitcoin’s underlying #blockchain. Satoshi described the “steady addition of a constant of amount of new coins” as “analogous to gold miners expending resources to add gold to circulation”, and noted that “in our case, it is CPU time and electricity that is expended”.Growing energy consumptionIt is unknown whether Satoshi, while writing this, ever envisioned the energy-hungry nightmare Bitcoin has become. Over the (...)
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#reciprocity in Open Source
▻https://hackernoon.com/reciprocity-in-open-source-e60fb98ee1cc?source=rss----3a8144eabfe3---4“Treat open source as open source treats you.”The Golden Rule is the principle of treating others as one’s self would wish to be treated. It is a maxim that is found in many religions and cultures and it is considered an ethic of reciprocity. It is expressed usually in the form: “One should treat others as one would like others to treat oneself.” If you think of open source as a business model, or culture, or religion, you will see that the Golden Rule applies here as well. If I were to phrase the Golden Rule of open source, I’d say: “Treat open source as open source treats you”.Image by Internet Archive Book ImagesReciprocity is behavior in which two people or groups of people give each other help and advantages. If you are using open source software, you are getting advantage from it. Here I (...)
#open-source #open-source-reciprocity #sustainability #golden-rule
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VCU Imagineers Use Spore Stickers to Recycle Cardboard
▻https://hackernoon.com/vcu-imagineers-use-spore-stickers-to-recycle-cardboard-earth-hacks-recapEarth Hacks RecapVirginia Commonwealth University (VCU) is a public research university located in Richmond, Virginia and on Jan. 26–27, VCU Earth Hacks happened.Experimental Civics was immediately on-board with being a sponsor, hosting a design thinking workshop during the event, and providing additional support and intros! Kudos to the whole team for running an amazing event!Start of VCU Earth HacksI caught up with Sanjana Paul, one of the co-founders, to ask her why she has supported this event:Sanjana Paul“I started Earth Hacks when I noticed that the rate at which environmental problems are increasing is exponential and the rate at which solutions to these problems are progressing is linear.Having attended #hackathons in the past, I know that during these events, rapid innovation takes (...)
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Sustainability Transitions Research Network
#STRN is an international network of more than 1’500 scholars interested in #sustainability_transitions. Sustainability transitions are long-term transformation processes of established industries, socio-technical systems and societies to more sustainable modes of production and consumption.
STRN is an entirely independent, research-driven network. Membership is open to anyone who is interested and involved in research on sustainability transitions.
Our mission is to deepen the scientific understanding of sustainability transitions through a program of networking, research coordination, education and synthesis activities. Towards this end we want to provide a meeting place and a platform, where researchers can engage in a vibrant intellectual exchange on the challenges of sustainability transitions.
We also want to be a hub for practitioners in policy making, civil society, and business who are working to advance societies into more sustainable directions.
▻https://transitionsnetwork.org
#réseau #transition -
#design for human and planetary #health: a transdisciplinary approach to #sustainability
▻https://hackernoon.com/design-for-human-and-planetary-health-a-transdisciplinary-approach-to-suWIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 99, © 2006 WIT Press, ISSN 1743–3541 (on-line)D. C. Wahl, Centre for the Study of Natural Design, University of Dundee, Scotland, UKAbstractThis paper explores various integrative frameworks that are contributing to an emerging transdisciplinary meta-perspective on sustainable development. It proposes a holistic/integral strategy based on scale-linking design for human and planetary health:First, ‘Integral Theory’, ‘Spiral Dynamics’ and ‘Integral Ecology’ are briefly reviewed as dynamic mapping methodologies to structure, facilitate and mediate between diverse value systems and perspectives of multiple stakeholders and disciplines. Changes in worldview, value system, and intentionality are crucial to the emergence of a sustainable (...)
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Life’s collaborative lessons transform #business
▻https://hackernoon.com/lifes-collaborative-lessons-transform-business-aa1f4348fd27?source=rss--Organizations have three options: 1. Hit the wall 2. Optimize and delay hitting the wall3. Redesign for resilience — simultaneously optimizing existing networks whilst embracing disruptive #innovation and working collaboratively with partners.Dawn Vance, Global Supply Chain Director at Nike, in Hutchins (2011)Living the questions that initiate the transition to a commons-based collaborative economy describes transformative innovation from within the third horizon. It is an example of how H3 [the 3rd Horizon] is already present today but unevenly distributed. A fundamental transformation of our economic and monetary systems is becoming a necessity, if not inevitability. [This is an excerpt from Designing Regenerative Cultures. If you want an introduction to the 3 Horizon Framework for (...)
