One — or at least part of one — of the great agrobiodiversity-themed art works of the ancient world is back. Apart from “Fowling in the marshes,” reproduced below, Nebamun’s painted tomb includes representations of a garden pool, wine-making, and food offerings.
Photograph: The British Museum
Yes we have orange bananas
We’ve nibbled the new New Agriculturist but not highlighted specifically, I think, the fact that it has a special on bananas. And African bananas in particular. Coincidentally, there’s a paper out in Food Chemistry on genetic variability in carotenoid content within Musa .
Nibbles: Bees, Bourbon, Cattle, Ug99, Horses, Neanderthal, Bear, Organic, Flowers
- Bees? We don’t need no stinkin’ bees.
- “…a distinct product of America…”
- Friesians? We don’t need no stinkin’ Friesians.
- Kenya tests for Ug99 resistance.
- Iceland’s horses walk funny.
- Neanderthals ate snails.
- Bear meat? We don’t need no stinkin’ bear meat.
- Organic agriculture in China gets NPR treatment, survives.
- Rice? We don’t need no stinkin’ rice.
Featured coment: rice pests
Yolanda on rice pests:
[T]he real subsidy to biological control in irrigated rice comes from the water! The timing of all of it is also quite remarkable. The flooding cues the aquatic insects to molt into adults. This results in a outward migration of adults that emerge out of the water. The spiders use the rice plants as fishing places, trying to capture as much of the emerging aquatic insects.
Fascinating discussion.
Nibbles: Foodways, Ecosystem services, Subsistence, Genebank
- Cajun squirrel crisps, anyone? Jeremy comments: “Burgoo that for a laugh”.
- An Office of Ecosystem Services and Markets? In the USDA? Pinch me!
- “In 2009 my plan is to grow a lot of things, like millet, groundnuts and sorghum, but my energy is waning.”
- “Noah’s Bin, will be the fourth largest of its kind in the world.” In Turkey, apparently.