Forests & trees

Nibbles: Yams, Agrobiodiversity, Melons, Cacao, Biotropica, Food, Seed saving, Rice pix, Mongolian livestock, Gums

IITA set to expand its ability to provide the world with yam diversity.
“Agricultural biodiversity is essential for farmers as it places them in a better position to manage climate change.” Wait, what?
An exotic melon is found in Birmingham, UK. But can you make juice from its seeds?
James dissects the latest genome announcement: cacao. Ignore the press release, just read this.
Biotropica has a special issue on biodiversity. Even some agrobiodiversity.
The history of food consumption in the 20th century. Scary reading.
New Internationalist magazine has a special issue on seed saving! But only a couple of articles available online, alas.
Wonderful photos of the rice harvest from Flickr.
Mongolian cashmere can only get more expensive.
Australians have more to cope with than a back-stabbing prime minister, it seems. Their eucalypts are in trouble. Something to do with fire, maybe.

Good COP, bad COP? Registration opens for Agriculture and Rural Development Day 2010, at COP16, the Climate Change COP.
Maya in Haiti? Jamaica? Institute expands its reach.
India considering making the right to food an actual right to food. But how?
Science magazine shares the Pav-Love-sk.
“From 28 August to 3 October, the Curried Sausage Field is open to visitors on Diedersdorfer Weg in Berlin. This is BfR’s second didactic plant labyrinth.” Don’t even ask.
Bananas for juice. Power type juice.
New book explores history, future of international agriculture. Anyone reading it?
Hear Bioversity’s DG warn Pacific islanders of fast food health risks.
“Without the yeast, beer would be nonalcoholic and noncarbonated.” Yeah, but then what would be the point? The Ecological Society of America considers beer — and issues a delightful apology.
Video on saving Ankole cattle.
Amphibians find it hard to move higher in response to climate change. And plants? Crops? Wild relatives? Has anyone done the modelling?
The pristine Amazon. Not.
Wild tomatoes and drought.
The best plants for pollinators.
When are different crops sown around the world? Gotta love meta-analyses.
Apparently conservationists interested in the economics of it all must abandon the “straightjacket of the Walrasian core.” So now there’s no excuse.

17 years of data confirm fears of bee decline.
Slideshow on Egyptian Deserts Genebank; prepare to be astounded.
Slideshow on US National Plant Germplasm System; prepare to be even more astounded.
Livestock and climate change, a background paper from ILRI.
“Most new farmland comes from cutting tropical forest.” The good news: it’s corporate, so can be pressured to stop.

Irish Times does seed saving, well.
Australia too considers genebanks. In depth.
“[T]he largest private collection of wild trees in Britain.” All grown from seed.
James and the Giant Corn gives you the straight dope on the wheat genome … so we don’t have to. Thanks.
Swiddeners can help with reforestation?
KIT tells us all about how to make spices sustainable.

Best round up yet of what’s happening at Pavlovsk Experiment Station.
Nature’s report on Pavlovsk is good too.
Pavlovsk making waves in India too. S.Ananthanarayanan shares a write-up in The Statesman, Kolkata.
More on that Chinese insect-eating fungus, or Chinese Love Flower. Yuck.
A one-woman crusade for traditional African leafy vegetables. Right.
Breadfruit trees in Jamaica. From the Trees that Feed Foundation, a new one on me.