Commodity

Nibbles: Tree drought tolerance, Whisky history, Barley drought tolerance, Old veggies, Old potatoes, Llamas vs goats, Sustainable ag, Chinese herbaria

Drought tolerance? It’s the carbs.
Whisky 101.
Coincidental mashup of the above. Barley used in whisky production provides clue to drought tolerance.
Pre-hispanic veggies.
Pre-hispanic carbs.
Pre-hispanic livestock.
Sustainable agriculture deconstructed.
GBIF scores Chinese specimens.

Crowdsourcing the Global Nutrition Report.
Which will not cover the Neanderthals.
Azolla genome project meets crowdfunding target, gets love from BGI.
Would that contribute to Evergreen Agriculture?
I bet breadfruit would, but New Scientist has put an article about that interesting tree behind a paywall. But, see this teaser…
Some people think the potato bean will.
Another genebank in Canada. Not crops, though, I suspect.
Saving the camel in Rajasthan.
ICRISAT gets a new DG.
Podcast on the history of American beer. Perfect note on which to wish you all a good rest of the weekend.

Tequila and bats. Two of my favourite things.
Continuing the Mexican theme, we have a World Food Prize 2014 winner.
I wonder what he thinks of the changes he’s seen during his illustrious career in the international system for PGR conservation and use.
I bet there’s a few endangered conifers, and maybe some ex situ collections, in Mexico.
I hope there weren’t any among the plants stolen from the RBG Edinburgh recently.
But perhaps there were some fruits and nuts from Kyrgyzstan?
Well, the way to go is home nurseries, clearly.
Maybe even with the GM chestnut, why not?
Meanwhile, in the South Pacific, CePaCT has been really busy.

Move over Juan Valdez. Cacao farmers want to emulate a marketing icon.
Urban agriculture not all it’s cracked up to be. Living up to that urban ag icon, Cuba, is hard.
Bali’s iconic, traditional subaks are a complex adaptive system, and much better than modern rice farming alternatives. Makes you wonder why they need protecting, though.
GM bananas will save us. Not by themselves they wont. I don’t know why I keep linking to this stuff. Nothing at all iconic about it.
Iconic taxonomic revision tools online.
Something else that’s online is a bunch of tools for analyzing genebank data. Soon to be iconic, no doubt. As soon as people use them. So get cracking.
Huge BBC documentary on Kew coming up. I bet the iconic Millennium Seed Bank will feature.
Speaking of iconic genebank buildings, today’s one comes from Australia.
The history of an iconic Middle Easter tree?
The philosophy of an iconic Italian delicacy. Well, Neapolitan, really.
And in honour of the World Cup (I refuse to put FIFA in front, let them sue me), an iconic Brazilian dish. And don’t worry, those beans are safe. Somewhere iconic.

“Productivism” skewered one last time. Until the next time.
The Malagasy Bean Renaissance. No, really.
The science of beer foam. Now there’s no excuse.
Cocktails can be biodiverse too. You bet they can.
CIAT’s new strategy makes a splash. Genebank front and centre.
New ICIPE director tells all. She used to work at CIAT, did you know?
First edition of The State of the World’s Forest Genetic Resources is out. Now to do something about it.
Italy’s traditional rices preserved. Yes, Italy’s, you heard me.
Agriculture was invented in the current interglacial. Why then, and not in the Eemian?
Quinoa macronutrients exzzzzzzzamined.
Your what-to-do-now guide to the medieval farm. Progress? Not what it’s cracked up to be.
People of the Toluca valley! Expect researchers looking for wild potato genes resistant to late blight.