Luigi Guarino

May 21, 2015May 20, 2015

For all the soybeans in China

There’s a chart in last week’s issue of The Economist that really got my attention. Here it is:

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What in tarnation has been happening to soybean production in China? It looks really bad, especially compared to what’s happening to the other crops. And it’s important. Soybeans are now a big proportion of overall food imports.

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So is it that Chinese farmers are just growing less of the crop? Well, FAOStat says no, it’s that yields have been stagnating of late:

soybeans

But this is a problem that, for example, the US and Brazil seem not to be having. It’s not as if Chinese breeders and gene-jockeys aren’t trying. And they have plenty of genetic diversity available. So what’s going on? Maybe one of our readers can explain.

May 21, 2015May 21, 2015

Nibbles: Beer from fog, Ecoagriculture, Slow oil, Greek diet, Livestock history, Biofortified millet, Zambian crops, Wild tomatoes, Trees & drought, Global genebanks, Saving coconuts, Industrial crops

Fogcatcher ale? Oh I think so!
Greenpeace guides donors on ecological farming. Booklet on the preservation of historical monuments to follow.
Slow Food launches olive oil presidium. Presidium?
The ancient Greeks had wine for breakfast. Explains a lot.
Livestock size changes through the ages.
The sainted Lawrence Haddad on that biofortified pearl millet story from yesterday. Remember that variety can be traced back to a genebank. But not only millet.
Zambians told to look to their neglected traditional crops. By their government. Which is surely complicit in their neglect. Maybe biofortify them first?
Collecting tomato wild relatives.
July drought stops pine trees growing in the SW US.
Building a global genebank system. And again.
Saving the PNG coconut collection from Bogia disease. We need a Svalbard for coconuts is what we need.
Industrial crops and food security in sub-Saharan Africa: mainly complementary, but…

May 20, 2015May 20, 2015

Early modern maize

Screen Shot 2015-05-20 at 10.20.22 AM There’s a controversy brewing over whether it is Shakespeare or Drake holding an ear of maize on the frontispiece of Gerard’s Herbal. But what I really want to know is what’s that other thing in his right hand.

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May 20, 2015May 20, 2015

Nibbles: Iron millet, Potato problems, Potato award, Chocolate, Cider, Nerica for Ebola, African vegetables, Collections in peril, Frida Kahlo, Diverse grasslands, Svalbard, Watermelon heirloom, Sugar, Food security, Engineered heroin, Collecting seeds, Foraging, Early modern maize, Plant protection, Guernsey seaweed

Biofortified pearl millet has an effect!
Bayer says the potato is a diva. But then they would, wouldn’t they.
Potato exhibit wins award. Did someone say diva?
Do we really need to be told that fermentation is a good thing?
See what I mean? I’ll drink to that!
Nerica for Ebola-hit areas. But why only?
Cooking up some veggies in Cameroon. With some Nerica rice, no doubt.
French national collection of carnivorous plants up for sale. Sorely tempted.
Frida’s garden. I bet there’s some carnivorous plants in there.
Diverse grasslands are stable grasslands.
No, actually, The Guardian, not an overpriced deep freeze.
The sweetest melon in the South.
Taking the sugar out of our diets. But not watermelons, surely.
Interview with the US Ambassador to the Rome-based UN agencies, focusing on food security.
Home-brewed heroin: what could possibly go wrong?
The Global Seed Conservation Challenge: but will it be done the right way?
Rummaging around Europe’s forests.
Is that Shakespeare or Drake holding an early introduction of maize to England?
Using plants to protect plants.
Vraic Day! h/t @twaihaku

May 18, 2015May 13, 2015

Brainfood: Prunus hybrids, Wild potato gaps, Agroecology & CC, German orchard loss, Downy mildew in millet, Googling birds, Legume genetic resources

Development of a New Hybrid Between Prunus tomentosa Thunb. and Prunus salicina Lindl.. Prunus just keeps on giving.
Ex Situ Conservation Priorities for the Wild Relatives of Potato (Solanum L. Section Petota). 32 out of 73 species, mostly in Peru.
Agroecology and the design of climate change-resilient farming systems. Forget monocultures, go for “…crop diversification, maintaining local genetic diversity, animal integration, soil organic management, water conservation and harvesting…”
Patterns and Drivers of Scattered Tree Loss in Agricultural Landscapes: Orchard Meadows in Germany (1968-2009). It’s all about the bottom line.
New Sources of Resistance to Multiple Pathotypes of Sclerospora graminicola in the Pearl Millet Mini Core Germplasm Collection. 62 of 238 accessions resistant to at least 2 of 8 pathotypes tested.
Searching for backyard birds in virtual worlds: Internet queries mirror real species distributions.
Searches for common names of birds correlated with bird population densities. Wonder if same applies to (some) plants.
Legume Crops Phylogeny and Genetic Diversity for Science and Breeding. 6 tribes, 13 genera, a million accessions. But are we making the most of them?