Luigi Guarino

May 14, 2009

Nibbles: Liberia

Barcoding timber trees, and tapping rubber, in Liberia.

May 14, 2009May 14, 2009

US readies itself for Roquefort flood

The iniquitous 300% tariffs imposed by the last administration on Roquefort cheese are to go. The sterling campaigning efforts of the SociÃ©tÃ© Roquefort have thus been deservedly rewarded. Good news for American cheese lovers. And Occitan shepherds. Let agrobiodiversity and its products be free!

May 13, 2009

What gives wine its taste

It’s good practice to throw garbage into your vineyard, apparently. Always has been. Don’t believe me? Read the article, watch the video.

May 13, 2009May 13, 2009

Nibbles: Tsetse, Warty pumpkins, Cattle origins, Crop mobs

Tripping up trypanosomiasis: “It is a poverty fly.”
Pumpkin patent squashed: “This is like trying to patent all trees with twisted limbs.”
Indonesian bovines fingerprinted: “…the famous ‘racing bulls‘ from Madura descended from banteng cows.”
Cropmobbing. Sounds like fun. Via.

May 12, 2009May 12, 2009

Royal oxen turn up their noses

“This means we will have plenty of the corn and beans, but a poor rice harvest,” astrologer Kang Ken announced after the ceremony which was presided over by King Norodom Sihamoni.

Fresh Nibbles

Ancient farmers didn’t have to wait for the genetic diversity that made domestication possible. They selected from variation already present in wild plants, including the ancestors of rice and maize. Domestication was as much about spotting (or happening upon) useful differences as creating new ones.
English colonists in America called Indigenous dogs “wolves,” revealing as much about colonial perceptions as about the animals themselves. This history of Indigenous dogs shows how unfamiliar animals were classified through peculiarly European ideas about wildness.
Austria is bringing forgotten apple varieties back to life. Saving old varieties in genebanks is one thing: getting people to grow, sell and eat them is another, but it can be done. Or at least tried.
Jordan’s olive-oil heritage centres on traditional varieties such as Nabali and ancient Rumi trees, but most production is consumed locally, leaving exports limited and making provenance, cultivar and harvest date important indicators for buyers. Compare and contrast with Austrian apples.
Small island developing states have distinctive food cultures and ingredients, but face particular challenges in building sustainable and resilient food systems. FAO’s A Taste of SIDS explores the connections between island food, biodiversity and culinary heritage. Nice to see diversity within crops considered, though a few local variety names would have been nice.

Published on October 21, 2026