- Animal domestication is murder. Will someone tell ILRI? And the Maasai.
- Indian home remedies at risk from nasty patents. I guess someone has been reading the Washington Post.
- Agriculture started as a response to the need for large amounts of beer for feasts. Can’t think of a better reason. All the more weird that it seemed to go pear-shaped in Britain, then, after a good start. Maybe everybody was drunk?
- The UK’s National Fruit Collection in the spotlight. So after that dodgy period, British agriculture did manage to get a grip, thank goodness. Probably for the cider.
- Multiple copies of a gene needed for nematode resistance in soybeans.
- PETting plants.
- “Ten principles to apply at the nexus of agriculture, conservation, and other land uses.” And almost anything else for that matter.
- Those ICRAF spatial databases explained.
- Bhoo Chetana in India and, admittedly under another name, in Peru. Transformation often means reviving old ways.
- Free posters of Top 10 plant-attacking nasties.
Nibbles: Innovative crops, twice, Seed saving, Jatropha, Cimmyt, Common ownership
- Of course garlic and dill are innovative crops – if you live in the Pamirs.
- So is Stevia, in Spain.
- A big new book on saving your own seeds. Ignore the rhetoric, and don’t try this in Europe, folks.
- Crops for the Future calls Jatropha a “debacle”. Hard to argue with that.
- All about CIMMYT at an agro-biodiversity fair.
- Put a price tag on natural resources, and you risk undermining common ownership.
Nibbles: Aguaje, Super pasta, Banana battery, Tomato love, Tomato hate, Microgreens, NUS, Fortuneii, Coffee, Uran agriculture
- Today’s new superfruit. This one doesn’t surprise me.
- Tomorrow’s super-spaghetti. This one really baffles me.
- Today’s new source of bioenergy: bananas. Shocking.
- 50 ways to love your tomatoes. Turn ‘em to jam, Pam.
- One reason to hate tomatoes, for good bad muslims.
- Trendy micro greens are more nutritious. Get ‘em young, chum.
- “If they are so good, why are they not spreading on their own?” Crops for the Future gives NUS the third degree.
- Robert Fortune, pioneer biopirate.
- Forget oil, water and phosphorus. Peak coffee is as scary as it gets.
- How to save urban agriculture: by the numbers.
Nibbles: Consultation, Biofuels, Konjac, Ecosystem services
- CGIAR wants to hear from you. No, really.
- “[B]iofuels are the number one threat to global food security.”
- Zero-calorie noodles untangled. Some edible aroids just aren’t all that edible.
- Natural England reports on the ecosystem services of agricultural land.
Nibbles: Graphic agriculture, Nutrition, Climate change, Giant pumpkins, Economic development, Roman millet, Fairtrade, Jojoba and guayule
- Agriculture 101: A graphic novel. Am I the only one who thinks novels aren’t necessarily true? First installment.
- Bioversity has a bunch of factsheets on Nutritious Underutilized Species.
- Why is a cacao tree not like an ATM? Because the ATM still pays out when its hot.
- Speaking of which, big long thought piece on Food Security and Climate Change.
- Giant pumpkins; not much diversity here, except in the agronomic approaches.
- Better access to markets may threaten specialist smallholder farmers. The case of Namibia.
- Ancient Roman ate lots of C4 photosynthesiser: millet!
- Wake up and smell the lack of green coffee.
- A couple of wannabe Mexican industrial crops get some exposure.