Forests & trees

Nibbles: Meta-blogging, NUS scholarships, Insects & plant diversity, Commons, Trees and diet, Thyme, ABS

Why they blog. At the Agriculture and Ecosystems Blog Agriculture and Ecosystems Blog that is. Can’t help thinking that the media should perhaps be alerted.
Scholarships available at the Crops for the Future Research Centre.
Yes, ok EurekAlert!, we get it , insects are really important to plant diversity.
Yes, ok policy wonks, we get it, it’s really useful to see plant genetic resources as global commons.
More tree cover means more diverse diet in Africa.
Thyme, gentlemen, please.
FAO Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture Ad Hoc Technical Working Group on Access and Benefit-sharing for Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture debates, well, access and benefit-sharing for genetic resources for food and agriculture. In Svalbard, of all places.

Yet another USDA genebank in the news. This time it’s maize.
G20 Agriculture vice-ministers recommend to “Support the development and promotion of a global information sharing system on plant and animal genetic resources.”
Bison returns to Germany.
Learn population genomics of crops and livestock.
Ebony is a pretty old word.
How Salvia got around.

Caribbean coast of Colombia high in cassava genetic diversity. Shakira alerted.
Costa Rica getting to grips with ITPGRFA. Not many people hurt.
Fox News Latino has a dietician tell us about Inca foods. In other news, Fox News has a Latino bit.
Plant Cuttings!
Did you celebrate the International Day of Struggle against Monoculture Tree Plantations? And does what’s happening with açaí qualify as plantations?
The London Olympics backlash begins. If you don’t agree with all that, here’s how to make your own meadow. Or restore one. Any crop wild relatives in all meadow-making?
Nice pic of squash diversity.
Very geeky presentation on how sequencing the wheat genome is going to solve all our problems. If you can follow it, you’re already convinced.
Floating plastic islands full of papyrus plants will save Lake Naivasha. I don’t know, but I’d sure like to see it.

ICRISAT DG agrees with Bioversity DG. Kinda. CGIAR DGs communicating via blog. Who’d have thunk it.
Borlaug Global Rust Initiative gives its first Gene Stewardship Award to Nepali breeders. I wonder if they work with community genebanks at all. Or what they think about them. Or even if they know they are there.
GCARD 2 is coming, socially networked up the wazoo. Be afraid.
Authenticating natural health products via barcoding.
FAO discussion on making agriculture work for nutrition.
Nice photos of wild bees.
Not sure if we already linked to the big report on why biotechnology is not delivering drought-resistant crops.
Meet a Breeder. Conventional, natch.
Who moved my artisanal cheese?
Bird diversity on intensive farms like happy Tolstoyan familes: the same everywhere.
What’s a poor cacao farmer to do? Obey the law and make a loss, or break it in the hope of breaking even?
Kew does the crop wild relatives thing for Plantwise, and check out that picture!
Nature discovers perreniation as salvation of African soils; can resilieficiency be far behind?

Can cultivated species get their own Red List? Stefano Padulosi asks the tough questions.
Açaí: could the wonder fruit also be wonderful for forests? CIFOR asks the tough questions.
And more: You mean you can eat that?
Horticulture has rock stars? My turn to ask the tough questions.
Ok, so what US county is “…a hotbed of diversified, small-scale organic, natural processed food production”? Maybe not so tough.
Will there be a follow-up to Lancet’s 2008 series on malnutrition? That’s an easy one.
Luigi’s mother-in-law asks: Where can I get my hands on that drought-resistant tea?
Got any other questions? World Wide Views on Biodiversity wants to hear from you, this Saturday. (Answers too, I suppose.)