- 5 suggestions for scientists on social: see & be seen, select & specialize, serve, socialize, strategize.
- Open call to berry breeders.
- Another genebank for Australia makes a splash.
- How to avoid a repeat of the whole Enola bean story.
Nibbles: Seed morgues, African foods, GenRes, Agroecology, FarmGeek, ICRISAT
- In Praise of Seed Morgues. You heard me. Webinar next week: sounds like a doozy.
- Plan of Action on Forgotten Foods. Another webinar next week.
- Walk into the Gateway. The GenRes Gateway, that is, “a crowd-sourced platform to guide you through the landscape of forest, plant and animal genetic resources in Europe.” A third webinar. Looks like I’ll be busy next week.
- Maybe I’ll read about how to evaluate agroecology in the meantime.
- Agroecology is not on FarmGeek, but other interventions are, like GMOs and “genetic diversity” (ie cultivar mixtures) and you can explore how effective they are around the world.
- Speaking of genetic diversity, there’s a lot of it in ICRISAT’s pearl millet fields at the moment, though not in cultivar mixtures. And breeders are having a busy week of it.
Nibbles: Dates, Patagonian berries, Wild edibles, Barley breeding, African grains, Tea & CC, Grapes
Brainfood: Filbert genome, Weed evaluation, Cocoa bugs, Grass genes, Perennial ag, Forage quality, Forest gardens, Protected areas, Anthropocene, Pollinators, Neolithic burials, House mice
- The Corylus mandshurica genome provides insights into the evolution of Betulaceae genomes and hazelnut breeding. Yeah, but can it make Nutella better?
- Widely assumed phenotypic associations in Cannabis sativa lack a shared genetic basis. More work needed. Much more work.
- Dissecting industrial fermentations of fine flavour cocoa through metagenomic analysis. There’s a core of microorganisms in common even in very distant farms. Though I suspect the fun will be in the others.
- Widespread lateral gene transfer among grasses. Especially in rhizomatous species. That should relieve the anxiety about genetic modification, right? Right.
- An agroecological vision of perennial agriculture. Wait, what about those rhizomatous perennial grasses, though?
- Comparison of benchtop and handheld near‐infrared spectroscopy devices to determine forage nutritive value. The handheld devices are just fine. How long before Alice asks Chris for some for the ILRI genebank? To test on rhizomatous grasses, of course.
- Historical Indigenous Land-Use Explains Plant Functional Trait Diversity. Forest gardens in the Pacific NW still have more diversity 150 years after their indigenous managers were forced off them.
- The minimum land area requiring conservation attention to safeguard biodiversity. 44% of terrestrial area, home to 1.8 billion people. Presumably including a lot of indigenous managers.
- People have shaped most of terrestrial nature for at least 12,000 years. 75% of terrestrial area, in fact.
- Protection of honeybees and other pollinators: one global study. Focus on habitat loss and pesticides. And more monitoring.
- A sexual division of labour at the start of agriculture? A multi-proxy comparison through grave good stone tool technological and use-wear analysis. Guess which gender was buried with tools associated with interpersonal violence.
- Origins of house mice in ecological niches created by settled hunter-gatherers in the Levant 15,000 y ago. Well, hence the name, right?
- Commentary: Underestimating the Challenges of Avoiding a Ghastly Future. Don’t warn. Resist.
Nibbles: Emissions, Anthromes, S Asian farming origins, Old seeds, Chestnut, Canadian heirlooms, ABS newsletter
- Food contributes 1/3 of greenhouse gas emissions.
- How we got to the above.
- And a focus on how farming started in South Asia in particular.
- A long-term seed experiment carries on.
- Another chapter in the story of the comeback of the American chestnut?
- Want to help a heirloom make a comeback?
- There’s a newsletter on the law and policy behind all this stuff.