- CIAT 2014 annual report highlights role of genebank in its impact pathways.
- Kew post for International Day for Biological Diversity does something similar.
- Zambian poachers beat swords into ploughshares, plant peanuts.
- Turns out meat is not murder.
- Higher carbon dioxide can’t make up for other stuff.
- Great BBC Radio 4 series on The Meaning of Trees.
- Saving the Jesuit pear tree. Maybe they should put this on the radio.
- I’m not sure it would be so bad if prosecco ran out.
- Because the genomes of all of the components of beer have now been sequenced, so we’re safe.
- Have a a nice cup of chamomile instead.
Nibbles: Regreening, Dog & chicken domestication, Genebanks, Banana hybrids, Orange maize, IFPRI
For all the soybeans in China
There’s a chart in last week’s issue of The Economist that really got my attention. Here it is:
What in tarnation has been happening to soybean production in China? It looks really bad, especially compared to what’s happening to the other crops. And it’s important. Soybeans are now a big proportion of overall food imports.
So is it that Chinese farmers are just growing less of the crop? Well, FAOStat says no, it’s that yields have been stagnating of late:
But this is a problem that, for example, the US and Brazil seem not to be having. It’s not as if Chinese breeders and gene-jockeys aren’t trying. And they have plenty of genetic diversity available. So what’s going on? Maybe one of our readers can explain.
Brainfood: Prunus hybrids, Wild potato gaps, Agroecology & CC, German orchard loss, Downy mildew in millet, Googling birds, Legume genetic resources
- Development of a New Hybrid Between Prunus tomentosa Thunb. and Prunus salicina Lindl.. Prunus just keeps on giving.
- Ex Situ Conservation Priorities for the Wild Relatives of Potato (Solanum L. Section Petota). 32 out of 73 species, mostly in Peru.
- Agroecology and the design of climate change-resilient farming systems. Forget monocultures, go for “…crop diversification, maintaining local genetic diversity, animal integration, soil organic management, water conservation and harvesting…”
- Patterns and Drivers of Scattered Tree Loss in Agricultural Landscapes: Orchard Meadows in Germany (1968-2009). It’s all about the bottom line.
- New Sources of Resistance to Multiple Pathotypes of Sclerospora graminicola in the Pearl Millet Mini Core Germplasm Collection. 62 of 238 accessions resistant to at least 2 of 8 pathotypes tested.
- Searching for backyard birds in virtual worlds: Internet queries mirror real species distributions.
Searches for common names of birds correlated with bird population densities. Wonder if same applies to (some) plants. - Legume Crops Phylogeny and Genetic Diversity for Science and Breeding. 6 tribes, 13 genera, a million accessions. But are we making the most of them?
Nibbles: Youthful ideas, IK, Variety testing, GMO philosophy, Organic GMOs, Oline disease, Cacao doctors, US wheat, Cary Fowler, Bison renaissance, UCDavis, Andean grains, Alaskan ag, Lettuce latex, Collecting strategies, Pulses racing, Huitlacoche, Ecoagriculture, Bowel movement
- Australian yoofs make suggestions for a better agriculture. Not as bad as you might think.
- Emulate, don’t imitate, desert dwellers.
- Webinar on variety trialing.
- A philosopher tackles GMO labelling. Not many people hurt.
- Meanwhile, Pamela Ronald is trying to find a middle way.
- This Italian olive disease thing is getting worrying.
- Indonesians have their own problems with cacao, but at least they seem to be fixing them.
- And the US is gonna have trouble with wheat. The solution: plant maize? No, wait…
- The European bison is back!
- A decade of Plant Sciences at UCDavis.
- Call for more breeding of Andean grains. By an Andean grain breeder.
- “It might not be the Fertile Crescent when it comes to corn and potatoes, but south-central Alaska just might be the cradle of the coming Rhodiola renaissance.”
- Rubbery lettuce? Shhh, or everybody will want some.
- Can’t collect seed at random throughtout a population? Collect more!
- Yeah, yeah, it’s the International Year of Pulses, we get it.
- The Mexican truffle?
- Ecofarming pays. In Kenya. In 2014.
- Sometimes crop wild relatives are a real pain in the ass.