The Lubin Files

Two degrees

The New York Times reports that the largest developing nations have rejected the G8's target for reducing climate change.  Instead, they agreed to limit the increase in temperature to 2 degrees by 2050.

OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook 2009-2018

The OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook 2009-2018 was released on June 17, 2009.

The report reveals that:

World reference prices for many commodities nearly doubled over the period 2007-2008 but fell sharply from their record highs, driven by increased production, responding to earlier price rises, and by weaker demand, intensified by the commencement of the global economic crisis.

However, prices are expected to strengthen with economic recovery over the medium term. For the next 10 years, prices in real terms are still projected at, or above, the levels of the decade prior to the 2007-08 peaks.

Agricultural Outlook can be downloaded here:

Part I
Part II
Part II Statistical Annex 

(FAO Staff only.  Staff without password, contact fao-library-reference@fao.org)

 

Peace keeping and security

Every so often, we get questions from people who are looking for information about peace keeping and international security.

We don't have a lot of information in our collection that addresses this topic (most of what's in our collection is likely to deal with peace in the context of food security or the environment) but I did find this list of records in our library catalog.

The International Institute of Agriculture

Every year, we get visits from scholars who are interested in researching the history of the International Institute of Agriculture (IIA).  Here is some information about what we have in our collection that can help you.

We have the archives of David Lubin, the founder of the IIA.  These archives, composed of 39 volumes, include official correspondence and papers regarding the preliminary work for the creation of the institute, as well as articles on the IIA published in European and American periodicals.

The FAO archives contain records pertinent to the institutional memory of the IIA.

Our library houses the contents of the IIA's library, which was transferred to the FAO in 1945. This collection contains detailed statistical information on the global agricultural situation during the first half of the 20th century.  It also includes the following sub collections:

The Cappelli Collection: Donated by the second president of the IIA, this collection includes 185 rare books, 20 of which are incunabulae.  Highlights of this collection include five books authored by Virgil, three books authored by Aristotle, and 4 books produced on the presses of Aldus Manutius.

The Centre International de Silviculture Collection (CIS):
The complete collection of the CIS-- a research center created with the aim of establishing an exhaustive international collection of documentation related to forests, forestry, and the timber industry. This collection includes rare volumes (mostly in German) that do not exist in any other library in the world.

The Marescalchi Collection: This collection is composed of pamphlets, bulletins and periodicals donated by A. Marescalchi, noted wine scholar as well as Undersecretary of State in the Italian Ministry of Agriculture.

The Giglioli Collection: A 19th century collection composed of 10,000 volumes and pamphlets on agriculture.  It includes the archives of Italo Giglioli's family, and photos and publications written by Giglioli (a professor of agricultural chemistry at the University of Pisa who participated in the founding of the IIA)

Bibliography:
(see also our David Lubin delicious links)

La Biblioteca dell' Istituto Internazionale d'Agricoltura e La Biblioteca della Food and Agriculture Organization by Maria Pia Loreti (Masters Thesis, 1966)

The Work of the International Institute of Agriculture, by Louis M. Dop, IIA Vice President

Alle origini della FAO. Le relazioni tra l'Istituto Internazionale di Agricoltura e la Societa delle Nazioni, by L. Tosi

David Lubin, A Study in Practical Idealism by Olivia Rossetti Agresti
  
The International Institute of Agriculture. (An historical and critical analysis of its organization, activities and policies of administration), by Asher Hobson

Proclamation by H.M.Victor Emanuel III King of Italy proposing an International Chamber of Agriculture and documents relating to the same

Everything you ever wanted to know about Conference/Council...

The FAO library maintains a complete collection (in print) of FAO Conference and Council Reports from 1945 until the present.  The library's documentation includes verbatim records (transcriptions of the sessions) for these meetings.

You can also find these reports (and verbatim records back to 1997) online. 

Strategies for Adaptation to Climatic Change in Developing Countries

The Volume 43, Number 5 / May, 2009 of Environmental Management contains a special feature on Strategies for Adaptation to Climatic Change in Developing Countries.

Article: Adaptation to Climate Change in Developing Countries by Ole Mertz, Kirsten Halsnæs, Jørgen E. Olesen and Kjeld Rasmussen

Abstract: Adaptation to climate change is given increasing international attention as the confidence in climate change projections is getting higher. Developing countries have specific needs for adaptation due to high vulnerabilities, and they will in this way carry a great part of the global costs of climate change although the rising atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations are mainly the responsibility of industrialized countries.

This article provides a status of climate change adaptation in developing countries. An overview of observed and projected climate change is given, and recent literature on impacts, vulnerability, and adaptation are reviewed, including the emerging focus on mainstreaming of climate change and adaptation in development plans and programs.

The article also serves as an introduction to the seven research articles of this special issue on climate change adaptation in developing countries. It is concluded that although many useful steps have been taken in the direction of ensuring adequate adaptation in developing countries, much work still remains to fully understand the drivers of past adaptation efforts, the need for future adaptation, and how to mainstream climate into general development policies.

Environmental management is available to FAO staff via Library subscription.

First Asia–Europe Workshop for Rice Ecosystems

The Volume 94, Issue 3 of Agricultural Systems (June 2007) contains a special section about the International symposium on sustainable resource management and policy options for rice ecosystems.

The First Asia–Europe Workshop on Sustainable Resource Management and Policy Options for Rice Ecosystems (SUMAPOL 2005), has been hold in Hangzhou, China from 11th to 14th May 2005.

In the workshop, attended by more than 65 participants from five European (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands) and five Asian (China, India, Japan, Philippines, Vietnam) countries, state-of-the-art methodologies and their applications were presented and discussed.

Agricultural Systems is available online via Library subscription.

The coming climate crunch

The April 2009 issue of Nature magazine is dedicated to climate change.

It contains articles such as:

Climate crunch: A burden beyond bearing
The climate situation may be even worse than you think. In the first of three features, Richard Monastersky looks at evidence that keeping carbon dioxide beneath dangerous levels is tougher than previously thought.

Sucking it up
It's simple to mop carbon dioxide out of the air, but it could cost a lot of money. In the second of three features on the carbon challenge, Nicola Jones talks with the scientists pursuing this strategy.

 

Great white hope
Geoengineering schemes, such as brightening clouds, are being talked about ever more widely. In the third of three features, Oliver Morton looks at how likely they are to work.

Nature is available to FAO staff via Library subscription.

Insects and humans compete for food

We at the Reference Desk were sent notification of a new website on Pests of Field Crops in Southern Africa.

It is maintained by entomologist Diana Taylor, who has spent over twenty years researching insects. Diana has set out her information in a clear concise way which makes her site very accessible. She brings together information on pest identification, life cycle, damage and control.

The crops she looks at are not confined to southern Africa and some of the pests might not be either. Every entry is supported by detailed photos giving a graphic indication of how damaging insects can be to the agricultural industry or the home gardener.

Texting's heavy toll...

Judging from this article in the New York Times, repetitive stress injury is one of the least of the dangers to which today's text-messaging youth might be exposed. 

According to the experts quoted in the article, text messaging could feasibly bring about deficiencies in adolescents' ability to develop a sense of autonomy or to reach self-actualization, and it could also prevent them from achieving the necessary "down time" needed in order to relax and grow...