- No rice? Eat bananas!
- “Whatever the cultivation and consumption of cassava mean to us as Jamaicans, it cannot be just a source of comic relief.”
- Climate change good for coconuts. Well that’s a relief.
- Spud slide show.
- Gubernator helps Chile with its genetic resources. Sarah Connor unavailable for comment.
- Galliformes conservation in SE Asia. No, nothing to do with the French.
- “…the white part of the leek must represent at least one-third of the total length or half the sheathed part.” Yeah, that makes sense.
- “You really see that it’s the poor and persecuted who have been the seed savers.”
Nibbles: Medicinal rice, Dairy, Dates, Food, Cuba, Mango
- Red rice extract prevents heart problems.
- Got milk?
- Marrakesh date palms in trouble. But back in 2002 Gary Martin was doing something about it, I thought.
- “Diet for a small planet” revisited.
- Cuba’s urban agriculture revolution.
- “The Mango Mela, an agricultural fair dedicated to the fruit, … featured only 20 varieties, compared with more than 100 last year.”
Nibbles: Potatoes, Adzuki
- What climate change will mean for potatoes.
- The domestication of adzuki beans (Vigna angularis).
Nibbles: Sprouts, Mice, Prices, Prices, Prices, Prices, Gooseberry, Fruits, Fruits, Subsidies, Climate change, Fruits again, Culture, Irrigation
- Brussels sprout variety lost and found in Wales. Alas, it’s an F1. Start breeding now.
- Mice destroying Australian sorghum. Pied Piper unavailable for comment.
- Impact of prices in Ethiopia.
- Impact of prices in Kenya.
- Impact of prices in Latin America.
- Biofuels not to blame for food price rises. Fatuous, Jeremy comments.
- Uttar Pradesh State Biodiversity Board steps in to save rare Indian gooseberry. Is this it? Doesn’t seem rare.
- Pitaya explained. Check out the links too.
- “Picture it, an orange grape!” No thanks.
- The Economist on the CAP. Money quote: …if Europeans want to produce food in a special region or way, “let them label it, and see if the market will pay for it.â€
- Speaking of which. British wine industry in trouble. You heard me.
- Other fruits not doing well either. Via.
- Royal Ploughing Ceremony goes well in Cambodia. That’s all right then.
- On the other hand, there may be something to this traditional knowledge stuff after all.
Reindeer domestication
From our occasional contributor Michael Kubisch.
Reindeer have been domesticated by denizens of the Northern hemisphere for some time – but exactly for how long and whether domestication occurred at different sites or only once has been the matter of some debate. Estimates of how long ago domestication might have happened have ranged from as long as 20,000 years ago to as little as 3000. Part of the problems stems from the lack of archaeological records that could pinpoint a more exact time frame. The evidence for the shorter period relies mostly on ethnographic observation, such as the development of certain implements (for example saddles) that early reindeer herders developed apparently after contact with other people of the central Asian steppes.
But did domestication happen more than once? A recent paper by a group of researchers from Oslo sheds some light on this question. After analysis of a number of DNA markers they conclude that the Sami people of Northern Scandinavia domesticated reindeer independently from indigenous people in what is now Russia. Moreover the evidence points to the existence of three distinct gene pools suggesting that domestication even within Russia may have occurred more than once.
And there is another interesting observation: comparisons with gene markers from wild reindeer suggests that introgression of “wild” genes into domestic reindeer appears to have happened quite frequently through the ages, but that only some of the wild populations have made genetic contributions suggesting perhaps different propensities for domestication among animals of various wild herds.
Unfortunately there is increasing concern about the future of reindeer agriculture. The Sami herders, who live in Scandinavia, Finland and parts of Russia, are beginning to feel the effects of global climate changes. The rapid warming trend that seems to occur in the Northern hemisphere interferes not only with foraging but also with the ability to move animals across what used to be solid ice. And many Sami now fear not only the loss of their livelihood, but also the disappearance of a substantial part of the culture, which has always been intricately linked to reindeer. Â