- Nature “celebrates” 30 years of GMOs.
- African pastoralists know how not to destroy their livelihoods shock.
- African urban dwellers keep livestock shock.
- Vegetables can be perennial too. Oh yes indeedy. Not bitter gourd though, alas. Nor cucumber. And in other news, there’s a Bitter Melon Council. And also a campaign to promote zucchini in Iowa.
- Climate change reaches farmers in the Pacific NW. Can their Sri Lankan colleagues be far behind?
- Always good to have a beer story. Well, maybe not.
- Speaking of fermentation, this WSJ piece looks interesting, from the two sentences of it I can read. No, wait. Oh crap, try this.
- A hummus dip goes really nicely with beer. Is this the quinoa story again?
- A yam conference for the ages. Will they discuss the new trait ontology?
- Botanic gardens reach out. Genebanks next? Maybe not.
- You mean like the European ones, perhaps?
- That US CWR paper from the horse’s mouth. And a similar thing from Benin. But where does all that data come from?
- Baobab notes to go with all those factsheets.
- The Saharan olive needs a factsheet too. IRD obliges.
- Cool set of agriculture photos.
- A couple of different views of Indian food. Thanks to Cara de Silva and Diana Buja.
Nibbles: Alcohol, Cannabis, Pollination tool, EU seed law, Fruit cloning
- I need a drink.
- Or maybe some Viking ganja.
- I know I don’t need a VegiBee. But maybe you do.
- I guess we all need to write to the EU about the new seed law.
- Nobody needs another discussion of whether cloning is good or bad.
Nibbles: FAO Commission, Alpine plants conference, Young breeders, Indian sorghum, Pastoralists in the media, Neglected genomics, More quinoa, Cape Gooseberry in Europe, Database hell, Tomayto tomahto, Maple syrup, Double cropping, Cloning trees, Belated Earth Day, UK Plant Science Week
- Summary of that 14th Session of the CGRFA we were all following last week.
- Conferences on “Changes in alpine and arctic flora under climate change” we’ll all be following in September. If you’re from Balkans, Caucasus, Central Asia, the organizers need you in particular. But hurry, before it’s too late!
- In other news, young scientists are into beer.
- India’s Directorate of Sorghum Research gets a genebank. Relationship with NBPGR unclear.
- Media portrayals of pastoralists in Kenya, China and India: The Report. The Brief. The Press Release. ILRI reaction?
- Neglected crops get the genomic treatment. And why that might be a good thing.
- CIAT wades in on quinoa.
- Call for information on Physalis peruviana cultivation in Europe.
- Biodiversity databases have errors! Shock! Horror! Probe!
- The nutritional difference between organic and conventional tomatoes deconstructed.
- Your maple sugaring questions answered. Nice idea.
- Double crop for development. I guess that’s the sustainable intensification everyone is talking so much about.
- If in doubt, clone it!
- Wait, wait, wait, we missed Earth Day?
- And also a bunch of UK plant science conferences. (I had of course linked to the storifications here originally, but they’ve gone now of course.)
New beer from old hops
Dept. of shameless self-promotion: A little while ago, Luigi nibbled a heart-warming tale of beer and genebanks; to whit, a hop variety that British brewers rejected as too tasty in 1960, and that found new favour as in-your-face American craft brews changed some beer drinkers’ ideas of what their tipple should taste like. And the reason hop OZ97a was still around for brewers to re-evaluate was that it had been maintained in a field genebank for more than 60 years. Meat and drink for the latest Eat This Podcast, where I interviewed Mark Dredge, the beer writer who broke the story.
Who knows what other flavours lurk uncharacterised among the diverse hops?
Nibbles: Botanic gardens & forest foods, Militants against IRRI, Modern ancient farm, Conservation software, Urban mowing sheep, Agro-ecology, Beans, Value of genebanks, Seed savers, Video
- Botanic gardens get into the restoration business. So that people can again eat nutritious forest foods. No, really, even the BBC says so.
- Militant Filipino NGOs target IRRI. Not for the first time. And probably not the last.
- Anyone planning to go to the Beltain at Butser Ancient Farm? Only a month to go…
- You are probably already using at least one of these.
- Paris looking to go all sheepish.
- I don’t know about you, but I immediately turn off when somebody says that X is the only answer to Y. Even when the X is agro-ecology.
- Même s’ils le disent en français.
- Chinese “board beans” are actually lablab shock.
- You going to spend an evening at The Genome Analysis Centre discussing the value of genebanks? Tell us about it!
- Dutch seed savers looking to get organized.
- New York times goes overboard for Digital Green participatory video.