Luigi Guarino

October 4, 2012

Know your apples

You know that horrible feeling when you realize you’ve used the wrong apple variety? Well, you need never have it again, not with this handy new flowchart from Slate.

Now, if they could only do something similar for another important multi-purpose crop…

October 4, 2012October 4, 2012

Nibbles: Taxonomic language, Australian diplomacy

The joy of Latin.
Australians get medieval on FAO.

October 3, 2012October 3, 2012

It’s conference season in India, I guess. With the XI Conference of the Parties of the CBD off the ground, that makes two major global talk-fests happening in Hyderabad this week. And we’re just sitting here waiting for you to tell us what’s going down.

October 3, 2012

Nibbles: Ames genebank, G20 meet, European bison, Genomics training, Old words, Roadside Salvia

Yet another USDA genebank in the news. This time it’s maize.
G20 Agriculture vice-ministers recommend to “Support the development and promotion of a global information sharing system on plant and animal genetic resources.”
Bison returns to Germany.
Learn population genomics of crops and livestock.
Ebony is a pretty old word.
How Salvia got around.

October 2, 2012

Nibbles: Cacao breeding, Specialy crops, Taihu pigs

Breeding cacao in Ecuador.
Supporting specialty crops in the US.
Tasty Chinese piglets.

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

Know your apples

Nibbles: Taxonomic language, Australian diplomacy

COP this

Nibbles: Ames genebank, G20 meet, European bison, Genomics training, Old words, Roadside Salvia

Nibbles: Cacao breeding, Specialy crops, Taihu pigs