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Elon Musk’s Next Logical Move — Electric Airplanes — Modular Strategies for Sustainable Global…
▻https://hackernoon.com/elon-musks-next-logical-move-electric-airplanes-modular-strategies-for-sElon Musk’s Next Logical Move — Electric Airplanes — Modular Strategies for Sustainable Global MobilityPhoto by Leio McLaren on UnsplashIn Australia, Elon Musk built an electric battery plant that can back up the grid within milliseconds.And he’s losing money with it.Tesla’s 100 MW/129MWh Powerpack system near Jamestown, Australia provides backup power for South Australia’s energy grid. 30–40% of the electricity it provides goes unpaid because the grid only measures electricity pumped into the system a full 6 seconds after a breakdown event.The Powerpack farm responds in milliseconds: 0.14 seconds the last time it had to back up the grid.Why lose money instead of adding in an artificial 6 second delay?Because Elon Musk’s next project is beautiful.But it’s not about airplanes.Next project:Provide a (...)
#electric-airplane #sustainability #global-mobility #modular-strategies #elon-musk
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Green chemistry and material #science
▻https://hackernoon.com/green-chemistry-and-material-science-e03ad1d0a28b?source=rss----3a8144eaStudying and copying nature is one of the greatest tools in the green chemistry toolbox.Paul Anastas interviewed by Josh Wolfe (2012)The chemists Paul Anastas and John Warner are the initiators of a global movement called ‘green chemistry’ aimed at designing chemical products and processes to eliminate, or drastically reduce, the generation of hazardous substances by the chemical industry. Anastas & Warner (1998) formulated twelve principles of green chemistry. Some of the questions these principles invite chemists to ask are:How can we create chemical synthesis methods that maximize the incorporation of all materials used in the process into the final product?How can we, as much as possible, rely on synthetic methodologies that use and generate substances with little or no toxicity to (...)
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Definitions, Cake, and Zombies | 3 Lessons Learnt from #hacking at TX McCombs 3-P Hackathon
▻https://hackernoon.com/definitions-cake-and-zombies-3-lessons-from-hacking-at-tx-mccombs-3-p-haLast weekend, I had the pleasure of hacking at the McCombs School of #business 3-P Hackathon which was focused on tackling 3 challenges: People, Profit (Sustainability), and Planet. We worked over the course of Friday and Saturday to come up with some creative solutions to these mammoth-sized problems.With every hackathon, there is always something new to learn and I wanted to share 3 lessons that I took away from this experience:1. Define everything2. Problems = Layered cake3. Zombies are welcomeOur keynote speaker on Saturday afternoon was Kristjan Jespersen, Ph.D. who is an Assistant Professor at the Copenhagen Business School. I loved his quote about how every business developed these days should be sustainable, but beyond that, he started his speech by showing a painting “Landscape (...)
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What #money is and what’s wrong with it?
▻https://hackernoon.com/what-money-is-and-whats-wrong-with-it-8bca0e20a333?source=rss----3a8144eSourceQuestioning assumptions“Money has become a ring we wear through the nose, which allows us to be led around by those who control it.”— Mark KinneyMoney is one of the core technologies at the heart of human societies. It is the means by which we trade among ourselves. In many if not most modern societies money has become a central element around which many human relationships are organised.To ask what money is may seem a trivial question that is barely worth asking. After all, we make constant use of it in our day-to-day lives and, for the most part, pay it no attention whatever — other than to occasionally worry whether we have enough of it. Our unquestioned assumption is that it is a neutral lubricant for the economic system that in no way influences how that system works. We also tend (...)
