Berry Go Round
The latest edition of Berry go Round, the blog carnival for all things botanical, is up at Foothills Fancy. Of course, not everything botanical is agricultural, but enough is for me to point you to:
- An investigation of pies, from the standpoint of their fillings.
- An investigation of old-time fern books, though it doesn’t say that some are good to eat, in small doses. Probably because she’s already done that.
- An investigation of witches’ brooms, though not the ones that afflict Theobroma cacao.
Looking for information about Erna Bennett
Our friend Danny has a new blog at agrobiodiversitie, the final two letters of which are a reference to his native Ireland. He’s trying to find out more about Erna Bennett, one of the great pioneers of genetic conservation. Indeed, she coined that phrase, which I didn’t know. Anyway, take a look at Danny’s site and if you can help, leave a comment there. Here’s our contribution.
Turkey’s turn
Turkey is the latest entrant in the Ours is Bigger Than Yours Genebank Stakes. It has “the latest technology in the world” and is the “world’s third largest plant gene bank“. So that’s alright then. Exactly why Turkey needs this facility and what will be in it are not clear from the reports I’ve read.
Wacky idea to fight UG99 available
We had a nice response to a recent post about UG99 from someone called Paul.
With reference to UG99 wheat mould – would anyone consider using far-out & whacky ideas to overcome this problem or are our scientists and universities more interested in getting funding for research from the large companies that make chemical sprays etc?
I suspect that the long-term solution to these resistant strains is not more chemicals or gene alteration (mutation) that can be patented and unable to be used by poor countries. We have too much of that already.
If you know anyone who is doing research into UG99, I would like to contribute my whacky idea that costs nothing!
To which we can only say, if it won’t cost anything, why not just broadcast it — we’ll give you a platform here if you need one — and let people see if they want to give it a try. Alternatively, if any readers are working on UG99 and want to get in touch with Paul, use the Contact Form and we’ll forward your message.