- Biodiversity Towards Sustainable Food Systems: Four Arguments. For the record: food/nutrition security, climate change resilience, sustainable diets, resilience to zoonoses. I would have added something about culture.
- Biodiversity–productivity relationships are key to nature-based climate solutions. Greenhouse gas mitigation helps tree diversity helps productivity helps greenhouse gas mitigation.
- Genetic determinants of micronutrient traits in graminaceous crops to combat hidden hunger. Big crops can help little crops.
- Contributions of African Crops to American Culture and Beyond: The Slave Trade and Other Journeys of Resilient Peoples and Crops. Decolonizing American agriculture.
- Vulnerability of coffee (Coffea spp.) genetic resources in the United States. Americans have a cunning plan for an African crop.
- Historical genomics reveals the evolutionary mechanisms behind multiple outbreaks of the host-specific coffee wilt pathogen Fusarium xylarioides. Coffee Wilt Disease fungus got a boost from banana Panama Disease fungus. Got a plan for this?
- Improved Remote Sensing Methods to Detect Northern Wild Rice (Zizania palustris L.). They’re this close to putting in place an early warning system. Coffee next? But what about those micronutrients, eh?
- Wild coriander: an untapped genetic resource for future coriander breeding. Not only untapped, its very existence was in doubt. Detect this from space, Colin!
- Advanced genebank management of genetic resources of European wild apple, Malus sylvestris, using genome-wide SNP array data. The Dutch field collection can be managed as a single unit. Kind of a relief, probably. Coffee next?
- Contrasting Genetic Footprints among Saharan Olive Populations: Potential Causes and Conservation Implications. Looks like the wild Saharan olive cannot be managed as a single unit. Bet they can be monitored from space though.
- Growing maize landraces in industrialized countries: from the search for seeds to the emergence of new practices and values. Two contrasting approaches by farmers’ associations in France and Italy.
- Herded and hunted goat genomes from the dawn of domestication in the Zagros Mountains. Before goats were morphologically domesticated, they were managed and genetically domesticated. I wonder if coffee was the same.
- Europe’s First Gene Bank for Honey Bees. Really cold drone semen finds a home in Germany.
Nibbles: Early ag, Iberian aurochs, MusaNet, Disney tomatoes
- How people used cereals before agriculture in the Fertile Crescent (roughly speaking).
- Fast forward two thousand years and meet Elba, the shepherdess of Courel. And some aurochs.
- Nine thousand years later, MusaNet revamps its website…
- …and coconut revamps its conservation strategy.
- And finally, here are some post-agricultural tomatoes.
PestNet launches new website
PestNet is a network that helps people worldwide obtain rapid advice and information on crop protection, including the identification and management of plant pests. It started in 1999. Anyone with an interest in plant protection is welcome to join. PestNet is free and is moderated, ensuring that messages are confined to plant protection.
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You can become a PestNet member at no cost either via the online app or the Android mobile app. Once joined you can post pest diagnostic requests, seek advice on any other plant protection matter, respond to requests from other members, and access new articles relevant to plant protection via the apps. You can access both the online version of PestNet as well as the Mobile (Android) version via the drop down menu under “Resources”.
And now it’s got a brand new website, with some really interesting additional resources. One of these is a long but fascinating read from Grahame Jackson, the driving force behind PestNet, describing his role in the fight against Taro Leaf Blight in the Pacific. If you’re interested in how crop genetic diversity can be used to combat pests and diseases, you’ll love Grahame’s story.
Maize comic in the offing
Well this looks super-cool.
Nibbles: Harvest time, Wheat evaluation, Olive diversity, Maize museum, MAKEathon, Community seed banks
- Why bulls and cereals go together.
- Finding out which old wheats go together with good bread.
- How in situ and ex situ conservation can come together for olives in Catalonia.
- 60 maize landraces come together in a cool display.
- Coming together for African yam bean, starting on 7 July.
- How national genebanks and community seed banks can come together.