Nibbles: Cassava, Biopiracy, Neolithic, Potato history, Pollinator conservation

The pros and cons of biofortified cassava rehearsed for the nth time.
Scientists accused of biopiracy for the nth time.
nth genetic study of ancient farmers. Men moved, in a nutshell, women not so much.
Traditional healers: nth example of a group hard hit by climate change.
In all above cases, n is a large positive integer.
Potatoes responsible for about 25% of Old World population increase between 1700 and 1900. Nice maths.
Learn how to conserve pollinators. If you’re in Rhode Island. But there is an online Pollinator Conservation Resource Center with lots of resources.

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.