The Livestock and Manure Management project of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and Wageningen University & Research Centre (Wageningen UR) invite you to join a series of three webinars—on Wednesdays, 3, 17 and 24 Feb 2016—on ‘Manure: a valuable resource’. Continue reading
Author Archives: Susan MacMillan
Brussels roundtable this week on mitigating aflatoxin contamination of food and feed in Africa
PAEPARD [the Platform for Africa-European Partnership in Agricultural Research for Development] is organising with the Directorate General Sante of the European Commission and the East African Farmer Federation (EAFF), and in collaboration with the Partnership for Aflatoxin Control in Africa (PACA) and the African Society of Mycotoxicology (ASM), a roundtable meeting of key aflatoxin experts (not only research experts) on the mitigation of aflatoxin in food and feed in Africa on Monday 25th January 2015 in Brussels (by invitation only). Continue reading
This March: ‘One Health for the Real World: Zoonoses, Ecosystems and Wellbeing’ symposium
One Health for the Real World: zoonoses, ecosystems and wellbeing
17–18 Mar 2016
This symposium will bring together leading experts from different fields to discuss the topic ‘Healthy ecosystems, healthy people’. Continue reading
New Zealand contemplates ‘fart tax’ to reduce sheep emissions of greenhouse gases
Peter Janssen of AgResearch, New Zealand’s main farming-science institute, is looking for ways to reduce the amount of methane the country’s animals burp up. Continue reading
American agricultural economist Steve Staal leads livestock policy, trade and value chain research at ILRI
Steve Staal, who for the past 15 months has served the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in Los Baños, the Philippines, as regional representative for East and South Asia, this month takes up leadership of ILRI’s Policy, Trade and Value Chains program and is now based in Nairobi. Continue reading
Food and food systems thinkers advocate a national ‘food policy’ for the US–and maybe the rest of us?
Did you miss this call for a US national food policy by Mark Bittman, New York Times columnist and lead food writer; Michael Pollan, leading food, food systems and food science author; Ricardo Salvador, director of food and environment at the Union of Concerned Scientists; and Olivier de Schutter, former UN special rapporteur on the right to food. Continue reading
PRIME(ing) resilience among Ethiopia’s pastoral communities
PRIME helps farmers with livestock become more resilient to shocks. It also supports better management of existing water resources through more efficient rain harvesting techniques, better early warning systems and information sharing, and improved governance of communal lands and water spots. By improving linkages in the livestock value chain, PRIME also helps ensure profitable outlets for livestock sales when there is not enough feed available to support existing herd sizes. Continue reading
African camels could hold a key to controlling the spread of the MERS virus
African camels could hold important clues to controlling the potential spread of a respiratory disease transmitted by the animals. For many years African camels have lived with the disease and the risk of it spreading to humans is still low. But more research is necessary to understand the disease better. This is even more important given the confirmation that the chains of transmission of the human Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) infection originated from contact with camels. Continue reading
A bovine wealth-creating portfolio for Africa—Investing in cows remotely (like diamonds and gold)
Livestock Wealth was born out of the need to design wealth creation investment opportunities for Africans in an unpretentious way that the intended beneficiaries could understand. Livestock Wealth is a digital, trademarked “crowd-farming” platform officially launched in October this year that allows wannabe farmers–who don’t know the first thing about farming, let alone owning land, to establish a farm–to invest in cows remotely. Continue reading
New Tanzania project launched to curb disease transmission from consumption of bushmeat
‘Members of communities that live in forests and depend on hunting for survival have been reported to be at risk because bush meat, widely used as their source of food, can be a source of deadly pathogens from wild animals to humans. The Arusha-based, Nelson Mandela University and the US Centre[s] for Disease Control have now entered into a project aimed at curbing the transmission of diseases from wild animals to human beings.’ Continue reading