Commodity – Page 119 – Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog

Nibbles: Mopane, Evolution, Cacao

Food shopping in Harare includes dried caterpillars by the sackful. Luigi says: “Yum”.
Carnival of Evolution #10 at The Oyster’s Garter. Jeremy says: “Yum”.
Ecological cacao. We all say: “Yum”.

Nibbles: Mopane, Evolution, Cacao

Food shopping in Harare includes dried caterpillars by the sackful. Luigi says: “Yum”.
Carnival of Evolution #10 at The Oyster’s Garter. Jeremy says: “Yum”.
Ecological cacao. We all say: “Yum”.

March 30, 2009March 30, 2009

Nibbles: Soil diversity, Coffee, Ants, Haskap, Biochar

“Spreading antibiotics in the soil affects microbial ecosystems“. No shit.
Drink more (Rwandan) coffee. What about the other coffee countries?
Cane toad nemesis: meat ants. Eeyew.
1st Virtual International Scientific Conference On Lonicera caerulea L. Via .
The biochar backlash. Oliver snips and links.

Happy birthday to me!

And thanks to Charlotte for a present which brings together two pretty cool bits of agrobiodiversity.
cannabis

Nibbles: Coconut, Gene flow

Pacific coconuts need replanting. Quick, alert the media!
Bees don’t just fly down the rows. Quick, alert the media!

1. Ancient farmers didn’t have to wait for the genetic diversity that made domestication possible. They selected from variation already present in wild plants, including the ancestors of rice and maize. Domestication was as much about spotting (or happening upon) useful differences as creating new ones.
2. English colonists in America called Indigenous dogs “wolves,” revealing as much about colonial perceptions as about the animals themselves. This history of Indigenous dogs shows how unfamiliar animals were classified through peculiarly European ideas about wildness.
3. Austria is bringing forgotten apple varieties back to life. Saving old varieties in genebanks is one thing: getting people to grow, sell and eat them is another, but it can be done. Or at least tried.
4. Jordan’s olive-oil heritage centres on traditional varieties such as Nabali and ancient Rumi trees, but most production is consumed locally, leaving exports limited and making provenance, cultivar and harvest date important indicators for buyers. Compare and contrast with Austrian apples.
5. Small island developing states have distinctive food cultures and ingredients, but face particular challenges in building sustainable and resilient food systems. FAO’s A Taste of SIDS explores the connections between island food, biodiversity and culinary heritage. Nice to see diversity within crops considered, though a few local variety names would have been nice.
Published on October 21, 2026