Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog
Agrobiodiversity is crops, livestock, foodways, microbes, pollinators, wild relatives …
Big IUCN report says that biodiversity and agriculture are in conflict, they don’t really need to be, but it’s really complicated for them not to be. So that’s us all told. If only annual crops were perennial, for example, eh? If only we incorporated more sustainable agriculture in education, for example, eh? Apart from anything …
The Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences genebank fills some gaps. I wonder if any of those new accessions are “opportunity crops.” Because they are sorely needed, for example in Africa. Which is not to say working on staples like maize isn’t cool. Just ask Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra. Working on sweet potato can also be, well, sweet. …
Do you want to describe and analyze seed systems? Let the Norwegian University of Life Sciences show you how. Do you think there should be a, well, systemic approach to the food system? So does the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. Hope they include seed systems. And genebanks. Want a rather beautiful way to remember …
One (admittedly fairly big) thing to do to fix the food system. Two-faced fique. 14 minutes — count them — on the Land Institute’s work on perennial cereals. Well worth it. 18 graphics to explain the food system. You know, the one that needs fixing.
Palau finds salt-tolerant taros. Elsewhere in the Pacific, researchers try to revive bele. That would be aibika. Or slippery kabis. Or Abelmoschus manihot. Which is a polyploid, isn’t it? Not to mention perennial. Bound to be lots of Pacific stuff at the Society for Economic Botany’s meeting, going on NOW. No, wait, it’s ending today. …