subject: Where Will Consumers And Farmers Find Objective Information Concerning Low-chem Agricultural Merchan [print this page] 2010 has been designated the UN's International Year of Biodiversity - a celebration of life on earth and of the value of biodiversity for our lives.
In the context of climate modification and therefore the pressure on the planet's resources it's an important moment for us all, nowhere a lot of than in the problems of food scarcity and security and also the challenge to produce more to feed the planet's growing population.
We wish as shoppers to be sure that the food we tend to're shopping for is safe and healthy for our families. A lot of and a lot of we tend to are changing our searching habits to take account of issues like our carbon footprints and fair trade.
One difficulty for shoppers is finding sources of genuinely objective information regarding how our food is created, farming strategies and the new bio-technologies that are argued to be essential to increasing food production and pest management in a sustainable way.
As a result of most human activities, as well as food production and provide, are businesses driven by the necessity to make a profit, it is not surprising that there ought to be a degree of competition and so confidentiality regarding the small print of the new low-chem agricultural merchandise firms are developing and a degree of promotion to sell them.
The analysis and development of such merchandise is, after all, expensive once you add up the value of many trials and also the long process of getting them registered to be used in more than one country, every with its own regulatory process.
We are bound to be told they're safer, higher and additional environmentally friendly but how can we be certain this is the truth? What sources of objective information are there?
There's a valuable, not for profit, scientific and research organisation with headquarters in Wallingford, Oxfordshire, UK, that is devoted to information sharing.
The mission statement on its website describes it a science-based mostly development and data organization, improving folks's lives by providing info and applying scientific experience to solving problems in agriculture and therefore the environment.
It's perhaps not as high profile as some of the large environmental campaigning or agrochemical research organisations however it's actually celebrating its 100th anniversary this year.
It's referred to as CABI, (the Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux International) and it focuses on improving food security, protecting biodiversity, serving to farmers and providing information. There are CABI centres in China, India, Kenya, Malaysia, Pakistan, Switzerland, Trinidad and Tobago, UK and the USA and comes in additional than seventy countries on the basis that farmers within the developed world face the same problems as subsistence and smallholder farmers in developing countries - pests and diseases, access to markets, access to quality seeds, credit, the best approach to process produce.
It aims to help farmers grow more and lose less by improving crop yields, safeguarding the environment and improving access to agricultural and environmental scientific knowledge.
This includes serving to them improve their crops by introducing natural or 'bio' pesticides and sustainable techniques such as integrated pest management and advising on trade and quarantine issues.
It has expertise in agriculture, animal and veterinary sciences, environmental sciences, human health, food and nutrition, leisure and tourism, microbiology and parasitology, and plant sciences.
CABI additionally manages one in every of the globe's largest genetic resource collections, the UK's National Assortment of Fungus Cultures, conducts microbiological identifications, provides cultures for sale, and offers preservation and consultancy services.
It offers a range of microbial services to businesses, educational institutions, agriculture and government departments worldwide. Customers return from industries together with food and drink, medicine, analysis and environmental conservation.
