Nibbles: Agricultural landscapes, Seed banks, Maize genetics, Food diversity, Ancient food, Micronutrients status report, Seed systems, Punjab Agricultural University, Arable land, Dutch elm disease

“Priortizing restoration across agricultural landscapes.” Nothing to do with agriculture, though.
“Gene banks to rescue local crops.” Nothing to do with genebanks, though.
“‘Psychedelic’ maize may help increase crop and biofuel yields.” Nothing to do with LSD, though.
Scotland gets a national genebank. Well, not really, but anyway.
Malawi schoolchildren sing about food diversity. No, really.
Homo erectus ate fish as part of a pretty diverse diet. Had to wait about 2 million years for chips.
Report for 10-Year Strategy for Reduction of Vitamin & Mineral Deficiencies. “…activities to enhance dietary diversification are an attractive option for improving micronutrient status, but these have proved difficult to evaluate.” Ouch.
“Integrating Genetic Resource Conservation and Sustainable Development into Strategies to Increase the Robustness of Seed Systems.” You’ll need to pay to find out how, though. I’ll try to get a pdf, some of the authors are friends.
The role of Punjab Agricultural University in the Green Revolution. And in genetic erosion?
Enough arable land to feed world, says new French study. But not here, say Indians.
Reviving the elm in Britain one sapling at a time. How long till the next disaster, though, with such a narrow genetic base?

A paean to diverse diets is just what we all need.
And another one, from the MIT Technology Review of all places.
Menawhile, there’s only one reference to dietary diversity in the World Bank’s investment framework for nutrition.
Maybe you have to quantify that diversity before you can save it? Now where have I heard that before?
Meanwhile, Europe reports on biodiversity-friendly farming practices. Does that include the biodiversity of the actual crops? Perhaps surprisingly, yes!
You want biodiversity-friendly farming practices? Talk to Indigenous people. The Committee on World Food Security (CFS) has launched an e-consultation on “Preserving, strengthening and promoting Indigenous Peoples’ food and knowledge systems and traditional practices for sustainable food systems.”
There’s diversity in asparagus too.
Genebanks can help with those biodiversity-friendly practices, diverse diets and rops and Indigenous practices.
Even big international genebanks.
Even the Svalbard Global Seed Vault.
But some are in trouble.
Though others are coming back.