Climate change

Nibbles: Bananas, Banana genome, Moringa, Hunger games, Deforestation, Digital herbarium, NTFP in Tanzania, CC in Tanzania, CC in Nepal, CC and Ceanothus, Potatoes, Fellowships, Fermentation

No bananas without soil nutrients.
Perhaps the back story to the banana genome can fix that.
Coupla big Moringa meets coming up in November.
Britain goes for gold in the jumping-on-the-Olympic-bandwagon-to-solve-global-hunger event.
And CEO of Cargill offers coaching: be flexible, try harder.
Deforestation in Guatemala and Belize. I love it when I can see geopolitics from space.
Help Kew digitise its diversity.
FarmAfrica celebrates non-timber forest products in Tanzania.
Which could be of interest to Tanzanian farmers who have experienced the future of climate change.
Nepali farmers say they’ve been hit hard by climate change.
But it is not the reason for the climb of the desert ceanothus.
Americans about to embrace colourful potatoes. Aren’t they always?
The 2013 Vavilov-Frankel Fellowships are now open. Apply here.
Seth Roberts says “I want to take this! Harvard class on fermented food.” Me too.

More US drought data and some insights into the drought’s impact: it’s affecting the Black Sea region too.
Another reason to improve childhood nutrition – it improves Olympic medal prospects.
Grist gets stuck into the GMO potatoes debate. It’s about diversity, Dummie. Not that anyone cares.
Brewing stone age beer. “The minor details make beer brewing exciting.” I’ll bet.
The long, straight dope on a food industrialist’s approach to better fast food.
Diversifying inputs increases Rwandan coffee farmers’ profits.

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

Watch this for two reasons:

It explains briefly and in an easy-to-understand way just some of the ramifications of the drought in the US. Note that the downside is almost all the result of using corn as feed for intensive livestock production.
It is a masterclass on how to communicate simply and directly.

Major kudos to Bruce Babcock.

You’ve heard of alternative lifestyles? Now read all about alternative pollinators.
Why should we spend money digitizing natural history collections?
Not all quinoa cultivars may be good for celiacs.
The largest comparative growth experiment ever. Hope some of the 600+ species are crop wild relatives.
Mangroves trap heavy metals. And sequester a lot of carbon. But they are moving. Thank goodness there’s lots of ways to value the services they provide.
CABI’s Plantwise Knowledge Bank is online.
Kew boffins blow up coffee. The genus, settle down.

Climate Adaptation Country Profiles from the World Bank. Better than you might think.
You don’t need the whole genome, apparently. Now they tell us.
Where the global food industry is going. Some opportunities there if you think agrodiversity is important, Shirley.
Wait, there’s a 6-day international event on gelato?