- The climate change boys have been looking for places where maize and beans will, and will not, thrive.
- An Australian journalist reports from Kenya, courtesy of The Crawford Fund.
- Rewriting the metanarrative of The Fertile Crescent.
- Dorian Fuller goes on to examine recent papers on rice and millet domestication … so we don’t have to.
- Back40 previews Tyler Cowan’s new book An Economist Gets Lunch: New Rules for Everyday Foodies. Can I wait until April?
- How to control stemborers and striga with agrobiodiversity. Undated. Is it new?
- Arche Noah revitalized? Again, is this new? C’mon people, date those suckers.
Brainfood: Early farmers, Ecological restoration, IPRs, Soil bacterial diversity, Perenniality, Carrot diversity, Earthworm mapping
- Ancient DNA from an Early Neolithic Iberian population supports a pioneer colonization by first farmers. People, not just crops, moved.
- Genetic consequences of using seed mixtures in restoration: A case study of a wetland plant Lychnis flos-cuculi. After a few generations of use for seed production, it’s best to abandon ex situ stocks and go back to the wild populations.
- Creative Commons licenses and the non-commercial condition: Implications for the re-use of biodiversity information. It’s complicated. I wonder if the multi-headed hounds who guard the gates to GBDBH are aware of this. Here’s a blog post.
- Is diversification history of maize influencing selection of soil bacteria by roots? Kinda.
- A horizon scan of global conservation issues for 2012. Perennial cereals make the cut.
- How pristine are tropical forests? An ecological perspective on the pre-Columbian human footprint in Amazonia and implications for contemporary conservation. It doesn’t matter.
- Genetic diversity of carrot (Daucus carota L.) cultivars revealed by analysis of SSR loci. Western and Asian groups, the latter more diverse, because of landraces. But 88 accessions does seem a bit few. And no wilds.
- Mapping of earthworm distribution for the British Isles and Eire highlights the under-recording of an ecologically important group. 28 species! But many gaps. No diversity map. Will send them DIVA-GIS for Christmas.
Nibbles: Pre-Columbian ecology, Huitlacoche, Nutrition, COP17, Walnuts, Custodians, Price Volatility, Kenyan farmers, Education, Peach pests, Unhappy Talk
- Special Journal issue on Environmental changes and pre-Columbian human influence in the Amazon region.
- Porn on the cob. A smut story with a headline so good, I’m sure to steal it.
- A practical field manual cum guide to Improving nutrition with agricultural biodiversity.
- Ag researchers “speak with a single voice” to “call on climate negotiators to endorse a work programme for agriculture”. We shall see.
- And will it come in time to Save the Walnut?
- New book on “Custodians of Biodiversity“.
- Brussels Briefing on Food Price Volatility. Today! Soon!
- China hears how Kenyan farmers can benefit from traditional vegetables.
- “Are plants like us?” It depends …
- A minor increase in biodiversity protects peaches from nematode pests.
- Climate change in the Pacific: The problem, according to the Aussies. The solution, according to the ADB.
Nibbles: Taiwan seedbank, American agroforestry
- Taiwan should establish a national seed bank. It says here. But will it be a genebank?
- Agroforestry in the USA and in the ancient Maya lands.
Nibbles: Cassava bad and good news, Soybean domestication, Bitter gourd, Drought, Agrobiodiversity job, Heirloom turkey, Eurisco, Artisanal wheat, MSB, Food culture
- FAO really very worried about cassava. Does it know that the CGIAR has the technology?
- In today’s “crop X domesticated earlier than usually thought” story, X = soybean.
- The Deccan Chronicle discovers the Bitter Gourd Project and likes what it sees.
- How to drought phenotype crops.
- The Christensen Fund has a position open for a Program Associate – Agrobiodiversity and Biocultural Landscapes. Damn, that sounds interesting.
- “But, miraculously, the Ghost Turkey survives.”
- Eurisco has a new website!
- Artisanal wheat on the rise. I love the quip in the caption.
- Vancouver ♥ Millennium Seed Bank, and fawns over faux royalty.
- Amaranth and pizza offer entreés to culture and politics.