- Berry-go-Round No. 35 is up (and has been for weeks) with Christmas tree goodness and The Vegetable Orchestra.
- Today’s overinflated genome claim is for strawberries.
- Wheat (breeders) can weather climate change, say scientists.
- “Is Malawi’s ‘green revolution’ a model for Africa?” asks BBC News. “Maybe, maybe not,” answers Luigi.
- Grist’s millers recommend books about food and agriculture.
Nibbles: Old fruit, Same fruit, Fruit juice, Dog breeding, Plant Cuttings, Seed storage, Romanian cattle breeds
- REALLY old fruit found in Chinese cellar.
- Marufo the same as Brujidera? Say it ain’t so!
- Rachel Laudan deconstructs a French depiction of cider-making. Well, someone had to.
- Genetic modification dates back to ancient Mexico.
- Rejoice, Plant Cuttings is out!
- Seeds of alpine plants don’t live as long as those of lower altitudes. So how many crop wild relatives are high-altitude species I wonder?
- Get your teeth into the work of the Transylvanian Rare Breeds Association.
Nibbles: Micro-gardens, Bananas, School farm, Tourism, Conservation, Cancun, Rice, DNA, Rice again, Obesity, Coconut
- “It is urgent to mainstream urban and peri-urban horticulture, and to recognize its role as a motor in food security and nutrition strategies.” Course it is.
- Top banana conference opens in Trichy, India.
- School grows more than food; pupils and money too.
- Ford has a great idea: Science Tourism. We’ve done a lot of that ourselves, but never categorized it.
- ICRISAT protects non-agricultural biodiversity shock.
- Cancun and agriculture: poised for success … imperiled … and finally, footnoted.
- Meanwhile, our pals at the Climate Change blog ask the tough questions. Answers on a postcard, please.
- Rice has “difficult” seeds, says Kew.
- Michael Pollan leads the charge for DNA Deniers.
- Popped rice in India, via Mexico.
- Obesity more dangerous to US national security than homosexuality!
- Four paradoxes on the ‘lazy man’s crop’.
A brave new world for crop wild relatives
Thanks to Dr Brian Ford-Lloyd of the University of Birminghan in the UK for the following contribution.
A ground breaking publication in Nature Genetics points to the future for the genetic evaluation of crop wild relative germplasm. A group of Chinese scientists have used Illumina Next Generation Resequencing to produce whole genome sequences of 17 wild species of soybean. Only 17 wild species? But this is just the start for evaluating crop wild relatives on a completely different level than before — adding a different perspective to the analysis of genetic diversity, the identification of important adaptive differences between species, and locating novel allelic variation that can be used in crop improvement. One important result from the work is that they uncovered genetic variation in the wild species that has been clearly lost in cultivated material.
Nibbles: Caucasus, Disease, Pork, Nepali genebank, Rare Breeds, Climate
- All hail the garden of agrobiodiversity that is the Southern Caucasus, says FAO.
- Paywalled Nature paper links biodiversity with disease spread — even in agriculture. Get it here.
- Roman pig yields the secrets of tasty pork — in about another 2000 years.
- Nepal’s genebank goes from strength to strength.
- Rare Breeds Survival Trust gets lifetime achievement award. Good to gnaw.
- “It’s high time the ancestral knowledge possessed by small farmers and indigenous people was appreciated at its true value.” Climate change edition.