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Paradoxes of #sustainability with consequences for health - The Lancet Global Health
▻http://www.thelancet.com/journals/langlo/article/PIIS2214-109X(16)00038-3/fulltextAn important aspect of the conceptual transformations is that the term sustainability has gradually changed from being a goal (durability) to acquiring connotations that serve as a selection criterion for development aid. Using sustainability as a selection criterion risks privileging recipients who have the capacity to gain control over health and living conditions and exclude others as unworthy needy.
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Le retour du malthusianisme, de l’hygiénisme et des thèses alarmistes sur le futur qu’on ne pourrait contrôler car la nature de l’homme (surtout celui pas éduqué) est mauvaise ?
Beaucoup des menaces annoncées sur un ton très savants (IA, post humanisme, nécessité d’aller sur mars) sont des arnaques.
Discours dominant de l’Europe du XIXé siècle afin d’apeurer l’ouvrier qui se rebellait.
Discours de Platon qui est la thèse de la République.J’ai pour l’instant une combine simple pour trouver les pseudos savants.
Tout ce qui requiert du financement ou de la régulation publique afin de financer des intérêts privés pour des menaces futures à tendance à être plus souvent une grosse arnaque qui faites sur le dos de vrais problèmes.
FUD. FUD parasitant des vrais problèmes.
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Global Fishing Watch
Global #Fishing Watch is the product of a technology partnership between #SkyTruth, #Oceana, and #Google that is designed to show all of the trackable fishing activity in the ocean. This interactive web tool – currently in prototype stage – is being built to enable anyone to visualize the global fishing fleet in space and time. Global Fishing Watch will reveal the intensity of fishing effort around the world, one of the stressors contributing to the precipitous decline of our fisheries.With hundreds of millions of people around the world depending on our ocean for their livelihoods, and many more relying on the ocean for food, ensuring the long-term #sustainability of our #ocean is a critical global priority. We need a tool that harnesses the power of citizen engagement to hold our leaders accountable for maintaining an abundant ocean. .....
▻http://globalfishingwatch.org/assets/720/south-georgia.webm
►http://globalfishingwatch.orgReport: ▻http://globalfishingwatch.org/oceana-global-fishing-watch-report.pdf
@wizo-
Grazie @wizo... ma come puoi vedere dal link nel testo di Alberto, uno dei due URL ha prima un triangolo pieno... Questo significa che qualcuno l’ha già postato...
Eccolo qui:
▻http://seen.li/6pkz
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The CEO of #Unilever receives a mega bonus for his contribution to “sustainable development”
▻http://multinationales.org/The-CEO-of-Unilever-receives-aKnown in France for his intransigence towards the Fralib workers, the Unilever CEO Paul Polman is also viewed by some as a visionary leader and a champion of sustainable development and responsible capitalism. This apparent contradiction reflects a rather narrow conception of #sustainability and corporate social responsibility. This article was originally published in French. Translation: Mathilde Balland. Who ever said that sustainable development was incompatible with profit? The boss of (...)
#News
/ #Greenwashing, Unilever, Food & Agribusiness, #executives, #tax_system, #tax_evasion, #financialisation, #social_impact, #environmental_impact, #marketing, sustainability, (...)
#Food_&_Agribusiness #salary
“►http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2013/04/29/why-unilever-patagonia-puma-lead-pack-say-sustainability-leaders”
“►http://france.attac.org/se-mobiliser/les-requins”
“►http://www.lesrequins.org/actions-du-15-mars/article/journee-du-15-mars”
“►http://www.flickr.com/photos/moneyblognewz/5408773200”
“►http://www.unilever.com/images/Unilever_AR13_tcm13-383757.pdf”
“▻http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/paul-polman-unilever-sustainable-living-plan”
“▻http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/strategy/mckinsey_conversations_with_global_leaders_paul_polman_of_unilever”
“►http://www.bastamag.net/Fralib-des-salaries-creatifs-en”
“►http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2011/oct/11/ftse100-subsidiaries-tax-data” -
Instead of their pilgrimages to San Francisco, startup founders should travel to South Germany to learn from the #Mittelstand how to build sustainable companies that benefit their communities as much as their founders.
▻http://thirdwaveberlin.com/2013/10/week-158 #sustainability #startups -
The Viridian Design Movement
►http://www.viridiandesign.orgbruce sterling speaking
#design #blog #architecture #technology #sustainability #futurism
