Nibbles: Old breweries, Old grape seeds, New beer, Sheep breeds, Indian rice landraces, GM rice in China, Barley breeding, Botanical tipple, Mata Atlantica conservation, Quinoa

There are some really old breweries out there.
And some really old grape seeds in Sardinia.
The beauty of hops. New and old.
Some very photogenic old sheep breeds in the Lake District.
Someone has discovered some old salt-tolerant rice landraces. Also medicinal and aromatic rices. Well I never.
Meanwhile, at the other end of the rainbow, the Chinese dip a toe into gourmet GM rice.
Brit boffins breed flood-proof barley.
Botanical gin. Two of my favourite things, combined.
Saving the Pau Brasil is, well, complicated. But what else was it going to be?
Yet another roundup of the pros and cons of quinoa.

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.