Three articles on the benefits of diversity for your delectation this weekend. Evolutionary Applications has a paper suggesting that restoration of degraded landscapes is best done with “high quality and genetically diverse seed to maximize the adaptive potential of restoration efforts to current and future environmental change.” Meanwhile, in The Economist, how structurally complex and diverse betel nut plantations ((Ok, ok, “betel nut.”)) can be almost as good for bird diversity as the surrounding forest, and how it is better for a crop to be attacked by two pests rather than one.
Nibbles: Acai, Sauerkraut, Dietary diversity, City gardens, Bananas in the home, Pheasants, Medicinals
- National Geographic video on how growing acai is changing lives in Brazil.
- “When farmers and activists get together, food culture ferments like delicious sauerkraut.”
- Botswanans eat more millet and sorghum if it is easier. Alert the press.
- Mayor wants Londoners to grow local. Jeremy asks: are they hiring?
- It’s six foot, seven foot, eight foot, BUNCH!
- Breeding pheasants in captivity.
- African Herbal Pharmacopoeia.
Wired does food
Wired magazine does some great-looking graphics. And the latest, on how science will solve the food crisis, is no exception. As for the content, well, I’m not sure that the future of global farming is down to push-pull intercropping, remote sensing and data-driven rotation, but it’s good to see things other than new seeds and fertilizers being given a chance. And somebody should tell Wired there are more than three plant genebanks in the world.
ICRAF publishes molecular markers manual
Wanna use molecular markers to help you manage tropical trees? ICRAF has the book for you. Thanks, Ian.
Obaby!
But why do Americans vote on the first Tuesday of November anyway. For agricultural reasons, of course.