Luigi Guarino

June 26, 2007June 26, 2007

The roots of Darfur

The world is waking up to the fact that competition for an eroding natural resources base is at least a contributing factors to the tensions of Darfur, whose tragic results then further exacerbate the problem in vicious positive feedback. But Jonathan Robinson said so some years backÂ (via ADE). What took so long?

June 26, 2007

Identifying wheat proteins

There’s a new, betterÂ method for characterizing the proteins in wheat.

June 26, 2007

When’s lunch?

The Food Timeline.

June 24, 2007

Making money from urban agriculture

An entrepreneurial approach to farming in the city.

June 23, 2007June 24, 2007

Earthworm genetic diversity

Earthworms are agricultural biodiversity too!

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