Luigi Guarino

May 2, 2008

Nibbles: Barcoding, forests, social networking

Trees to be barcoded. Including cultivated ones?
This would be a good place to start.
Nature Conservancy to relaunch ConserveOnline.org, a free online community for conservation practitioners.

May 2, 2008

Tangled Bank #104

A warm welcome to all who’ve come over from Tangled Bank #104 at the wonderfully named Dammit Jim!. Hope you find lots of stuff to your liking.

May 1, 2008

Nibbles: Seed aid

Seed aid not always a good thing.

May 1, 2008

Enola bean patent revoked

As luck would have it I’m at CIAT in Cali, Colombia just as the story of the overturning of the infamous Enola bean patent is gaining traction. Everyone very excited around here.

April 29, 2008

Berry-Go-Round #4

If you landed here from Foothills Fancies, I’ve got only one word for you: Welcome!

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