Nibbles: Rabbit origins, New beans and rice, New maize, Fermentation, Grape bugs, Kenya supergoats, Peruvian edible insects, Betelmania, Sustainable cacao, Making cider, Land rights, Kew funding, Avocado origins, German genebank, Oman roadshow, Chinese agriculture then and now, Underground farm, Irish potatoes, Lactase history, Nutrition report, Breeding wheat, Pulse year, Perennial cereals, Shaker agriculture, Food conference, Lupin breeding, Tanzanian ag landscapes, Coffee film, American food, Breakfast around the world, Indian wild figs, Baobab, Fragmentation, History of breeding, MARDI fruits, IARI head, Wild pig genome, Breed typology

Yeah, I know, been slacking with the blogging again of late. Lots of travel. Will try to post about it a bit now I’m back. Here’s the usual back-in-the-office game of catch-up.

• We start with something topical for Easter. The origin of the bunny: it’s not the genes, it’s the gene control control.
• CIAT’s heat-resistant beans are all over the internet. IRRI’s new rices, not so much.
• I hope they get names like Bill Tracy’s new open-pollinated maize variety.
• Bugs come in communities, and they do best when they stay that way.
• Even on grapes.
• Gotta get me one of these Kenyan supergoats.
• Are bugs next on Peru’s gastronomia menu? Probably not.
• Ban the betel!
• More on that we-need-GMO-to-save-chocolate thing. Because this?
• Some like it hard.
• Three steps to secure land rights.
• “If the seeds are never grown, they will fizzle out. Who is going to sow them and harvest them to keep them fresh?”
• The avocado shouldn’t be here. So sue me.
• The Ghana News Agency (and nobody else) says there’s a new genebank in Berlin.
• Oman’s biodiversity (including agricultural) goes on the road.
• Chinese agriculture goes sustainable. Well, in theory. Including for buckwheat, presumably.
• Maybe you can work out what this early Chinese flour was actually of: millet, barley and/or wheat?
• Meanwhile, in Japan, the opposite of sustainable farming beneath a Tokyo street.
• The Irish and the potato: in need of a reset?
• Want to develop? Learn to metabolize lactose.
• Ten research questions on nutrition.
• Well at least this gluten nonsense ((Ok, it’s not nonsense.)) is helping bring back some funky grains. And is spurring breeders. Who should perhaps be focusing on more important problems?
• Pulses will get their 15 minutes in 2016.
• The Land Institute is still at it, and still getting press.
• The United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing established one of the earliest seed companies in the US.
• No, getting to the bottom of food ain’t easy.
• Lupins better than soya in the UK, because breeding.
• A Tanzanian mash-up: Farmers need the landscape. I’m not kidding. And yet…
• There’s a film about coffee called “A film about coffee.”
• “In the future, the American dream of big cars and burgers will need to be adjusted to more active transport and sustainable, healthy eating. Better is the new bigger. The world needs a new diet. And it is waiting for the US to take the lead.” Good luck with that.
• Maybe start with breakfast?
• Indians need their wild figs.
• As much a African need baobabs, probably.
• A fragmented forest is no forest at all. Well, almost.
• BHL does domestication. As ever, great pix too.
• Malaysia protects its fruits.
• Who will head the Indian Agricultural Research Institute?
• The pygmy hog has been sequenced.
• A typology of livestock breeds.