Luigi Guarino

The beginning of a panic about the garlic deficit with China? Via Food Museum Blog.

June 22, 2007

Potholes on the Tequila Trail

Tequila vs maize in the homeland of both.

June 22, 2007June 22, 2007

From a cold and wet Addis Ababa

I’m spending the week here for work and could not resist the temptation to do some advertising for Ethiopia’s Institute of Biodiversity Conservation, one of the world’s premier genebanks. So check out their website. And read a bit about them in the news.

June 21, 2007

Controlling bacterial wilt

Another reason why intercropping is a good idea.

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

Author: Luigi Guarino

Microbial resources

Garlic in the press

Potholes on the Tequila Trail

From a cold and wet Addis Ababa

Controlling bacterial wilt