Archaeology

Nibbles: High science, Methane-friendly rice, Gender, Indian priestesses, Banana extinction, Inka legacy, Diversity in ag, Yerba genome, Cucumber chains, Tomato relative, Agrobiodiversity in art

High-level agricultural scientists thinks high agricultural science will feed the world. Oh, and smart policies.
This new rice would qualify, I suspect.
Participatory varietal selection manual revised to take women into account. Someone mention high science?
No such manual needed in India, it seems.
The banana-is-doomed story sure has legs. Or hands.
What did the Inkas ever do for us?
Is agriculture diverse enough? That is the question.
Yerba mate gets sequenced. Because it can be.
Following an Indian cucumber down the value chain.
Thank your lucky stars for this weedy-looking tomato wild relative.
“We’re interested in the color, shape and sizes of the vegetables from 400 years ago, compared to modern cultivars of the same vegetables: the deep sutures on cantaloupe in Italian art of the Renaissance or the lack of pigmentation in pictures of watermelon compared to today.”
Quite a bit of agrobiodiversity featured in Day of Archaeology. Nice idea.

Do you have a nutrition success story? Asking for IFPRI.
What, another “Tree of 40 Fruit”?
Bee expert Prof. Dave Goulson is a BBC conservation hero.
Pre-Neolithic hunter-gatherers did some sort of semi-cultivation of some plants, in one place, at one time, maybe.
Anthropogenic environmental change affecting pollinators and crop zinc levels shock.
Video on biodiversity loss mentions crop diversity shock.

In Australia, they’re ripping up vineyards.
Whereas in California, they’re going to breed 10,000 new grape varieties and make a new wine. Go figure.
Interview with the director of the Ethiopian national genebank, Dr Gemedo Dalle.
Deforestation et al. not responsible for Maya collapse after all. Jared Diamond unavailable for comment.
Black tomato a hit in Italy. Looks crap on pizza though.
The case for biofortification.
University of Florida sets up endowment to protect its research groves in face of citrus greening.
Googlesheepview. Nuff said.

Video of Robin Allaby on that find of underwater Mesolithic wheat DNA off England. Well, that’s just the intro. Most of the rest is about the movement of flax north through Europe.
There’s a great Facebook group on the taros (or kalos) of Hawaii.
Weird coloured potato could be a hit Down Under.
New yams for Guadeloupe. No news on their colour.
Nice scenery and wine. Sign me up.
Also on the UNESCO heritage list: China’s rice terraces.
The Russian rye is coming! The Russian rye is coming!
Learn about the Oregon Wolfe Barley population. Thanks to Trust Me, I Am a Seed “Scientist”, another Facebook group worth following.

World’s oldest basil pollen “may be ‘medicine’”.
Bioversity digitises the past and contributes to the future: The rise of Africa’s super vegetables.
New network for sustainable intensification.
Amaze your friends with you up-to-date knoweldge of the current state of grass genomics.
Biochar is once again “the next big thing”.