- People of Rapa Nui innovated as they collapsed.
- “Extinct” Bird Seen, Eaten. Sorry, National Geographic, but I can’t better that headline. Worthy of Fark.
- Kimchi madness.
- Coming to a protected are near you: moving species to save them from climate change. CWR, anyone?
- Shrinking the C footprint of traditional peanut processing. Via.
- 15 Evolutionary Gems: alas, nothing from crops, livestock. Surely domestication could have made it in there.
- “Bulgarian wine cellars have already announced that they will plant vines with the mysterious and newly recovered variety of grapes near the Orpheus tomb.”
- And more ancient wine, this time from Malta.
- Bioversity International wises up on dismal science, launches new economics webpages.
- Wild forest foods big hit at FAO booth at Lao and International Food Festival last weekend in Vientiane.
Nibbles: Bees, Honey, Fertilizers, Desertification, Nutrition, Decor, Mobile phones
- Bees under lots of “sub-lethal stresses.” I know how they feel.
- Hadzabe, who have been doing it for thousands of years, to be trained in honey production.
- Chinese farmers to be taught law of diminishing returns.
- “Workers at the Egyptian Desert Gene Bank in Cairo harvest and grow threatened desert species in its laboratory before replanting them to their native soils, hoping to revitalize threatened desert species.”
- Lao National Nutrition Policy puts nutrition at the centre of development.
- Economic botany and architectural fripperies.
- Got milk?
Carciofo alla Etrusca?
Last Sunday’s outing to Cerveteri and its Etruscan necropolis included a visit to the town’s small museum. Where we saw the following terracotta figurine:
The piece wasn’t labeled, and I had to take the photograph at a weird angle through glass, so the quality is not great. But that looks like an artichoke to me, or maybe a cardoon. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to find much on the internet about the Etruscans and the artichoke, but they definitely had it. And it is still a big crop in the region. But I’m just not entirely certain. What do you think?
Nibbles: Bananas, Sorghum, Agave, Big vs small, Cauliflower, Wine, Chestnut, Farmers’ rights, India, Aquaculture, Medicinals, Tarpan
- How they grow bananas in Fadan Karshi, Nigeria.
- How they grow sorghum in Karamoja, Uganda.
- How tequila is ruining small farms in Mexico. Or is it?
- How small farms cannot feed Africa. Or can they? Join the debate! Via.
- How the Brits plan to rebrand cauliflower. This I gotta see.
- How the ancient Chinese made wine out of rice, honey, and fruit. Pass the bottle.
- How Georgia is mapping where its chestnuts used to be.
- How farmers’ rights are being implemented.
- How Indian agriculture should move beyond wheat and rice. Ok, but what would everybody eat?
- How microsatellites can be used to help catfish breeding.
- How Ni Wayan Lilir is helping people learn about the traditional healing herbs of Bali.
- How the Brits brought back the Konik.
Nibbles: Coffee, Barley, Sheep, Diary, Ancient chocolate, South African wine, Pleistocene Gibraltar, Roads
- Coffee: The World in Your Cup exhibit. I found it at Grist.
- Making beer with less water. At last a worthy use for germplasm collections.
- Rare Breeds Survival Trust take over sheep semen archive. Ah, those fun-loving Brits!.
- Illinois, 1937: farm diary in twitter form.
- Have chocolate, will travel.
- February 2, 1659: “…today, praise be to God, wine was pressed for the first time from Cape grapes.”
- Neanderthals hung out with — and hung on thanks to — biodiversity.
- Yield is not enough.