Protecting an ancient oak forest in Scotland.
Danny goes solo
You may remember some of Danny Hunter’s excellent contributions to this blog, for example his take on the importance of mentoring in helping to enhance scientific research capacity in developing countries. He also recently kicked off a fascinating discussion on the worldwide distribution of the practice of floating-bed cultivation.
Well, no doubt inspired by our example, Danny’s got a brand new blog of his own now. It’s called Rurality, and its mission is to:
collect and share information relevant to rural development in an Irish context by exploring commonalities between global and local experiences and practices. By generating discussion and debate, it hopes to construct information that will be accessible in one place, and of value, to people with an interest in rural living.
Do check it out, it’s really great. We’ve added Rurality to our blogroll, and we’ll be visiting Danny regularly for his thoughts on agrobiodiversity.
Pigs didn’t fly, walked to Europe
We know that agriculture began in the Fertile Crescent about 12,000 years ago and then spread across Europe between 9,000 and 6,000 years ago. But what exactly was it that spread? Was it the idea of agriculture or agriculturalists themselves? Just-published work on the DNA of modern and ancient pigs says it was probably a bit of both. It seems that Middle Eastern farmers migrated into Europe carrying their agrobiodiversity with them — crops and domesticated animals. But, as far as the pig was concerned anyway, they soon adopted a locally domesticated version in preference to the Middle Eastern type they had brought along.
Mini-watermelons
I had no idea there was such a thing as a mini-watermelon, let alone a mania about them, as suggested by a piece in FreshPlaza. But apparently, in addition to being easier to carry, they’re also good for you. I haven’t been able to find information on how these nutritious, small-fruited varieties were developed, but it does seem to have been through conventional breeding.
Gargantuan gardening
The wacky world of competitive vegetable growing. With slideshow goodness.