Commodity

Agricultural diversification promotes multiple ecosystem services without compromising yield. Meta-meta-analysis shows diversification is good for biodiversity, pollination, pest control, nutrient cycling, soil fertility, and water regulation and not bad for crop yields either.
Holocene land and sea‐trade routes explain complex patterns of pre‐Columbian crop dispersion. Cherimoya reached the Andes by boat.
Safeguarding and using global banana diversity: a holistic approach. 1617 banana accessions from 38 countries maintained in an in vitro collection, backed-up in cryo; over 18,000 samples distributed to researchers and farmers in 113 countries in 35 years. And that’s just the basics.
Designing sustainable pathways for the livestock sector: the example of Atsbi, Ethiopia and Bama, Burkina Faso. It’s not just a straight choice between intensive or extensive production, stop with the dichotomies.
Moving health to the heart of agri-food policies; mitigating risk from our food systems. It’s difficult to separate food from health; and yet…
Genes derived from ancient polyploidy have higher genetic diversity and are associated with domestication in Brassica rapa. Agriculture depends on polyploidy.
Genetic diversity is indispensable for plant breeding to improve crops. Plant breeding from an industry perspective, using the Brassicaceae as a case study.
Yield, yield stability and farmers’ preferences of evolutionary populations of bread wheat: A dynamic solution to climate change. A totally different perspective to the above, using a totally different crop. Compare and contrast.
Enhancing seed conservation in rural communities of Guatemala by implementing the dry chain concept. Cool way for farmers to save their seeds so they can do the above.
Landrace hotspots identification in Europe. Where to implement the above.
Innovation and the commons: lessons from the governance of genetic resources in potato breeding. This is a tricky one. Near as I can figure it, the authors are trying to say that it’s difficult to govern genetic resources apart from the tools needed to develop and use them. But hey, you have a go.
Conservation of Native Wild Ivory-White Olives from the MEDES Islands Natural Reserve to Maintain Virgin Olive Oil Diversity. I did not have an endemic insular wild albino olive on my bingo card.
Agri-nutrition research: Revisiting the contribution of maize and wheat to human nutrition and health. Staple cereals are more nutritious than often thought.
On the origin and dispersal of cultivated spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.). Spinach originated more eastward than often thought.
What plant is that? Tests of automated image recognition apps for plant identification on plants from the British flora. Botanists shouldn’t give up their day jobs.

Fresh Nibbles

What has agrobiodiversity ever done for us? Kent Nnadozie of the Plant Treaty lays it out.
Michael Frei of the HealthyDiets4Africa project doesn’t need it laid out.
Neither do the people who awarded a prize to Charlotte Allender of the UK Vegetable Genebank.
What has the US National Plant Germplasm System ever done for anyone? The Guardian, the NY Times and NPR News lay it out. I guess someone in D.C. needs it laid out, but will it make any difference?
Everyone: Potatoes in Florida! Breeders: No problem. NPGS: You called?
Here’s The Guardian again, but this time thinking it is making the case for not putting seeds in the fridge, whereas in fact it’s making the case for the complementarity of ex situ and on-farm conservation.
Speaking of on-farm conservation, here’s a couple of pieces on community seed banks in Guatemala.
Speaking of on-farm conservation, here’s the heart-warming story of Welsh organic farmer Gerald Miles.
Meanwhile, the World Vegetable Centre opens a new genebank.
And Türkiye hosts an international, no less, olive genebank.
And genebanks can be so beautiful, like works of art. Former Tate Modern director Vicente Todolí lays out his citrus samples. I wonder what he could do with olives.
Botanic gardens are beautiful and often act a little bit like crop genebanks. Here’s an example from Portugal I stumbled onto recently, I forget how.
You know what I’d like to see? An international pepper genebank, that’s what. No, not the kind that might be in those Guatemalan community seedbanks or the WorldVeg genebank. This sort of pepper. Piper pepper.
I bet the ancient Egyptians had pepper. Egyptian archaeologist Mennat-Allah El Dorry lays out what else they had.
Maybe you could lay out world history using pepper. You can definitely do so using cacao and chocolate.
No, not using ancient DNA, but actually…

Published on April 4, 2025

Category: Commodity

Nibbles: Tea podcast double, African soil map, Chinese seeds

Nibbles: Climate ready, Commoners, Beer, Banana collecting, Roman food, Indian corn

Brainfood: Diversification, Annona, Banana genebank, Sustainable livestock, One Health, Polyploidy, Breeding pipeline, Evolutionary breeding, Seed storage, European landraces, Governance, Virgin oil, Cereal nutrition, Spinach origins, Botany apps

Nibbles: Seeds4all, Seed keepers, African cattle book, Slavery & food podcast, Fonio cooking, Rabbit domestication

Nibbles: Apple museum, Colonialism museum, Mohawk seeds, India2Africa, DivSeek vid