Forests & trees

Nibbles: Mashua info, Veggies programme, Rice research, Genomes!, Indian malnutrition, Forest map, British agrobiodiversity hero, GMO “debate”, Lactose tolerance, Beer

New Year Resolution No. 1: Take the mashua survey.
New Year Resolution No. 2: Give the Food Programme a break, it can be not bad. As in the case of the recent episode featuring Irish Seed Savers and the only uniquely British veg.
New Year Resolution No. 3: Learn to appreciate hour-plus talks by CG Centre DGs. And other publicity stunts…
New Year Resolution No. 4: Give a damn about the next genome. Well, actually…
New Year Resolution No. 5: Try to understand what people think may be going on with malnutrition in India. If anything.
New Year Resolution No. 6: Marvel at new maps without fretting about how difficult to use they may be.
New Year Resolution No. 7: Do not snigger at the British honours system.
New Year Resolution No. 8: Disengage from the whole are-GMOs-good-or-bad? thing. It’s the wrong question, and nobody is listening anyhow.
New Year Resolution No. 9: Ignore the next lactose tolerance evolution story. They’re all the same.
New Year Resolution No. 10: Stop obsessing about beer. But not yet. No, not yet.
Happy 2013!

The most beautiful rice farm in the world. No, wait.
Jasmine tea gets protection. But does it need it? Let’s ask the South Africans what they’re doing with their tea.
Today’s funny fruit picture. Think it’s one of these Cuban mutants?
How many micronutrients in a Mexican Christmas dinner? And how many in a British one, featuring parsnips of course.
People’s University has online Appreciation Programme on Sustainable Management of Biodiversity starting January 2013.
First farmers were first carpenters.
And today’s genome story is very seasonally appropriate. Oh no, here’s another one!
Malaysia implements the ITPGRFA. Cool, but why is that even news?
School sends okra seeds to Haiti. But… No, I’m not playing the Grinch on this one, it’s too sweet.

Cassava gets a makeover in Brazil. And another, of a different kind, in East Africa.
Revolution turns into Terror. Where’s our Napoleon?
Designating Costa Rican cheese.
Conserving poverty?
No poverty for bean breeders in the US.
The uses of Oregon Grape. Which is of course not a grape.
Chaffey Style.
Coconut water is a major conservation issue for 2013. It says here.
Fewer farmers, more fires. In the Amazon. It says here.
Yeah, what is balsam anyway?
So the Next Big Thing in African ag development is agricultural growth corridors. What could possibly go wrong? Will they learn from wildlife corridors? Will they be using these four apparently key technologies? Or bolstering extension? And will it all mean a decrease in bush meat consumption?
Heritage foods book. Yummie.
Like potatoes in Peru, I guess. And various street foods in West Africa.
Conference on native seed use in the US. Probably even some crop wild relatives in there.

Fir trees holding their value. It must be Christmas.
Mistletoe is good for trees. Is it still Christmas?
An indicator framework for assessing agroecosystem resilience. Santa is being good to us this year.
“Banana-shaped” takes on a whole new meaning.
How to do crowdsourcing, right? Right!
How to write good about agricultural research.
Testing other kinds of grain and other kinds of bread.
The East African Regional Intellectual Property Organisation comes in for some stick over draft policy on plant variety protection laws. This deserves way more than a Nibble. Perhaps some well-informed policy wonks will chime in.
Blame 18th century Japanese rice traders for the futures markets.
Who do I blame for Cassavabase?