- CABI blog summarizes Ug99 situation after one year.
- Let them eat potato croissants! Or so says Peruvian military.
- Boffin finds rats are diverse. Allrightythen.
- As if bees don’t have enough to worry about.
- Pussy scientists, in the news.
- Burkinabé horse festival.
A chef on seed saving
Chef’s Corner seems like a great idea: a blog by an experienced chef interested in American food traditions and the agrobiodiversity that underpins them. A recent post waxed lyrical about seed saving. Problem is, prior to this month’s six posts, the only previous ones were in May 2007. So I’m not sure how serious Chef Robert is about this venture. But I hope he sticks with it.
Nibbles: Bees, weird food, wagyu cattle, medieval agriculture, beer
- India to research bees in detail.
- Yak knob to go with your yak milk, sir?
- George Lucas does his bit to conserve a weird cattle breed, the Japanese wagyu. Well, kinda.
- Was the typical English village founded around 900 AD as a result of monastically-driven agricultural innovation?
- Diverse healthy reasons to drink beer; Luigi unavailable for comment.
Unconsidered, unbalanced, unreviewed ideas on local diversity
I do not write as an authority in agriculture or as a geneticist but nothing beats experience!
Of course, if I were into the whole brevity thing I’d just say that Adyeri Kanyaihe is pro locally adapted varieties. In an article on “Uganda’s leading website” Kanyaihe extolls the virtues, as he or she perceives them, of “indigenous seeds”. And to be honest, there’s not a lot wrong with the reasoning Kanyaihe exhibits. But don’t take my word for it. Pop on over to The New Vision and read about the tiny tasty tomato that thrives on hardship.
Tropical beer
You may remember a post a few days ago on how barley is being replaced by sorghum for commercial beer-brewing in West Africa. Coincidentally, Timbuktu Chronicles pointed me to a 2004 paper which evaluated different local replacements for hops. Sorghum-and-cola beer, anyone? Anyone?