- Celebrating Charles Heiser and Bob Chambers.
- Quinoa coming into its own in Bolivia.
- Earthscan and Bioversity International team up for new Issues in Agricultural Biodiversity book series.
- Crop wild relatives not just useful to breeders, eggplant edition.
- Vitamin D 101 in pictures.
- Improving pitaya.
- Cassava production trends in Africa in 28 slides. Twenty slides too many, but it’s always good to have the data.
- Beetroot’s colour deconstructed.
- Worldwatch’s 2011 State of the World was released yesterday. Gives a “compelling look at the global food crisis, with particular emphasis on global innovations that can help solve a worldwide problem.” At $19.95 a pop. But supporting material available. Here comes the commentary.
- The genebank at the UK’s Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council gets its 15 minutes of fame.
Nuts for pears
A funny thing happened to Dave Arnold on his globe-trotting effort to sample the apples of the world: he got waylaid by the pears. What happened next is the subject of a truly wonderful blog post that highlights his enthusiasm and ability to convey subtleties of the eating experience. Not bad for a chap who “helps chefs achieve their most ambitious goals using new technologies, techniques, and ingredients … including sous vide and hydrocolloids”. But of course, a trained mind and a trained palate can tackle anything, to whit:
- Cayuga … tasted of Nik-L-Nips 1
- Hermansverk 1/1 tasted of canned black California olives
- Perdue 41 was a dead ringer for giant water-bug essence
Seriously, this is a tour de force, and you know we don’t use that term lightly. The tragedy is that Brogdale makes next to no use of its riches.
Nibbles: Old fruit, Same fruit, Fruit juice, Dog breeding, Plant Cuttings, Seed storage, Romanian cattle breeds
- REALLY old fruit found in Chinese cellar.
- Marufo the same as Brujidera? Say it ain’t so!
- Rachel Laudan deconstructs a French depiction of cider-making. Well, someone had to.
- Genetic modification dates back to ancient Mexico.
- Rejoice, Plant Cuttings is out!
- Seeds of alpine plants don’t live as long as those of lower altitudes. So how many crop wild relatives are high-altitude species I wonder?
- Get your teeth into the work of the Transylvanian Rare Breeds Association.
Nibbles: Micro-gardens, Bananas, School farm, Tourism, Conservation, Cancun, Rice, DNA, Rice again, Obesity, Coconut
- “It is urgent to mainstream urban and peri-urban horticulture, and to recognize its role as a motor in food security and nutrition strategies.” Course it is.
- Top banana conference opens in Trichy, India.
- School grows more than food; pupils and money too.
- Ford has a great idea: Science Tourism. We’ve done a lot of that ourselves, but never categorized it.
- ICRISAT protects non-agricultural biodiversity shock.
- Cancun and agriculture: poised for success … imperiled … and finally, footnoted.
- Meanwhile, our pals at the Climate Change blog ask the tough questions. Answers on a postcard, please.
- Rice has “difficult” seeds, says Kew.
- Michael Pollan leads the charge for DNA Deniers.
- Popped rice in India, via Mexico.
- Obesity more dangerous to US national security than homosexuality!
- Four paradoxes on the ‘lazy man’s crop’.
Nibbles: Pacific PGR, Millet, Fruits
- Nth regional meeting on Pacific crop genetic resources under way.
- ICRISAT has climate-ready crops. Well, I find that reassuring.
- England has a new fruit genebank. Wait, what? I thought it was having trouble holding on to the old fruit genebank. Rational national system, anyone?