Archaeology

February 22, 2015February 24, 2015

Nibbles: Year of the Goat, Nutritional guidelines, Healthy diets, IK & conservation, Healthy orchards, Indian endemics trouble, CWR garden, NGS & food security, 3000 rice genomes at work, C4 rice, It’s economics stupid, US animal products map, Milk production history, Old Chinese cheese, Old Arabian seashells by the seashore, Gordon Bleu insects, African agriculture visions, Agroecology conference report, Smallholder diversity, Seed systems project, Supermarket farms, Toronto beer, Herbs factsheets, Ecosystems map, Contested Agronomy

Sorry about no blogging last week. Was watching sausages being made. Here’s a quick roundup of most of the stuff I would have Nibbled.

But first of all, Happy Year of the Ram, everyone. No, wait…
Brazil has the best nutritional guidelines.
But Chad the best diet. Both are kinda ironic.
Well, what can governments do about supporting healthy food preferences anyway?
Folk knowledge vital to conservation.
Well I never, say the East Timorese.
Farming in a national park can be a win-win.
Maybe even a win-win-win, if cider apples are involved.
India’s endemic plants could be in trouble. Many crop wild relatives among them?
Maybe they should do what the Royal Horticultural Society will be doing at the Malvern Spring Festival and make a garden with crop wild relatives. But then it won’t be the world’s first.
Next generation genomics is this generation’s jetpack.
No, wait, here’s that jetpack you’ve been expecting for so long… Well, more the first concept of the assembly instructions, really.
We’ll get that jetpack before C4 rice, I expect. But we will get both.
But of course it’s not all about production anyway.
Squid is Rhode Island’s most lucrative animal product. Otherwise it’s mainly milk, in that part of the US.
Maybe cheese was the Taklamakan’s. Three thousand years ago. And sea molluscs Saudi Arabia‘s. Five thousand years ago.
When and where will insects be.
“Large-scale investment in African agriculture and agribusiness, whether foreign, domestic, private, government-backed, or a combination of these, could pay a vital role in providing urgently needed financing, technology and markets, thereby assisting to ensure food security, contributing to poverty reduction and propelling agriculture-driven growth, with significant implications for achieving more inclusive growth.” Is that really all one sentence?
Or maybe small-scale investment?
How much investment in agroecology will there be, I wonder. Even after this report from last year’s FAO conference.
Oh good, 75% of crop diversity still on small farms. Would that be 75% of the 25% remaining from the last century?
What effect will the Integrated Seed Sector Development Project Africa have on that 75%, I wonder.
The farm as a supermarket. Almost makes you believe in that 75%.
The beery history of Toronto. Yes, Toronto.
The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) has nutritional fact sheets on herbs.
A great new global ecosystem map has the GIS nerds all excited.
“Contested Agronomy 2016 is a conference about the battlefields in agricultural research, past and present.” Oh to have the live-tweeting gig. Hell, I’d do it for free. Wait, don’t I already do it for free? Hasn’t this whole Nibbles been about contestation in agricultural development?

And on that note, that’s all folks. Because this was such a pain to put together after a week’s hiatus, I’m going to leave it on the front page for a day or two before sending it to the Siberia of the sidebar. Oh and BTW, people. We want to reach 6,000 followers on Twitter, preferably before that jetpack arrives, so follow us already, and tell your hipster friends.

Wait, too needy?

February 11, 2015February 11, 2015

Nibbles: Old breweries, Old grape seeds, New beer, Sheep breeds, Indian rice landraces, GM rice in China, Barley breeding, Botanical tipple, Mata Atlantica conservation, Quinoa

There are some really old breweries out there.
And some really old grape seeds in Sardinia.
The beauty of hops. New and old.
Some very photogenic old sheep breeds in the Lake District.
Someone has discovered some old salt-tolerant rice landraces. Also medicinal and aromatic rices. Well I never.
Meanwhile, at the other end of the rainbow, the Chinese dip a toe into gourmet GM rice.
Brit boffins breed flood-proof barley.
Botanical gin. Two of my favourite things, combined.
Saving the Pau Brasil is, well, complicated. But what else was it going to be?
Yet another roundup of the pros and cons of quinoa.

February 3, 2015February 2, 2015

Nibbles: History of beer, St Bridget, Gaulish bread, Ancient cocktails, PGR course, ECHO, Breakfast pix, Development vs biodiversity, Fairtrade African veggies, Indian medicinals, Phytoliths, CC adaptation

I say ale, you say beer.
Ireland has a patron saint of beer. Well of course it does.
The bread of the Gauls was made from beer foam.
Reviving ancient beers. Wait, what’s with all this beer today?
Genetic Resources in Plant Breeding: Conservation, Characterization and Utilization, 17-28 August 2015, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Alnarp, Sweden: More detailed information on this course coming soon…
Not that these guys in Florida need it.
Pix of kids’ breakfasts from around the world.
Development and biodiversity can coexist: here come the data.
African leafy veggies have truly arrived, haven’t they, if they’re getting the Fairtrade treatment.
But it might be too late for some medicinal plants.
Phytoliths 101.
What’s that you say? You want to integrate agrobiodiversity in your climate adaptation plans? Got just the thing for you.

January 23, 2015January 23, 2015

Nibbles: Potatoes, Saffron, Mammoths, Yield variation, African CWR, Indian cattle

China needs potatoes. And McDonalds.
And Afghanistan needs saffron.
Mammoths killed by people, not asteroids.
A third of yield variability due to climate.
Conserving crop wild relatives in southern Africa.
“The fascination for exotic cattle breeds has been the bane of Indian dairy industry.”

January 21, 2015January 21, 2015

Nibbles: CGRFA, Kew crop job, CC and PGRFA, MAGIC, SDGs, Bushmeat, Biofortification, Protecting trees, Wild coffee, Money honey, Nutmeg story, Colonial cooking, Armenian food

The Platform for Agrobiodiversity Research breaks down this week’s Fifteenth Regular Session of the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture for ya.
Kew looking for a crop person! I wonder if the successful candidate is in Rome today.
Mauricio Bellon on why smallholder farmers need crop diversity to adapt to climate change. He’s in Rome.
Multi-Parent Advanced Generation Inter Cross (MAGIC) deconstructed. Compare and contrast with above.
The SDGs in one cool interactive infographic. But where’s nutrition?
Where is overhunting for bushmeat occurring? Gotta get your nutrition where you can…
Want to invest in a biofortified crop like iron beans? Here’s how to work out where you should do it. Interesting to cross-reference with that bushmeat thing above?
Ancient Greek tree preservation order.
Ethiopian forest dwellers protect wild coffee. No preservation orders needed.
Tracking honey. Follow the money.
Could say the same about nutmeg.
Meat stew with garden eggs. Sounds yummie. Not much used in Kenya these days any more, alas.
Delving into Armenian Ottoman foods. Because we can. No sign of garden eggs.