Commodity

Nibbles: Maize genes, Livestock domestication, Guinea fowl, Plant identification, Juniper conservation, Cacao conservation, Seed talk, IPBES report, Global consultation

Today’s genomic breakthrough involves kernel number in maize.
Neolithic people overhunted, then thought better of it.
Was guinea fowl ever domesticated, I wonder?
How to figure out if you’ve looked hard enough. For plants, that is. And some discussion.
Gin is in trouble. But help is at hand.
A workshop on chocolate and vanilla. My kinda event. And chocolate does need help. Gin, chocolate. Pretty soon life wont be worth living.
Simran Sethi’s Twitter chat after TEDxManhattan was storified, but it’s gone now of course. Try this instead.
Final say on that IPBES-1 gabfest.
And the first say on that “Global Consultation on agricultural biodiversity for sustainable food security” thing.

Over-exploitation threatens extinction for the Cliff Banana Ensete superbum.
Non-fishy omega–3s from an underexploited Peruvian plant, sacha inchi or Plukenetia huayllabambana. Maybe extinction will soon beckon.
Rewarding Kenyan dairy farmers for reducing harmful (bovine) emissions with no direct payments.
“Eat millet and steer clear of disease” is the cry taken up by women in Madurai, Tamil Nadu.
AoB blogger drinks deep of fermentative biodiversity.
And if you happen to be in Hawaii on 2 March, and are a fan of breadfruit and coconut, don’t miss The Second Annual Puna ‘Ulu Festival—‘Ulu a me Niu.

Off-colour jokes pumped out with abandon as Viagra fungus splashed all over headlines.
Two of my favourite words in one conference: sustainable and chocolate. Can I get some archaeology with that? Yes, you can. Trifecta!
Prefer beer to chocolate? We’ve got you covered.
Sudden oak death mapping gets all interactive. Will nobody do something similar for agrobiodiversity?
The geography of the onion. No, not The Onion. And not interactive.
Go online, young scientist! Even if it involves giving banana research priority setting a Facebook page? Well, why not.
Whoa, there’s an Urban Agriculture Summit?
Citrus australasica? Seriously?
CGIAR crown jewels safe at last. No off-colour headlines, please.
Some genebanks doing ok, others not so much.
Gut microbiome kinda sorta implicated in kwashiorkor. And more from NYT.

Farmer suicides in India blamed most recently on high food prices. The BBC debunks the numbers, and about everything else about the claims, without mentioning IFPRI.
Reviving the ethnobotanic gardens at the University of Kent in England.
Zanzibari women are successfully farming seaweed.
Sweet potatoes came from all over.
Unpacking sustainable livestock, one slide at the time.
Sandy Knapp et al. chase Solanum all over South America.
Everybody’s developing their own sustainable cocoa strategies. Not ideal.

Maya nut blogs.
And then there are the ARTCs. What do you mean, you don’t need another acronym?
Pedal powered grain cleaning – with a link to a video of the thing in action. Could it be adapted for poorer places?
A new research project on cacao in the Dominican Republic, and how it could support more biodiversity.
Because we all know that crops compete with conservation, right?
Cash, food or vouchers? In one study, vouchers result in greater dietary diversity.
Speaking of which, maybe you can use varietal diversification to manage climate risk in East Africa.
Or perhaps you can leave it all to ecosystem services.
Speaking of which, someone actually asked Kenyan farmers how they perceive and respond to climate change.
Speaking of which, the University of Nairobi has embraced open access.
Speaking of which, in March there’ll be International Training Course Plant Conservation Biology: Science and Practice, which you can find here, with a little effort.
The executive summary of a Union of Concerned Scientists report on drought-resistant crops.
At a loose end? Listen to an hour of economics podcast on organic farming from that link.