- University of Hawaii’s work on taro summarized.
- Watch out for FAO’s new NWFP-Digest. Non-timber, non-wood; what’s the difference?
- The transition of maca from neglect to market prominence. Free download.
- Maize and malaria in Ethiopia.
- Gary Nabhan interviewed. Again.
- NPR on the limits of the Green Revolution.
- Cocks still fighting in India.
- The early Egyptians “…were very aware of the benefits that natural additives can have—especially if dissolved into an alcoholic medium, like wine or beer.”
- Brosimum alicastrum to the rescue.
- Uganda’s biofuel hopes dashed by virus? Say it aint so.
Melaku Worede speaks
And this is what the veteran crop conservationist says:
Gene banks like the SADC gene bank, the Svalbard gene bank, and many others, focus only on collecting and preserving. How can you think you are conserving diversity when the very source upon which the seeds depend is not included? You can capture only so much, and in 100 years it will be useless because the planet will have changed. Perhaps you will be able to incorporate some genetic material into varieties and release them, but who is going to benefit from that? That is the big question.
I know what he means. You need to conserve the process, as well as the product. But I have another big question. If the world — read the climate — is changing as fast as many now fear, don’t you need the insurance policy that genebanks provide all the more?
GMO introgression risk mapped
Bioversity International’s Gene Flow Risk Assessment of Genetically Engineered Crops project, funded by GTZ and realized in collaboration with CIAT and Universidad del Valle (Cali, Colombia), has got (some of) its products out. The project focused on the “likelihood of gene flow and introgression to crop wild relatives (CWR) and other domesticated species.” A book is coming, but you can see the risk maps for a number of crops online now. And there’s also a bibliography.
LATER: Jeremy points out, correctly, that “see” in the last sentence above is a bit of an overstatement. You need to do a bit more work than is perhaps implied.
Nibbles: Drugs, Horticulture, Nutritional composition, Health, Rice, Coconut
- “Coffee and cocoa yes, coca no.”
- 1st All Africa Horticulture Congress.
- Carotenoid and vitamin content of Micronesian atoll foods: Pandanus (Pandanus tectorius) and garlic pear (Crataeva speciosa) fruit.
- A Family Year: a 5-part television series focusing on the health and environmental threats facing families in Russia and Central Europe.
- Natbar Sarangi: one man Indian rice genebank.
- Climate change “might hinder coconut production“.
Surviving a million Scoville units
A couple of crazy Aussies are caught on video eating naga jolokia, the hottest chilli in the world. Watch it and weep.