Nibbles: ICRISAT genebanks, Agricultural history, Weeds, Gowda, Fruit symposium, Chaffey, Open pollinated seeds, Breeding institute, Ash dieback, Perennial grains, Marshall strawberry, Neanderthal cuisine, Colorado beetle control

World Bank goes inside ICRISAT seed bank and finds in vitro plantlets.
“Did mongrel grains serendipitously meld together and sprout from the sewage dumps of sedentary fishing tribes (a current theory), or was the domestication of wheat grasses, pomegranates, and fig trees a willful act of genius?” Scientific American excerpts a bit of purple prose from from Frederick Kaufman’s “Bet the Farm: How Food Stopped Being Food.”
And a book on how (some) food (i.e. weeds) started being food.
ICRISAT legume breeder bags award.
One of the more interesting symposium titles I’ve come across: International Symposium on Fruit Culture and its Traditional Knowledge along Silk Road Countries.
Plant Cuttings.
And plant seeds. Of the open-pollinated sort.
Donald Danforth Plant Science Center establishes Institute for International Crop Improvement (IICI). CGIAR unavailable for comment.
CABI gets to grips with ash dieback.
Perennial grains in practice.
Recovered rare strawberries as art: Marshall Duchamp.
Intrepid journo discovers secrets of Neanderthal cuisine.
Crimson clover cover crop protects aubergines as well as insecticide against Colorado beetles.