- Status and Trends in Global Ecosystem Services and Natural Capital: Assessing Progress Toward Aichi Biodiversity Target 14. 21 datasets, and the only “state” indicator for the “food” service is fisheries stocks?
- SSR markers reveal the population structure of Sri Lankan yellow dwarf coconuts (Cocos nucifera L.). They’ve been naughty with the talls.
- Identifying attributes of food system sustainability: emerging themes and consensus. Diversity, modularity, transparency, innovation and congruence. You had me at diversity.
- CELL5M: A geospatial database of agricultural indicators for Africa South of the Sahara. 134 data layers for harvested crop area.
- Genetic diversity and population structure analysis to construct a core collection from a large Capsicum germplasm. Based on transcriptome, no less.
- Genetic diversity and structure of the Australian flora. Meta-analysis finds some surprises. But for CWR?
- Securing Crop Genetic Diversity: Reconciling EU Seed Legislation and Biodiversity Treaties. EU seed law is an ass.
- Diversity Among Rice Landraces Under Static (Ex Situ) and Dynamic (On-Farm) Management: A Case from North-Western Indian Himalayas. For two landraces, more alleles per locus in situ compared to ex situ. And?
- Strategies and priorities in field collections for ex situ conservation: the case of the Israel Plant Gene Bank. Sort of a core collection of the whole flora.
- Adaptation Pattern and Genetic Potential of Indian Pearl Millet Named Landraces Conserved at the ICRISAT Genebank. Agronomically derived clusters show geographically structured distributions.
Nibbles: Dog evolution, Horse evolution, African cassava, Jackfruit, Fairtrade quinoa, Editing tomatoes
- Tibetan mastiff precursor got busy with wolves.
- Very few stallions are responsible for domestic horses.
- Workshop on getting the most out of cassava in central Africa. But are they talking about collections?
- Jackfruit is allright.
- Fairtrade keeps youngsters on the (quinoa) farm. But for how long?
- Tweaking tomatoes through gene editing.
Nibbles: Diversification, Street food, Forest genetic units, Citrus greening, COP22 roundup, Australian breeding, Temperate Orchard Society, Quinoa conference
- Diversifying crop production for the SDGs: the view from AVRDC.
- Local bread, in India and Istanbul.
- Foresters get all genetic.
- Winning the battle against citrus greening in Florida.
- Yeah, so what happened in Marrakech?
- Do chickpeas really have the nutritional value of cardboard?
- An apple genebank a day…
- Drawing the International Year of Quinoa to a decorous close.
Coconuts in the news
Hot on the heels of my own short recent piece on the subject of the threats faced by coconuts, which took its inspiration from a Bloomberg article, comes a little note in The Atlantic, and a much fuller and better illustrated take on the story by someone who really knows the crop, Roland Bourdeix of CIRAD. And now even an interview on the BBC World Service. Something in the water, no doubt.
Brainfood: Sustainable ag, American ag diversity, Valpolicella and CC, Heritage textiles
- Diversification, Yield and a New Agricultural Revolution: Problems and Prospects. It’s not about the yield.
- Spatiotemporal Patterns of Field Crop Diversity in the United States, 1870–2012. It peaked in 1960. Like Elvis.
- Resistance and resilience to changing climate of Tuscany and Valpolicella wine grape growing regions in Italy. Should they ever decide to move those grapes, now they know where to.
- Conservation and Valorization of Heritage Ethnographic Textiles. Like Neolithic beer, only with textiles. Hemp for IPK and VIR genebanks used to conserve and restore old Romanian shirts etc. hed by the National Museum of the Romanian Peasant.