Cattle rustling is rampant in Northern Ireland, 1 Uganda and the US. Is it the economic downturn, or did it never go away?
Purple pride
Purple sweet potato fries? Riiiiiiiiiiiiight. Anyway, let Ted Carey try to convince you.
“The CIP breeder sent me about 2000 seeds from crosses between purple parent plants that looked promising for regions like ours. In 2007, we planted those seeds at K-State’s John C. Pair Horticulture Center near Wichita. Each seed had the potential to be a unique new variety.”
Visiting NordGen
If you were intrigued by the source of the packet of germplasm I illustrated a few days ago, here it is:
It is the Nordic Genetic Resources Centre, or NordGen. It’s on the grounds of the Swedish Agricultural University at Alnarp near Malmo. As coincidence would have it I was up there in Alnarp earlier this week for a workshop, and managed to take a few photos. More later. As you can see, seed conservation is done in chest freezers, rather than the sort of walk-in cold room that you see in many genebanks around the world. Each freezer has a temperature probe, and if the temperature goes up too much, the genebank manager gets an SMS.
Nibbles: Climate change edition
- Climate change good for wild boar. And bores?
- Climate change good for English wine makers.
- Climate change bad for Africa. Already.
- Climate change bad for Nenets and their reindeer. Already.
- Organic farming will solve climate change.
- Ecotourism will solve climate change.
- China going crazy for garlic. Because of climate change? Nope, swine flu.
