Forests & trees

April 20, 2009January 21, 2020

Nibbles: Pepper, Persimmons, Prosopis, Bio-banking

Is Kampot pepper the best in the world?
How the Japanese deal with persimmons.
Making the Atacama bloom. Sort of.
Bio-banking is all well and good, but will it be applicable to agrobiodiversity as well as orchids and pandas?

Wouldn’t you know it. That Kampot pepper link has rotted away. But you can still find the original thanks to The Wayback Machine.

April 17, 2009June 28, 2009

Nibbles: Taro, NTFP, Maca, Perils of new crops, Nabhan, Cockfighting, Old wine, Maya nut, Cassava Brown Streak Virus

University of Hawaii’s work on taro summarized.
Watch out for FAO’s new NWFP-Digest. Non-timber, non-wood; what’s the difference?
The transition of maca from neglect to market prominence. Free download.
Maize and malaria in Ethiopia.
Gary Nabhan interviewed. Again.
NPR on the limits of the Green Revolution.
Cocks still fighting in India.
The early Egyptians “…were very aware of the benefits that natural additives can haveâ€”especially if dissolved into an alcoholic medium, like wine or beer.”
Brosimum alicastrum to the rescue.
Uganda’s biofuel hopes dashed by virus? Say it aint so.

April 9, 2009April 14, 2009

Nibbles: French fries, Maple syrup, Cooking heirlooms, Salmon, Ancient booze, Rice domestication

India finally arrives, gets french fries.
Sophisticated urbanites tap maples.
Raise a rare heirloom breed. Then cook it.
“Some might be hoping he will predict a return to the glory days of the “truly unique” strain of Petitcodiac salmon, which now likely exists only in a gene bank at the Mactaquac Fish Hatchery at this point.”
Boffins identify world’s first cocktail.
How people turned from nut collectors into rice farmers in China.
Hungarians sacrificed dogs.

April 7, 2009April 7, 2009

More complex, more interesting, more hopeful

There is simply no way to summarize Willie Smits‘ Ted Talk. It is a masterful description of putting the complexity in an agricultural ecosystem to work to solve the problems of humans and orang-utans. Just astonishing. And so much more intellectually satisfying than a simplified system. Luscious.

March 25, 2009March 25, 2009

Nibbles: Adaptation, Vegetables, Wood, Allotment, Earthworms, Salmon, Bees, Malaria, Potatoes, Apples

ICRISAT: “The impact of climate change on the yields under low input agriculture is likely to be minimal as other factors will continue to provide the overriding constraints to crop growth and yield.” So that’s all right then.
Book and CD-ROM on African indigenous veggies.
CD-ROM of wood characteristics.
The agrobiodiversity of “…the oldest and largest area of detached town gardens in Britain” being surveyed. Cultivated since 1605. Wow.
Earthworm Week! Yay!
“This is an exciting time for salmon conservation in the Pahsimeroi.”
Hawaiian native bees in trouble. Get in line.
The world has a malaria map. Very cool.
The Canary Islands tries to save its potatoes, sweet and otherwise.
The Forgotten Fruits Summit. You heard me.