- Do you have a nutrition success story? Asking for IFPRI.
- What, another “Tree of 40 Fruit”?
- Bee expert Prof. Dave Goulson is a BBC conservation hero.
- Pre-Neolithic hunter-gatherers did some sort of semi-cultivation of some plants, in one place, at one time, maybe.
- Anthropogenic environmental change affecting pollinators and crop zinc levels shock.
- Video on biodiversity loss mentions crop diversity shock.
Nibbles: Oz vineyard apocalypse, California vineyards redux, Ethiopian genebank, Maya collapse revisionism, SunBlack tomato, Nutritious staples, Citrus endowment, Sheep pix
- In Australia, they’re ripping up vineyards.
- Whereas in California, they’re going to breed 10,000 new grape varieties and make a new wine. Go figure.
- Interview with the director of the Ethiopian national genebank, Dr Gemedo Dalle.
- Deforestation et al. not responsible for Maya collapse after all. Jared Diamond unavailable for comment.
- Black tomato a hit in Italy. Looks crap on pizza though.
- The case for biofortification.
- University of Florida sets up endowment to protect its research groves in face of citrus greening.
- Googlesheepview. Nuff said.
Searching for Rose Honey
We have on occasion blogged about “European” crops (and indeed livestock) being grown far from home, and how that sometimes serves to save varieties that have, for whatever reason, been lost back in the old country. Here’s another example, courtesy of the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) and its newsletter.
Ci Zhong, a Tibetan-Naxi village nestled in the Upper Mekong Valley, is renowned for its Catholic Church, which was built by French missionaries in 1914 AD. The French brought the first grape vine to the valley at about the same time. Ci Zhong locals inherited the techniques of vineyard cultivation and wine making from the French and do not use synthetic fertilizers or pesticides in their fields. Today, they are still growing the grape variety, Rose Honey, brought by the French a century ago. This grape variety has already died out in the rest of the world, due to a disease that wiped out almost all grape plantations in Europe at the time. About 160 kilometres north along the valley, the Naxi people of Bamei village have also starting cultivating a variety of grapes — Cabernet Sauvignon.
I can’t be sure about the statement that Rose Honey is extinct (except for its foothold in the Upper Mekong, that is) but that’s certainly what the internet seems to think. And I could’t find it in the European Vitis Database or the Vitis International Variety Catalogue or the US collection. But who knows, maybe it survives in some Baja mission oasis or Cape homegarden? In the meantime, I wonder if the French are going to ask for repatriation.
Nibbles: Blueberry genebank, Reviving millets, Alternative rubber, Agave fuel, Breeding coffee, Poisonous plants
- Gorge on blueberries.
- Lunch on millets.
- Bet on guayule.
- Run on agave.
- Pray for coffee.
- Watch out for Sandy Knapp.
Nibbles: Seeds app, Ruminant breeding, Minor crops, Forage grass, Cereals scholarships, Tasty sweetpotatoes
- Choose the right seeds. For Kenya.
- Cross the right goats. In Kenya.
- Eat the right underutilized crops. In Kenya.
- Grow the right Brachiaria. In Kenya.
- Pick the right people. From Kenya.
- Breed the right, i.e. tasty, sweetpotatoes. In Kenya. And elsewhere, admittedly.