- Rust boffins meet in St Petersburg. Good luck to them: sounds like they’ll need it.
- Did 3000-year-old rice really sprout in Vietnam? Nah.
- Indian farmers queue up for old rice seeds. Not old as in the Vietnam case above though.
- And more rice. Did the Chinese really use the sticky kind in mortar 1500 years ago? Yep.
- More ancient technology. This time Mayan rubber.
- “…a major leap forward in species-area relationship fitting…”: where will future habitat loss wreak the most havoc on plant species? And on crop wild relatives?
- The pulses of Africa. Well, a couple of them.
Featured: Genetic erosion
André has a bone to pick with the non-circumspect quoting of numbers too:
If the celebration of the Year of Biodiversity is a celebration and mourning of past century(ies), of course idyllic, agriculture and an occasion to bicker against modern agriculture – with little consideration for the challenges ahead, particularly in terms of conservation of agro-biodiversity – then it will have been a formidable failure. I am afraid, we already know the answer.
Nibbles: Mayan archaeobeerology, Pesticidal plants, Livestock and livelihoods, Uganda national park
- Cacao beer. What’s not to like?
- CABI blog deconstructs pesticidal plants.
- Worldwatch blog on how “livestock can improve food security and preserve and rebuild communities.”
- Bwindi Impenetrable National Park tries to diversify.
A genebank photograph awaits your vote
So there’s an Innovation for Biodiversity Photo Contest running over at Myoo Create, sponsored by National Geographic and UNEP. I voted for the picture of Svalbard, natch. Deadline for submitting entries is 30 May, for voting June 4.
Nibbles: Wild coffee in Uganda, Grasspea, Land Institute, Biopiracy, Frog endangered by tea
- Conservation project fails to work. But lessons are learned.
- The archaeology of grasspea. Mainly Aegean, as it turns out.
- Artificial selection can help fill gaps left by other kind.
- Nestlé accused of stealing roiboos.
- Tea or frog?