- “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?
3D trees in Google Earth
The latest version of Google Earth has 3D trees! Just a few cities’ parks, a couple of wild sites (rainforest, mangroves…) and a reforestation project for now, but surely more to come.
I look forward to seeing the world’s great field genebanks in 3D in due course, such as the coconut genebank in Ivory Coast or the Breadfruit Institute’s collection in Hawaii. And maybe eventually even smaller ones, such as this fruit collection I visited last week in Tajikistan.
But maybe we could start with Pavlovsk?
Tajik apple diversity
Compare and contrast with some Italian varieties.
Italian fruit diversity on display
I really hate to be a cynical old sourpuss, ((No you don’t. Ed.)) but I suspect the most interesting thing about today’s High Level Round Table on the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture at FAO ((Which, incidentally, is on at the same time as the International Symposium on “Food and nutrition security: food-based approaches for improving diets and raising levels of nutrition.” Well, maybe it’s deliberate.)) may well be the display of Italian fruit diversity put on by the Centro di Ricerca per la Frutticoltura.
