Forests & trees

Nibbles: Camel, Maya forestry, Ancient barley, Cattle diversity, Poisons, Agroforestry Congress, Lactase persistence

Wild camel genetically distinct from the domesticated kind. Well I never.
Maya tapped into their “sacred groves” to build temples, which did not end well.
Boffins extract DNA from ancient barley in Upper Egypt, find it was 2-rowed, but derived from a 6-rowed ancestor. No word on whether it was used to make beer, but my guess is yes.
Large Y chromosome microsatellite study of Eurasian cattle does “not support the recent hypothesis on the origin of Y1 from the local European hybridization of cattle with male aurochsen.” This could run and run.
I like this idea: a garden of poisons.
Agroforestry’s coming-of-age party coming up. You going? Let us know.
Multiple explanations for lactase persistence.

Brewer Gino Perisutti’s Blonde PEFC Mountain Pale Lager contains spruce bark, mountain pine buds and Scots pine needles from PEFC-certified forests.

I’m trying to obtain a sample for review.

Chocolate made from camel milk for the first time. And last?
“Slow rusting” genes from Ethiopian wheat landraces.
Brits (and Yanks, for that matter) look for ancient trees in woodlands becoming ever less distinctive.
The world needs GM rice, but alas “the environment for accepting genetically modified crops is not as good as it should be.” Meanwhile, IRRI keeps hammering away at drought tolerance and resistance to other assorted stresses. It’s hard being rice.
ICAR looks at the likely effects of climate change on crops and what can be done about it.
Climate change making Soay sheep (and, incidentally, European fish too) not just smaller, also darker. Speaking of fish, there’s trouble in the Zambezi too, but not necessarily due to climate change. Although…
A Greek seed bazaar.
FAO turns to barn owls to stop Laotian rodent plague.
US food policy destinations on Google Maps.
Vermicomposting is good news for the Indian textile industry. Vermicomposting: I like saying that word.

Climate change shrinking sheep, exploding insect populations.
Japanese boffins sequencing tuna genome, planning super-tuna. Godzilla unavailable for comment.
Birds eat beetles which eat seeds. So no birds, no forest. Such is the wonderful web of life.
Buffalo cloning and its future. But what is that guy in the picture doing?