Luigi Guarino

January 31, 2011January 31, 2011

Nibbles: Vegetables training, Genebanks and genomics, Kew and CWR, AnGR ABS

AVRDC’s 30th International Vegetable Training Course Vegetables: From Seed to Table and Beyond.
Cameron Peace’s excellent presentation on genomics and fruit genebanks at the recent PAG symposium organized by NPGS staff Chris Richards (Ft. Collins) and Clare Coyne (Pullman).
Kew’s latest Samara newsletter does crop wild relatives.
Exploring the need for specific measures for access and benefit-sharing of animal genetic resources for food and agriculture. Results of a workshop.

January 29, 2011January 28, 2011

Agrobiodiversity conservation going mainstream?

I don’t know about you, but I’m surprised when, on the same day mind you, the Costa Rica News has a piece about a new citrus genebank at CATIE and Balkans.com an article about the genetic relationship between Turkish and Hungarian apricot cultivars. Pleasantly surprised.

January 28, 2011January 28, 2011

Livestock genetic resources meetings galore

The livestock genetic resources conservation people are going to be hard at it both in Europe and India this year. Must be something in the air.

January 27, 2011August 24, 2026

Colombian agrobiodiversity on display

Colombian Fruit Odyssey

Originally uploaded by KitchenCaravan

January 21, 2011

Bats going bananas

Many of our most important foods come from bat-dependent plants. These include bananas, plantain, breadfruit, peaches, mangos, dates, figs, cashews and many more.

Bananas? Bananas? Yes, bananas. Well, kinda.

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