Luigi Guarino

November 29, 2007

Is it aronia or sarcasm?

Aronia berries set to take off. In Iowa. Maybe.

November 29, 2007

Unconventional wine-making

Grapes? We don’t need no stinkin’ grapes. To make wine, that is.

November 28, 2007

Bringing back a wild relative

Aurochsen. Tarpans. Nazis. Wait, Nazis?

November 28, 2007

Hittite plague explained

Hittites “used infected sheep as biological weapon.”

November 27, 2007July 15, 2021

African Coffee Research Network endures

Having been in at the birth of the African Coffee Research Network fifteen years ago or whenever it was, it’s nice to see them making the mainstream African press. On the other hand, the list of things they are planning to do looks remarkably like the one we came up with at the early meetings. Fifteen years ago.

Fresh Nibbles

Haga Hideo’s 1950s photos of Fukushima farming rituals are now being used to revive them: ex situ conservation, but for culture.
Long before photography, or “pre‑breeding” was a buzzword, Belgian pomologist Jean‑Baptiste Van Mons was running massive pear selection trials and gifting us Beurré Bosc and Doyenné Boussock.
As Southern Africa’s miombo woodlands shrinks, scientists are cloning wild trees so the fruit — and food security — outlive the forest. Now for the pre-breeding.
Greenpeace Africa’s Seed Project makes the case for indigenous seeds as a route to farmer independence. And you can help.
And oh so coincidentally, a network of community seed banks in Kenya is rescuing indigenous seeds so the diversity is still around when opportunity (or crisis) knocks.
Also in Kenya, the national genebank’s collectors are racing to secure opportunity crops.
Nepal’s indigenous crops and landraces are at the same time more needed than ever, and under threat. So, much like in Kenya.
The Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT says women are at the center of sustainable food systems; the fine print adds: “as they have always been.”

Published on September 30, 2026