Tag Archives: woman

Special bananas: Africa’s answer to Golden Rice?

Posted on June 18, 2014 by argylesock

Oluwabusayo Sotunde (writing as Busayo in Ventures Africa) tells us about a ‘special banana’ (Musa × paradisiaca) rich in alpha-carotene and beta-carotene. After eating those carotenes, the body converts them to Vitamin A. So they’re ‘provitamins’. This new genetically modified … Continue reading →

Posted in agriculture, horticulture, human health, knowledge transfer | Tagged Africa, America, Asia, banana, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, biodiversity, biofortification, biotechnology, child, development, food sovereignty, fruit, fruit variety, genetic modification, Golden Rice, grain, Green Revolution, nutrition, plantain, plant_monocot, Provit Banana, research, rice, staple food, tree, Vitamin A, woman | 6 Comments

Soya to grow with 2,4-D

Posted on May 30, 2014 by argylesock

Crops genetically modified (GM, genetically engineered) to resist Monsanto’s weedkiller Roundup (glyphosate) aren’t the only GM crops designed to be grown with weedkiller. GRAIN tells us about a new such crop. It’s a soya (soybean, Glycine max) designed to be … Continue reading →

Posted in agriculture, food, human health, knowledge transfer | Tagged 2 4-D, Africa, America, ammonium, Asia, auxin, biotechnology, brain, cancer, commodity crop, corn, cotton, crop variety, Dow, evolution, feed, food, Frontline, genetic modification, glufosinate, glyphosate, herbicide, herbicide resistance, history, hormone, human, kidney, liver, maize, milk, Monsanto, muscle, neurotoxin, patent, pesticide, pesticide resistance, plant_dicot, poison, Roundup, Roundup Ready crop, soya, soya DAS-44406-6, superweed, tree, vegetation, war, weed, woman | 3 Comments

Monsanto’s “Roundup” Herbicide is Destroying Our Bodies

Posted on May 26, 2014 by argylesock

Originally posted on Illuminate:
Photo by http://greenupgrader.com ? From CredoAction.com: In case you weren’t sure yet if the massive use of the herbicide glyphosate – also known as Monsanto’s Roundup – was cause for concern, here’s the sobering takeaway from…

Posted in agriculture, food, human health | Tagged Altzheimer's disease, America, antibiotic, autism, biotechnology, cancer, chelator, child, coeliac disease, diabetes, disease, Europe, food safety, genetic modification, glyphosate, herbicide, hormone, human, law, liver, milk, Monsanto, obesity, Parkinson's disease, pesticide, plant_dicot, plant_monocot, research, Roundup, Roundup Ready crop, soya, staple food, Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, wheat, woman | 6 Comments

What One Acre Fund can teach us about supporting African small-scale farmers

Posted on May 25, 2014 by argylesock

Originally posted on ECO-opia:
. BY Kate Douglas | 23 May 2014 ? One Acre Fund is a non-profit organisation serving smallholder farmers (typically living on one acre of land) in the East African countries of Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and…

Posted in agriculture, horticulture | Tagged Africa, cooperative, development, education, farmer, finance, man, seed, smallholder, trade, woman | 2 Comments

Breast milk, indigenous food: A mother’s recipe for healthy children

Posted on May 12, 2014 by argylesock

Here’s Velvet Escario Roxas, a Filipino mother, telling us that children in the Philippines need breast milk and indigenous foods, not Golden Rice. Mrs Roxas says that Filipino women should breastfeed as she did. After weaning, she says these women … Continue reading →

Posted in food, human health, knowledge transfer | Tagged Asia, biotechnology, child, crop diversity, food availability, food sovereignty, fruit, genetic modification, Golden Rice, grain, leaf, local variety, mango, milk, moringa, nutrition, papaya, plant_dicot, plant_monocot, rice, sweet potato, tradition, vegetable, Vitamin A, woman | 2 Comments

Farming in Africa: Time to Debunk Some Myths

Posted on January 29, 2014 by argylesock

Originally posted on OJO Olawale :
New technologies and ideas – from mobile phone information systems to new crop varieties – are rapidly transforming agriculture across Africa. Yet the sector continues to be stereotyped as one synonymous with poverty and subsistence.…

Posted in agriculture, horticulture, knowledge transfer, money and trade | Tagged Africa, crop, crop variety, development, farmer, finance, gardener, knowledge, myth, poverty, prosperity, technology, woman, young person | Leave a comment

Millet

Posted on December 6, 2013 by argylesock

Millets are grasses with smaller seeds than the grains that people like me, in the rich world, know as our staple foods. We should notice other grains too, including millets. Millions of people appreciate millets as staple food and as … Continue reading →

Posted in agriculture, food, knowledge transfer, money and trade | Tagged barley, cash crop, climate, corn, crop, crop variety, development, dryland, farmer, feed, food, foxtail millet, grain, knowledge, livestock, maize, millet, neglected crop, nutrition, oats, pearl millet, plant_monocot, poverty, rice, rye, selective breeding, sorghum, staple food, trade, value-added, wheat, wild rice, woman | 4 Comments

Social movements for sustainable food

Posted on October 18, 2013 by argylesock

On World Food Day, Eric Holt-Giménez at Food First called for strong social movements to produce sustainable food systems. ‘[E]ven though for decades the world has produced 1 ½ times enough food for every man, woman and child on the … Continue reading →

Posted in food | Tagged access to food, development, farmer, food, food security, labour, law, nutrition, obesity, peasant, politics, poverty, prosperity, smallholder, sustainable, trade, woman | Leave a comment

Ruth Benerito

Posted on October 14, 2013 by argylesock

Originally posted on Grandma Got STEM:
Thanks to Andrea Hermann, who suggested this post: The Washington Post recently had an obituary by Emily Langer for Dr. Ruth Benerito. Dr. Benerito, an Agriculture Department chemist, was credited with helping create wrinkle-free cotton. She…

Posted in knowledge transfer | Tagged cash crop, cotton, crop, history, knowledge, plant_dicot, research, textile, woman | Leave a comment

Poverty impairs mental functioning

Posted on October 13, 2013 by argylesock

Here’s some new evidence about how poverty impairs mental functioning and promotes risky decison-making. You can scroll down that article to see how sugarcane farmers were less able to think clearly when poor. The article also mentions brain damage that … Continue reading →

Posted in food, human health, knowledge transfer | Tagged academia, biotechnology, child, crop, education, farmer, genetic modification, human, knowledge, nutrition, plant_monocot, poverty, research, sugar cane, woman | Leave a comment