Nibbles: GM bananas, Passenger pigeons, Conference, Diet, Perennial grains, Ugandan mushrooms, Adopting diversity, Indian history

“Genetically modified bananas grown in far north Queensland and bound for Africa are about to undergo human trials in the United States.” Because … GM!
More on those passenger pigeons.
A big old conference on Agriculture and climate change, February 2015.
Then again, we could all change what we eat to combat climate change.
Or change what we grow. Report on some perennial grain experiments.
Mushrooms for Uganda, a new project sees the light of day.
“The determinants and extent of crop diversification among smallholder farmers” in Zambia. It’s IFPRI, Jake.
I really just wanted a reason to link to this site, so I searched for millet. I’ll bet there’s more there of more direct interest.

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.