- Farm-Africa celebrates its new cassava successes … but are they resistant to Brown Streak disease?
- Meanwhile, Glenn maps the possible extent of the looming CBSD problem.
- Rothamsted has a new Science Strategy. And it includes breeding for better nutrition.
- Can insect biodiversity help potato farmers in a warming climate? It’s complicated …
- Philippine banana industry wants government money to protect its production.
Nibbles: Cassava bad and good news, Soybean domestication, Bitter gourd, Drought, Agrobiodiversity job, Heirloom turkey, Eurisco, Artisanal wheat, MSB, Food culture
- FAO really very worried about cassava. Does it know that the CGIAR has the technology?
- In today’s “crop X domesticated earlier than usually thought” story, X = soybean.
- The Deccan Chronicle discovers the Bitter Gourd Project and likes what it sees.
- How to drought phenotype crops.
- The Christensen Fund has a position open for a Program Associate – Agrobiodiversity and Biocultural Landscapes. Damn, that sounds interesting.
- “But, miraculously, the Ghost Turkey survives.”
- Eurisco has a new website!
- Artisanal wheat on the rise. I love the quip in the caption.
- Vancouver ♥ Millennium Seed Bank, and fawns over faux royalty.
- Amaranth and pizza offer entreés to culture and politics.
Nibbles: Gum arabic, Sago, Chilli, Apples
- Interview with the Secretary-General of Gum Arabic Council. In other news, there’s a Gum Arabic Council.
- Gosh, is that really all there is today?
- Ah yes, here’s something more, sago cultivation in Indonesia.
- And the ongoing search for the world’s hottest chilli pepper.
- Neil’s got apples in Himal Pradesh, an enriching response to climate change.
Nibbles: Tobacco! Maize! Andean Roots & Tubers!
- Tobacco is enjoying a resurrection as a crop.
- Michigan State University to research adapting maize to climate change in Zambia and Kenya.
- Researchers & Restaurateurs Work to Save Peru’s Food Diversity; article and podcast. The really good news? Oca are not potatoes!
Brainfood: Beans, Tree erosion, Climate space, Ecosystem services, Conservation, Pest management, Phenomics, Oca, Biodiversity research
- Seed Morphobiometry of Wild and Cultivated Taxa of Phaseolus L. (Fabaceae). Measurements confirm taxonomy; three big groups.
- Meta-Analysis of Susceptibility of Woody Plants to Loss of Genetic Diversity through Habitat Fragmentation. Pollination mechanism makes little difference.
- Running Out of Climate Space. Commentary on two paper in the same issue of Science; now, someone do the same for crops.
- The Future of Payments for Environmental Services. Any ag? Only in a negative way.
- Land, Food, and Biodiversity. Palm oil, pollution, pristine environments, population pressure.
- Avian Conservation Practices Strengthen Ecosystem Services in California Vineyards. Birds eat insects shock.
- Phenomics – technologies to relieve the phenotyping bottleneck. Just what we need for mo’ better characterization and evaluation.
- Diversification of the American bulb-bearing Oxalis (Oxalidaceae): Dispersal to North America and modification of the tristylous breeding system. Oca fans everywhere are agog.
- Global biodiversity research during 1900–2009: a bibliometric analysis. Somebody tell us; any ag?
Don’t forget the open Mendeley group for the papers we link to here.