If the FAO wished to accomplish food security, it would promote improved governance, land rights, the availability of inputs, credit and transparent markets. Instead, though, we get a bunch of blather from politocrats. Politocrats versus Pragmatists There were high hopes when Graziano da Silva became director general of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), but he has proven to be the same thin gruel as his predecessor. Last year's buzz term for feeding the world and concurrently saving the environment was "sustainable intensification," and this week da Silva massaged it into "climate-smart agriculture" to fit the theme of his green "civil society" audience in Brussels. He waxed about the need for "equitable increases in agricul...
A pika (/ˈpaɪkə, ˈpiːkə/ PY-kə, PEE-kə[3][4]) is a small, mountain-dwelling mammal native to Asia and North America. With short limbs, a very round body, an even coat of fur, and no external tail, they resemble their close relative the rabbit, but with short, rounded ears.[5] The large-eared pi...
Lobelia (/loʊˈbiːliə, lə-/[4][5][6]) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Campanulaceae comprising 415 species,[7] with a subcosmopolitan distribution primarily in tropical to warm temperate regions of the world, a few species extending into cooler temperate regions.[8] They are known g...
The Olympic marmot (Marmota olympus) is a rodent in the squirrel family, Sciuridae. It occurs only in the U.S. state of Washington, at the middle elevations of the Olympic Peninsula. The closest relatives of this species are the hoary marmot and the Vancouver Island marmot. In 2009, it was decl...
The Alaska marmot (Marmota broweri), also known as the Brooks Range marmot[3] or the Brower's marmot,[4] is a species of rodent in the family Sciuridae. Once considered to be the same species as the hoary marmot, it is now known to be unique. Alaska marmots are found in the scree slopes of the...
From WPI Consulting
Like all marmots
An adult Vancouver Island marmot typically measures 65 to 70 centimetres (26 to 28 in) from the tip of its nose to the tip of its tail.