- Dogs are different from wolves, different types of wolves are different from each other.
- Vavilov-Frankel Fellow on the move.
- Nacional cacao bean rediscovered in northern Peru.
- Manx Queenies deemed to be sustainable. And wipe that smile off your face.
Yes! We do have bananas
Almost a week ago we reported on the fabulous news that bananas, and especially the threat posed by a virulent new race of Fusarium wilt (better known as Panama disease) 1 had featured on BBC’s The One Show. That show, alas, is not available outside the UK without some very fancy jiggery pokery, which hoops everyone who wanted to see it would have had to jump through for themselves. 2 So, in a spirit of sharing and collective action for agrobiodiversity, we assembled a crack team of hoop-jumpers and did the jiggery pokery for you.
Here you go: Restaurant critic and all around good guy Jay Rayner comes to grips with the threat to bananas, aided and abetted by Pat Heslop Harrison, whose blog post on the subject we refer you to once again, just in case you want more on the topic than The One Show offered.
Was it worth it? Of course it was.
Nibbles, Menu edition: Garlic, Potatoes, Meat, Tomatoes, Ramps, Bananas, Chocolate, Coffee, Pepper breeding, Local cattle in RSA
- Chicago, Chicago, it’s an edible town. Major urban centre named for edible wild species shock.
- Drought-resistant potatoes! At least 1000 genes involved.
- Test-tube burgers? 3
- Wild tomatoes and climate change. A meeting round-up from our chums at CIAT.
- The appeal of fair trade bananas. A good read.
- Technical Guidelines on the Safe Movement of Cacao Germplasm updated.
- Coffee, please. A cup of your finest specialty variety.
- Caribbean pepper breeders getting hot under the collar.
- Gotta love the way Farm Radio Weekly not only has great stories about agrobiodiversity, but also handy background notes.
Well, that was fun.
Nibbles: Nabhan, Tilapia, Crowdsourcing taxonomy, Drought, Bees
- Gary Nabhan on the West Bank wall.
- Tilapia not so bad after all?
- Yet another example of crowdsourcing in science.
- Yet another approach to breeding for (mild) drought tolerance.
- Yet another reason why natural history collections are so important.
Bananas on TV and the blogosphere
In Africa, political parties must stop using real banana leaves as their symbol at rallies or on buses…
Why? Pat Heslop-Harrison explains the reason, and much more, in a great new post at AoB Blog. The occasion is the 13 May edition of the BBC TV programme The One Show, which included an interview with Dr Heslop-Harrison by journalist, food critic and TV personality Jay Rayner. With links to a couple of freely available Annals of Botany papers and a presentation too.
LATER: Let’s not forget the importance of banana for brewing beer in parts of Africa.