In this second part of our interview with Luisa Maffi, we talk about the process of language shift and the activities that indigenous communities around the world are engaging in to preserve and recover their languages.

As with so many other things, the future of the world’s languages will be determined by our values: the values of people in majority linguistic groups, the values of people whose linguistic heritage is endangered, and the values of everyone who falls somewhere in between.

Get involved! Visit www.terralingua.org

Luisa Maffi is the Director of Terralingua, an organization dedicated to the conservation of the world’s biocultural and linguistic diversity. In Part I of this two part series, Dr. Maffi explains the goals and purpose of Terralingua, and then paints a picture of crisis and extinction for our world’s languages. The relationships between language, culture, and biodiversity are profound and poorly understood, and Dr. Maffi’s experience and education come to the fore in this interview.

Stay tuned for Part II, coming in about a week’s time. And yes, it is good to be back podcasting once again.

On this final episode dealing with agricultural biodiversity, I speak with Dr. Suzanne Nelson, Director of conservation with Native Seeds/SEARCH. We discuss the mission and work of the organization, and the cultural and biological signifance of the crops of the desert Southwest.

We also touch on the socio-economic implications of agricultural biodiversity, including the effect of NAFTA, and the potential effects of global warming. Next, we’ll be interviewing experts and activists in the area of Community Supported Agriculture

For most of us, agricultural biodiversity is a topic of unknowns. It is about the crops and foods that we don’t know; foods that we have never seen or tasted.

In this episode, we talk with Emigdio Ballon, who is an expert on the production of highland Andean crops like quinoa, amaranth, and maca. I asked Emigdio about the historical and cultural importance of these crops, and what can be done to preserve these important resources. We also discuss their economic potential, and prospects for achieving a greater market share.

As we continue this month’s theme of agricultural biodiversity, I interview Rex Dufour, entomologist and organic pest control expert with ATTRA, the National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service.

Rex describes the role of insects in the agroecosystem, and emphasizes the importance of preserving biodiversity to control insect pests. As he explains it, beneficial insects can act as “little hammers”, keeping harmful insect populations under control through predation and parasitizing. The key question is how we design our managed ecosystems to maximize these interactions and reduce our reliance on costly agrochemicals.

Please have a listen, and thanks for stopping by.

Welcome to the agroinnovations podcast. This month our focus is on agricultural biodiversity, and we will be interviewing a number of professionals to get a broad perspective on the importance of and the risks facing our agricultural biodiversity.

For our very first epidsode of the agroinnovations podcast, we’ll be interviewing Dr. Walter Kaiser. In this interview, Dr. Kaiser talks about his experiences as a plant pathologist on four continents spanning a period of four decades. Dr. Kaiser gives us insight on germplasm collection, biodiversity, and the cultivation of edible mushrooms. Have a listen, and thanks for stopping by.