- Genetic structuring of remnant forest patches in an endangered medicinal tree in North-western Ethiopia. You need to conserve a range of patches of Prunus africana, and probably not just in situ. Would have been perfect for last week’s Brainfood on the complementarity of ex situ and in situ.
- Using simulations to optimize genetic diversity in Prunus avium seed harvests. And if you were to collect seeds for ex situ conservation, this is how you could do it, or at least figure out how best to do it.
- Exploring the Role of Agricultural Extension in Promoting Biodiversity Conservation in Kwazulu-Natal Province, South Africa. Don’t look to extension for help though.
- Ex situ plant conservation initiative in developing country: Nepal as a case study. Wonder if the material in the Himalayan Seed Bank was collected in that way. Or with the help of extensionists for that matter.
- The Electronic Trade in Greek Endemic Plants: Biodiversity, Commercial and Legal Aspects. Or indeed the 10% of the endemic Greek flora that’s traded online. Yeah I know this was in the special Easter Brainfood, but I couldn’t resist the narrative.
- New sources of resistance to Phytophthora capsici in Capsicum spp. For Korea, that is. But they came from all over. As ever.
- Hosting major international events leads to pest redistributions. Watch out Brazil!
- Pyrenean meadows in Natura 2000 network: grass production and plant biodiversity conservation. Forbs are unjustly maligned. Probably starts with that silly name.
- Chemical Changes during Open and Controlled Fermentation of Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) Flour. Fermentation detoxifies and doesn’t affect nutritional content much. No word on whether it helps with all the farting. Evaluate that!
- Geographical Gradient of the eIF4E Alleles Conferring Resistance to Potyviruses in Pea (Pisum) Germplasm. Gargantuan study of 2,800 global accessions finds 4 resistance alleles, each with its own geographic structure. Much variation, but no resistance in the wild relatives. Bummer.
- Phenotypic and molecular studies for genetic stability assessment of cryopreserved banana meristems derived from field and in vitro explant sources. You can cryopreserve straight from field-grown sucker meristems, rather than having to go through tissue culture. Handy.
- Assemblage Time Series Reveal Biodiversity Change but Not Systematic Loss. Ecosystems are changing, but not yet becoming noticeably less diverse.
Nibbles: Hawaii research farms, Disneyland dates, Sumerian beer, Danish beer, Hipster foods, Wheat rust, Salmon farming, Quinoa pix, Asparagus cost, Llama evacuation, Japanese hemp, Awards
- “You can trace the genetic makeup of most corn grown in the U.S., and in many other places around the world, to Hawaii.” There’s a GMO angle, but that’s frankly the least interesting thing about this.
- Disneyland protects really old date palm. Sweet.
- “A Hymn to Ninkasi.” Sumerian beer 101.
- Bronze Age beer: not quite as old as Sumerian, but still…
- Hipsters told to stop worrying about beer, among other foody things.
- They should worry about wheat rust though.
- And salmon.
- And quinoa, of course. Pictorial taster for a forthcoming, restricted Harper’s feature.
- The true cost of Peruvian asparagus is also kinda worrying. Those poor hipsters.
- But Peru has other stuff to worry about, like active volcanoes and llamas.
- “In haiku poetry… key words describing the stages of cannabis cultivation denoted the season when the poem is set.” Oh, I’m researching that, and no mistake.
- Nominations sought for World Food Prize and Wangari Maathai Award.
Special Brainfood Extra: Economic Botany, Volume 68, Number 1
A whole issue of a journal given the Brainfood treatment. Because I’ve got allergies and can’t go out and it’s a holiday and I’m bored. Think of it as an Easter egg. Unnecessary, but tasty.
- Are Ecologically Important Tree Species the Most Useful? A Case Study from Indigenous People in the Bolivian Amazon. Among medicinal and edible species, the most used are not the ones that most strike you as you walk around. Unlike the case for species used in construction and crafts.
- The Electronic Trade in Greek Endemic Plants: Biodiversity, Commercial and Legal Aspects. Seemingly profitable, but possibly largely illegal. And I’m willing to bet that the ones that are most traded are the ones that are most difficult to find.
- Medicinal Plant Trade in Sierra Leone: Threats and Opportunities for Conservation. No internet involved, but still profitable. For how long? I guess that depends on how easy they are to find, and harvest sustainably.
- Structure and Floristic Composition of Forest Management Systems Associated with the Edible Fruit Tree Oecopetalum mexicanum in the Sierra de Misantla, Veracruz, Mexico. You can manage a landscape to favour a particular, strikingly important species, and also promote diversity.
- Contemporary Gathering Practice and Antioxidant Benefit of Wild Seaweeds in Hawai’i. No word on whether the most obvious ones are are the ones that are most used, but I gotta believe that they are.
- The Food System during the Formative Period in West Mesoamerica. Advent of ceramics may have had an important effect on crops and food.
- Fuelling the Ancient Maya Salt Industry. Not to mention on their seasoning.
- Identification of Cannabis Fiber from the Astana Cemeteries, Xinjiang, China, with Reference to Its Unique Decorative Utilization. Used to make the tails on horse figurines. No word on further, ahem, ritual uses.
- Big Messages in Small Details: Nature in Roman Archaeology. Even the small details of the natural world on the Ara Pacis have meaning. Like the horses’ tails?
Featured: Green Revolution data
Chris Smaje needs your help:
I’m no expert in this area, but the sort of data I typically see used to suggest the green revolution’s success is pretty unconvincing. I wrote a little piece with some general thoughts on this on the Stats Views website. I’d be interested if anyone can point me to evidence that avoids some of the traps I discuss therein.
Any thoughts?
Nibbles: Mainstream MAS, ICRISAT breeding, History of hunger, Specialty crops, Biofortification, Collectivizing smallholders, Fake seeds, Good seeds, Maize diversity, Making palm oil, Space ag, Cacao and CC, Cassava and CC, Cherry phenology, CC adaptation, Flavour gene, Indian apples, GBIF data, EU force feeding petition, BRITE, Sir Hans Sloane, Silk Road, Banana realism
- Round-up of stuff that’s been accumulating over past few days because we were busy putting food on the table.
- Marker assisted selection of tomatoes makes it to Washington Post. When will African crops do the same?
- “The history of humanity is a history of hunger.” Maybe MAS of African crops will help.
- USDA money for minor crops. Including African crops?
- Nigerian minister of agriculture on biofortification. Of African crops.
- African smallholders need to get together. They have nothing to lose but their chains. And their fake seeds. Which is not a problem for their Central American brethren.
- Someone mention Central America? Listen to a talk on maize diversity therein. And at the other end of the region’s diversity spectrum: oil palm.
- NASA wants to grown stuff in space. Organically, of course. African smallholders nonplussed.
- In space, nobody can hear you riot over food prices.
- Saving cacao from climate change: The colloquium. We’ve had cassava. Cherries next?
- Hold everything: there’s a framework for this business of crop diversity and climate change.
- Deconstructing strawberry flavour. Apples next? Not sure Indian farmers will care much.
- GBIF wants you to tell them how your data should be licensed. And some background.
- You can lobby the EU on fois gras. If that’s your thing.
- If you’re in Vancouver on May 6, you can celebrate five years of the Biodiversity Research: Integrative Training and Education (BRITE) Internship Program.
- You can also intern at Globefish, which links global fish-trade information networks comprising 85 countries.
- Great Great Lives podcast on Sir Hans Sloane, whose connections with agricultural biodiversity are multiple.
- Something else whose connections with agrobiodiversity are many, though this could have been highlighted more in the article in question: the Silk Road.
- What’s the late Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s connection to crop diversity?