Climate change

February 10, 2016February 10, 2016

It’s already happening

It seems the majority of species examined are already affected by #climatechange Camille Parmesan #SpeciesOnTheMove pic.twitter.com/XzH7vZje8c

— Clare Hawkins (@Ottercivet) February 9, 2016

That’s from a summary of 5 meta-analyses, covering 4000 species. Follow at #SpeciesOnTheMove.

February 9, 2016February 9, 2016

Nibbles: Poleward migration, Pulse infographic, Vodka, Ancient horse DNA, Old fish, Certified cacao, On farm book, Coarse millets, Banana diversity, Pearl millet demo

Species flying poleward.
FAO unveils pulse infographic. No word on whether any are harvestable by machine.
Potato farmer adds value the old-fashioned way.
Talking of old, here’s a really old horse.
And the oldest evidence of fermentation for food preservation. But you’ll need a strong stomach.
KitKat is certified crap.
How (and Why) Farmers Maintain Crop Diversity: The Book. Some reviews.
And here’s a specific example from India.
And here, courtesy of Bioversity’s Ann Tutwiler, is why farmers need some help sometimes.
Oh and here’s another one. People visit ICRISAT genebank in Niger, see stuff they like.

January 13, 2016January 13, 2016

Nibbles: Svalbard, Fish tissue, Homegardens, Mothers’ seeds double, Citrus diversity, Paul Smith, Pulses, Hohokam, Nutrition profiles, Zulu cattle poetry, Cereals & CC, Soil biodiversity

Svalbard on the BBC.
Fish biorepository in Penang.
Kitchen gardens in Kenya.
Mothers transmitting seeds and knowledge to their daughters.
Challenges faced by female farmers in preserving seeds after harvest: leave your suggestions. Maybe they could talk to the above?
Trying to save citrus.
Paul Smith of BGCI wins the Fairchild Medal. Congrats!!!
The Washington Post has its finger on the pulses.
“…a peaceful, multi-lingual, multi-ethnic economic system stretching from New Mexico to California that persisted for 600 years…”
Country Nutrition Profiles: the infographics.
The most beautiful cattle in the world.
Extreme weather has been bad for cereals. Well I never.
Threats to Europe’s soil biodiversity.

January 11, 2016January 11, 2016

Brainfood: In situ & CC, Rare livestock phenotypes, SSR & wheat seeds, Kelp genebank, Recognizing pig landraces, Indian pigs, Benin yams, Colombian Manihot, Enset seed, Okra transgenes

Using in situ management to conserve biodiversity under climate change. It can probably be done, but more empirical evidence of long-term effects is needed.
Rare phenotypes in domestic animals: unique resources for multiple applications. Difficult to conserve, but worth doing, and biotech will help.
Patterns of SSR variation in bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) seeds under ex situ genebank storage and accelerated ageing. SSRs don’t help figuring out viability loss.
Germplasm banking of the giant kelp: Our biological insurance in a changing environment. Chileans conserve female and male gametophytes in low light, at 10 °C, in Provasoli media.
Authentication of “mono-breed” pork products: Identification of a coat colour gene marker in Cinta Senese pigs useful to this purpose. This particular pig breed can be easily and accurately identified.
Microsatellite and Mitochondrial Diversity Analysis of Native Pigs of Indo-Burma Biodiversity Hotspot. Native Indian pigs closer to Chinese than European.
Yam (Dioscorea spp.) responses to the environmental variability in the Guinea Sudan zone of Benin. Different varieties respond differently to different conditions, at least as regards yield.
Diversity and genetic structure of cassava landraces and their wild relatives (Manihot spp.) in Colombia revealed by simple sequence repeats. Lots of geneflow.
Current availability of seed material of enset (Ensete ventricosum, Musaceae) and its Sub-Saharan wild relatives. Not much.
Monitoring adventitious presence of transgenes in ex situ okra (Abelmoschus esculentus) collections conserved in genebank: a case study. None found.

January 8, 2016January 8, 2016

Nibbles: Threatened foods, Extreme weather, Fancy pix, Mooney video, Traditional diets, Untraditional diets,

Latest scaremongering about disappearing foods. French fries? Really? And more.
Ah, wait. Here comes the science.
Daguerreotypes of heirloom veggies.
Pat Mooney sets out the history of PGR conservation in ten minutes.
The beauty of traditional diets.
Something philosophical for the weekend? Does something count as local if it didn’t come from the local soil, but was instead grown inside a greenhouse that happens to be near where you’re eating it?