- Why do chillies differ in their heat? Ed Yong explains all, and links to the peer-reviewed paper.
- Frankincense “doomed”. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Take a number. And a merry Christmas to you too, publicity hounds.
- IRRI to sequence 8.3% of its rice diversity. I’ll alert the media. No, wait …
- Speaking of which … Diversification of rice and diversification of languages; great long blog post explains how they illuminate one another.
- Agro-ecology is the answer, says UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food. What was the question?
Nibbles: Animal traffic, EU agricultural policy
- Pre-columbian movement of animals around the Caribbean. But were any of them actually domesticated?
- European agriculture ministers want nothing to do with biodiversity. And it isn’t even agrobiodiversity.
Nibbles: Wild rice, Food forests, Domestication
- It isn’t rice, but it is wild. And threatened, by disease, dams and climate change. h/t Sustainable Nutrition.
- Food forests. All you can eat blog post, with video goodness.
- Archaeology International goes more-or-less open access. Read all about The Early Rice Project, among other treats.
Nibbles: Cannabis, Biochar, Hessian fly, Conference, Anti-conference, Mexican seeds
- Plant domain name changes hands for “high” price.
- Biochar reduces emissions of greenhouse gases from glacial soils. Probably cures dandruff too.
- We love resistance to wheat hessian fly, as an example of the value of agricultural biodiversity. Now it gets really interesting.
- 18th Annual International Sustainable Development Research Conference, University of Hull. h/t CAPRi Deadline for submissions is Thursday! Hurry!
- But wait! “‘Sustainable Development’ Is Often Used Gratuitously”.
- Local seed saving in Mexico.
Nibbles: Maize and beans, Kenyan stories, Mesopotamia, Rice Domestication, Food economics, Pest control
- The climate change boys have been looking for places where maize and beans will, and will not, thrive.
- An Australian journalist reports from Kenya, courtesy of The Crawford Fund.
- Rewriting the metanarrative of The Fertile Crescent.
- Dorian Fuller goes on to examine recent papers on rice and millet domestication … so we don’t have to.
- Back40 previews Tyler Cowan’s new book An Economist Gets Lunch: New Rules for Everyday Foodies. Can I wait until April?
- How to control stemborers and striga with agrobiodiversity. Undated. Is it new?
- Arche Noah revitalized? Again, is this new? C’mon people, date those suckers.