- Sturgeon being farmed in Vietnam. What could possibly go wrong?
- Ghanaians eating all their greens to fight malnutrition.
- ICRAF goes to town on fruit trees. Well, I call that a pretty balanced and nutritious meal so far.
Capt Bligh’s biopiracy medal to be sold
Speaking of breadfruit, two of Capt Bligh’s medals are up for auction. One of them was awarded by the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, later the Royal Society of Arts, for taking breadfruit from Tahiti to the West Indies in 1794.
As you’ll remember, that enterprise did not start well. But Bligh did not let a little thing like a mutiny stop him, and threw in Blighia to boot.
By February 1793 the breadfruit mission had been accomplished. Bligh also took specimens of the ackee fruit (Genus Blighia) of Jamaica to England and introduced it to the Royal Society and provided specimens for the Royal Botanical Garden at Kew. The Genus Blighia, which consists of some four specimens of evergreen tropical shrubs and trees, is named in William Bligh’s honour. The most commonly cultivated of these is the Blighia sapida.
But would it have killed them to put breadfruit leaves on the thing, really? Or Blighia leaves for that matter.
Feeding Pacific voyagers
A rainbow appeared in the sky, its end grounded firmly in the wharekai (food tent) set up and run by the wonderful people here. Small specks of the late afternoon sun drifted around us, light golden rain, as the skippers sat in counsel. “Basically,” Magnus was saying, “we go north for a while and then turn right.” Highly technical stuff only grasped fully by the trained mind. “Umm…yeah, okay.” We all agreed.
“Here” is Kaua’i, oldest of the Hawaiian islands, and the skippers and their crews of Pacific islanders are “sailing across the Pacific to renew our ties to the sea and its life-sustaining strength.” But they also needed something a little more solid in the way of sustenance, of course, hence the wharekai. And here’s what that looks like.
The photo comes from Angela Tillson of the Breadfruit Institute. I’ll let her tell the story.
Yes, the Breadfruit Institute donated about 20 breadfruit of different varieties for their voyage back to S.F. When they landed on Kauai, they were asking for breadfruit to eat and take with them. They were very happy since there were really no Hawaiian breadfruit fruiting this time of the year here. I took it down to their base camp on Hanalei Bay and as a Thank you for it, they let me go for a sail on the Samoan Canoe with the rest of the Hawaiian Helpers. What an honor and dream come true that was for me…!
You have no idea what a “HIGH” & “Bliss” state I’ve been since Sunday, with that mind blowing experience of leisurely talking to different
key crew members of the Vakas about their experiences, reasons, and
visions for this world crossing educational voyaging… And than finding out we could go sailing for Helping out with Breadfruit… We all 50 locals had a Blast time on such a perfect day… We were all in Heaven on Earth just like in ancient times, with only the basics… Seeing adults & kids faces light up in awe once boarding the canoes, watching everything the sailing crew did and listening to the incredible stories. WOW…
Brainfood: Tomato erosion, Cassava starch, Landscape diversity, American chestnut, Niche models, Dormancy genes, Herbarium collections, Indian livestock breeding, Banana breeding, Pollinators, Shattering gene, Participatory research
- The risks of success in quality vegetable markets: Possible genetic erosion in Marmande tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum L.) and consumer dissatisfaction. Market takes the fun out of landraces.
- Genetic variability of root peel thickness and its influence in extractable starch from cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) roots. Starch content depends on dry matter content and peel thickness. About 1500 accessions from CIAT evaluated for the latter, so lots to play around with.
- A meta-analysis of crop pest and natural enemy response to landscape complexity. More landscape complexity means more natural enemies. Still no cure for cancer.
- American Chestnut past and future: Implications of restoration for resource pulses and consumer populations of eastern U.S. forests. Reintroduction of blight-resistant chestnut may have some weird effects on other species.
- Keep collecting: accurate species distribution modelling requires more collections than previously thought. Oh damn.
- Variation in seed dormancy quantitative trait loci in Arabidopsis thaliana originating from one site. Is due to two QTLs. Also flowering time. But no, I don’t understand that “In contrast…” at the end of the abstract either.
- Tracking origins of invasive herbivores through herbaria and archival DNA: the case of the horse-chestnut leaf miner. Another use for old herbarium specimens: finding evidence of pests.
- Animal breeding in India – a time for reflection, and action. The reflection is that genetic improvement has stagnated, so the action needed includes better phenotypic record keeping, more attention to local diversity and community-breeding programmes.
- Performance of micropropagation-induced off-type of East African highland banana (Musa AAA – East Africa). A promising avenue for improvement, the off-types yield more better bananas, a month later.
- Pollination services in the UK: How important are honeybees? Not as important as you might think!
- The same regulatory point mutation changed seed-dispersal structures in evolution and domestication. Cabbage-family fruit development and rice shattering share the same single point mutation.
- Participatory research and on-farm management of agricultural biodiversity in Europe. By Michel “Pimpert”. That should be Pimbert. Old news, but worth mentioning.
Nibbles: FAO, Spirituality, ASARECA, Land use, Conservation agriculture, REDD, Colombian beans, Immigrant cooking, Exploding watermelons, AnGR
- Calestous Juma gives new FAO head some advice: find a role, build on what farmers do and know, engage civil society, help governments prioritize, and slash bureaucracy.
- Religion and conservation: friends of enemies?
- Eastern Africa Agricultural Productivity Project seems to be mainly about setting up regional centres of excellence in dairy, cassava, rice and wheat. Maybe ASARECA should ask for some advice from Prof. Juma?
- Land use map of the UK. Let the mash-upping begin.
- Training in sustainable conservation agriculture in India and Mexico. But how really sustainable is the whole thing if based on modern varieties? Oh, and Brazil too.
- Saving the Amazon for $33 a month.Or maybe just a buck?
- Local cooking a long way from home, Part I; from Colombia to Washington DC.
- Local cooking a long way from home, Part II; from everywhere to New York’s Lower East Side.
- Don’t worry, exploding watermelons are perfectly safe, and legal.
- FAO updates its webpage on “Implementing the Global Plan of Action for Animal Genetic Resources” and documents the fact by providing a time stamp. Jeremy chuffed.