- Special issue of Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences on food processing, “a critical variable in human economies and social and symbolic systems.” Looks like the editorial is open to all.
- Investigation of genetic diversity in Russian collections of raspberry and blue honeysuckle. Some of them are much richer than others.
- Solanum centrale, bush tucker: new microsatellites reveal diversity and polyploidy; and it benefits from arbuscular mycorrhiza, especially in low P soils.
- The Crop Intensification Program in Rwanda: a sustainability analysis. It isn’t.
- Wholesale replacement of lima bean (Phaseolus lunatus L.) landraces over the last 30 years in northeastern Campeche, Mexico. There was.
- Certification of agroforestry tree germplasm in Southern Africa: opportunities and challenges. Need a scheme based on the FAOs Quality Declared Seed (QDS) with truth-in-labelling, with 3 germplasm categories (audit, select and genetically improved) as a start.
- And speaking of trees … Silver fir stand productivity is enhanced when mixed with Norway spruce: evidence based on large-scale inventory data and a generic modelling approach. Diversity good for silver firs, no effect on Norway spruce.
- Genotypic variation and relationships between quality traits and trace elements in traditional and improved rice (Oryza sativa L.) genotypes. Traditional varieties have more.
Have your say!
You guys are all contributing to the online World Bank forum on food security, right?
Nibbles: Languages, Bats, Climate change, Bioinformatics, Wild Garlic
- Bioinformatics techniques applied to languages.
- Bats are agrobiodiversity too.
- “Biodiversity is under severe threat from climate change, but we need to be careful that we don’t give a false impression of what our confidence is.” Attribution to climate change easy at global level; at local, not so much.
- Problems with bioinformatics? BioStar is a site for asking, answering and discussing bioinformatics questions.
- A wild garlic festival in Wales this Saturday.
The multiplier effect in agricuture
Smart agricultural investments leading to crop diversity? What an amusing notion!

The making of an American institution, of sorts
…produced from a hybrid…, mixing European and native stock; popularized by immigrants, Americanizing an ancient ritual; imbued with nostalgia, as their children assimilated; and then embraced by the general public, as ethnic foodways fused. It may not be sophisticated or refined, but it’s difficult to imagine a beverage better suited to the White House.
You’re intrigued, admit it! Well, it is a great story.