Cooking

Nibbles: Chillies, Catfish, Blight, Beef, Svalbard, Biofortification, Agriculture and health book, Ahipa, GBIF, Pacific grape and nuts, Cassava and marriage, Amazon, Lost genebanks, Vietnamese food, Yoghurt

Another use for chillies: keeping errant apes away.
Catfish are the new tilapia.
New fungicide-resistant strain of potato late blight found in UK. (How do they name these things?)
The chickenization of the US beef industry, on NPR. Salutary.
The Seed Warrior of Svalbard gets over-exposed.
What HarvestPlus is doing on each of its crops, in a handy brochure. And more on the same subject but a different crop from Bill Gates himself.
But that’s just one aspect of the relationship between agriculture and nutrition/health. Right? Right.
You also need dietary diversification, right? Right.
What’s that you say? Biodiversity databasing need not be hellish?
Danny waxes nostalgic about Wallis and Futuna grapes. He and I also met a few nuts in the Pacific in our time. Grape-nuts. Geddit?
Latest Plant Cuttings includes big piece on cassava.
And you can put that in an ecological context.
Do you have a forgotten germplasm collection?
Vietnam gets its first EU Geographic Indication. Can’t help thinking it need not have bothered.
Greek yoghurt, on the other hand…

Microbiologist makes Guardians of Microbial Diversity award. Agromicrobes awaited.
Fabulous giant new superinteresting megablog scheduled to launch today. No RSS. ~~Yet?~~
Who likes which yams (by which they mean Dioscorea) in Madagascar? Kew will have answers.
Genetic diversity invades the zeitgeist, or something.
Or would you prefer something a little more down to earth?
Oldest ploughed fields in Czech lands.
Crazy mixed up report on this weeks new genebank, in ~~Oman~~ Qatar. “Up to 10,000 genes”? Be still my beating heart.
Ich bin ein coco-de-mer-nut.
Heat speeds up wheat aging. I know how it feels.
A “Starbucks Of Tortillas”? Sounds worse than it is.
Welcome news of fundamental work on a “minor” millet.
IITA goes to jail.
Genetically modifying cannabis to make it safe to eat. Such a bad idea. On so many levels.

My favorite agriculture blogs. Can you say “parochial”?
Want to track Geographical Indicators? Look no further.
India’s agriculture magazine tackles Agro-Biodiversity For Food Security.
And GFAR promotes a new initiative to realise the benefits of agrobiodiversity. Love is all around.
National Plant Genetics Resources Laboratory (NPGRL) at the University of the Philippines at Los Baños checks in to rehab.
Bioversity scientist plays with fire, for better and more diverse forest regeneration.
Mutation breeding; Matt explains the lack of breakthroughs in a bit more detail.
Fabulous, complex story of spiders, flies and microbes. Add ’em together for green flypaper.

Predators hunt for a balanced diet. So it’s not just people?
Seeds of High Asia. Saudi Aramco World gives respect to the seed hunters.
Obscure crops and an obscure book. Dorian Fuller gives respect to the neglected.
“For the time being, I genuinely believe we must maintain yield growth, but we need to ensure that we preserve the natural capital for the future.” UK Food Security Czar speaks.
Indian PM mea culpa on malnutrition. Will he listen to the above? Would it help?
Beer in Ireland. Not Guinness. I may be gone some time.
Nordics discuss AnGR and climate change. Successfully, natch.
Prosecco runs to the IPR ramparts.
Video on growing Artemisia to fight poverty.
Help the CGIAR with its tagline. Beyond irony.

Meet my two best friends, Jack and Daniel.
How to design sustainable intensification projects.
All about the Aussie PGR “system.” What’s that you say? They need another genebank?
I just know you want to go to the Global Conference on Women in Agriculture.
If that doesn’t grab you, perhaps Denver Botanic Garden’s series of booktalks will. Tea & sushi, anyone?
New FAO DG pushes all right buttons except for agrobiodiversity. Which is left for others at FAO to push.