- Yucca flowers not at all yucky to eat.
- Dept of Schadenfreude: First parasitic nematodes reported in biofuel crops.
- “I’ve often thought about this return to local knowledge and food in India.” Had no idea there had been a move away from local food in India.
- Biological collections porn.
- Breeders’ wish list published.
- First GM bananas harvested. Do they make good beer?
- How to do Geographical Extrapolation Domain Analysis. Off you go now.
Chicks with chicks
Proud to steal a great phrase when I find one, here are links to the original and two discussion — at Ethicurean and The Agricultural Law Blog — of a recent article on The Femivore’s Dilemma, about the prevalence of women in the new old food movement. Of course to my literal mind a femivore is one who eats females 1 which, of course is generally what we do. Either females or ex-males. But the more profound ideas behind the article and the commentaries are fascinating. Personally, I’m not sure that there really is a gender divide, and it would be salutary to see this in a global context. Which gives me a reason to link to this little contribution to International Women’s Day last week.
Nibbles: School Gardens, Foods
- School gardens. Ho hum. In Uruguay!
- 10 foods for the future. Yeah, if you can’t tell the difference between 1 and 9. Or 2 and 7.
Nibbles: Corn, Saffron, Pacific, Carrots, Food, Quarantine, Medicinal plants
- “Can corn be taught to fix its own nitrogen?” Probably not.
- Many saffron clones identical shock.
- New Agriculturist on agrobiodiversity conservation and use in the Pacific in general and Pohnpei in particular. Go Local!
- An idiosyncratic take on carrot diversity and history.
- The Indigenous Food Systems Network has a new website. h/t PAR
- Landscape of Quarantine, an exhibition that addresses, among other things, the spread of pests and diseases.
- Semillas Sagradas — Sacred Seeds.
Berry Go Round
The latest edition of Berry go Round, the blog carnival for all things botanical, is up at Foothills Fancy. Of course, not everything botanical is agricultural, but enough is for me to point you to:
- An investigation of pies, from the standpoint of their fillings.
- An investigation of old-time fern books, though it doesn’t say that some are good to eat, in small doses. Probably because she’s already done that.
- An investigation of witches’ brooms, though not the ones that afflict Theobroma cacao.