- More on #IBC18 from AoB. Web 2.0 as it should be.
- EurActive.com with massive dossier on sustainable intensification in Europe. Not much diversification there, though, except for intercropping.
- Boffins look for wild macadamias with thinner shells for wimpy consumers. Well, not just that.
- The ancient Maya mixed up their turtles.
- Grass skirts latest GMO fear.
Nibbles: Parliamentary buzz, Weeds, Malthus, Suceava genebank, Fukushima farmers, Mangifera, Fermentation, Macaws, Biodiversity banks, Asses
- EU parliament, and others, urged “to improve conditions for pollinators in Europe”.
- Weeds. A book from Richard Mabey, now published and reviewed in the US.
- Ismail Serageldin will present the 2nd annual Malthus Lecture on 14 July at IFPRI. I’ll be staying late to follow the webcast.
- The Romanian genebank at Suceava seems to have a kind of progress report.
- They’re making a film about the organic farmers of Fukushima.
- Mango diversity picture goodness.
- Turns out making ginger beer doesn’t involve ginger. What it does involve is a weird agrobiodiversity symbiosis, but you had me at beer.
- Ancient Chacoans bred macaws. And why not.
- Biodiversity offsets are a huge market. What I want to know is if any of than money could go to genebanks.
- Ethiopian donkey power.
Nibbles: Adaptation, Soil bacteria, AnGR, Edible flowers, Potato chips, Ancient beer
- July issue of CSA News, official magazine for members of the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America and Soil Science Society of America, has article on “Crop Adaptation to Climate Change” based on official CSSA position statement, “Crop Adaptation to Climate Change.”
- Factsheet on bacterial diversity and why it’s good for soils.
- FAO guidelines for the In Vivo Conservation of Animal Genetic Resources discussed in Europe.
- Please eat the daisies. Or other flowers.
- Farming chips.
- Never thought I’d get bored of reading about ancient beer.
Nibbles: Cranberry pests, Productivity, Resistance breeding, Jackfruit, Oca etc, Millets, Root crops, Semen cryo
- Guess what. Cranberry pests prefer certain varieties.
- If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it. Estimating yield of food crops grown by smallholder farmers from IFPRI.
- CIAT first CG centre to publish peer-reviewed video, on resistance selection. In other news, there are peer-reviewed videos?
- CFTF draws our attention to Jackfruit – Forgotten Kalpavriksha, “a common trope”.
- $3.4 million worth of good news for food security and diversity in the Andes. “Small Andean tuber crops” involved.
- Minor millets star in new film shared by Bioversity.
- Want the Philippines to be self-sufficient in rice? Eat rootcrops. IRRI unavailable for comment.
- Way more than any sensible person will ever want to know about duck and goose semen.
Nibbles: Cassava, Biopiracy, Neolithic, Potato history, Pollinator conservation
- The pros and cons of biofortified cassava rehearsed for the nth time.
- Scientists accused of biopiracy for the nth time.
- nth genetic study of ancient farmers. Men moved, in a nutshell, women not so much.
- Traditional healers: nth example of a group hard hit by climate change.
- In all above cases, n is a large positive integer.
- Potatoes responsible for about 25% of Old World population increase between 1700 and 1900. Nice maths.
- Learn how to conserve pollinators. If you’re in Rhode Island. But there is an online Pollinator Conservation Resource Center with lots of resources.