- Learn urban aquaculture.
- Learn phylogenetics online.
- Learn about the CGIAR’s manifesto for agriculture and climate change from Andy’s new blog.
- Learn about the importance of hide processing in East Africa.
- Learn about the latest blow to British cooking.
- Learn about monastic gardening.
- Learn about the USDA’s microbial collections. They’re agrobiodiversity too.
- Learn what is the latest crop to get its genome sequenced.
- Learn about a private livestock genebank in the US.
- Learn about the effect of biofuel crop diversity on insect diversity.
Nibbles: School gardens, Nabhan, Reforestation, Swine flu, Boar, Nutrinomics, Medieval sheep, Market, Acacia, Livestock breeds, Bees, Buffalo breeding, Quinoa
- Resource list for setting up a school garden. Take that, Flanagan.
- Gary “Eco-gastronaut” Nabhan goes viral.
- Smithsonian goes native. Trees, that is.
- GRAIN video delves into origin of H1N1.
- There are boar farms of England?
- Nutrition advice needs to take genetics into account.
- Tracing the changing morphology of British post-medieval sheep. Well, someone has to do it.
- Thai floating market. A tourist trap, I know. But photogenic.
- Kew’s plant of the day is gum arabic. Wait, Kew has a plant of the day? Is there no end to their ingenuity?
- And GlobalDiv has a Breed of the Month. BTW, the same source has a thing on the XVIII Plant and Animal Genome Conference (Jan. 2010).
- Diverse diet for healthier bees, says BBC
- Breeding bovines in Asia.
- Cursed quinoa.
Backyard livestock, what is it good for? Asthma!
A fascinating post from our friends over at The Ethicurean makes the case for backyard livestock as a valuable component of making life dirtier so as to avoid the diseases of cleanliness. Marc R. writes:
[R]ecent science is hinting that early childhood exposure to domestic animals can actually protect against the chronic condition [of asthma], so well-cared-for backyard animals like chickens or miniature goats could actually have an additional, unexpected benefit.
Marc goes on to summarize (and link to) various threads that address the “hygiene hypothesis,” a good starting point for anyone who wants to learn more about the possibility of strengthening the immune system by offering it a few more friendly sparring partners. To which I would add Seth Roberts on fermented foods, although the links to health take a little hunting down.
Evil locavore Alice Walters destroys California education
When is it a bad idea for children to play around in school gardens?
This notion—that it is agreeably possible to do good (school gardens!) and live well (guinea hens!)—bears the hallmark of contemporary progressivism, a kind of win-win, “let them eat tarte tatin” approach to the world and one’s place in it that is prompting an improbable alliance of school reformers, volunteers, movie stars, politicians’ wives, and agricultural concerns (the California Fertilizer Foundation is a big friend of school gardens) to insert its values into the schools.
Nibbles: Butchered, Drought, Extension, Deforestation, AnGR, Soyabean, Sagittaria, Urban ag, Grasslands
- Locavore carnivores learn their chops.
- Researchers from Michigan to study drought in East Africa.
- Researchers from Michigan to improve African access to research.
- Get online to save the Amazon.
- “When the National Animal Germplasm Program (NAGP) opened its doors a decade ago, it started out with genetic material from 40 lines of chicken…”
- And today’s genome sequencing project is…
- Hunting wapato.
- Mexican agriculture comes to LA.
- Today’s answer to climate change is…