- Another nail in the coffin of Cartesian dualism in conservation? Yeah, right. Oooooh, here’s another. What next? Conservation-vs-use to bite the dust?
- Now here’s a thing. Priority setting in conservation for plants in Turkey and sheep in Ethiopia. Compare and contrast.
- “Bad-ass eco warrior” quoted on … apples.
- Invasive species can be good … when they are sunflower wild relatives.
- Pests and diseases: “New solutions could include novel resistant cultivars with multiple resistance genes, suitable epigenetic imprints and improved defence responses that are induced by attack.” I’ll get right on that. And more from Food Security.
- Rare Ethiopian honey becoming rarer.
- Also rare are micro-breweries in Africa. Alas.
- Volcano bad for British diet. And Kenyan jobs.
- So let them drink camel milk!
- Conference on Sustainable Animal Production in the Tropics. Doesn’t sound like much fun? It’s in Guadeloupe!
- And, there will probably be photographs of bulls of “stunning scrotal circumference.” Convinced yet?
- “Rios won for his work promoting a return to more traditional farming techniques focusing on seed diversity, crop rotation and the use of organic pest control and fertilizers to both increase crops and improve the communist-led island’s environment.”
- Our friend Anastasia does Seed Magazine: “Until broader efforts to reduce poverty can take hold, crops with improved nutrients could be very important in reducing death and disease caused by nutrient deficiencies.”
UK public asked to forget election, map cherries instead
In another example of “citizen science” the Natural History Museum in the UK is enlisting the help of the public in a survey of cherry trees.
The results will produce a map of cherry tree locations and their flowering and fruiting timings. It will give scientists a better insight into the cherry tree population and help them find out how climate change may be affecting the flowering and fruiting times.
You can read all about it on the NHM’s website, and follow progress on a handy map.
As I’ve probably said here before, I think this sort of approach could work really well with heirloom varieties. But I imagine not as many people will be interested in oats as in cherries.
Nibbles: Aubergines, Opuntia, Amazonian ag, Kenya, Swiflets, Coconut and Web 2.0, PROTA, Mexico, Fruit wild relatives
- More either-or stuff from the Guardian on the Indian GM brijal story.
- The USDA prickly pear cactus germplasm collection gets some exposure. And how many times can one say that.
- Much better title from Discover on that ancient northern Amazonian earthworks story.
- Kenyan foresters tell people to eat bamboo. Luigi’s mother-in-law politely demurs. On the other hand, she might like this.
- Swiflet farming? Swiflet farming.
- Really heated exchange on paper on coconut lethal yellowing in Yucatan develops on Google Groups. I love the internet.
- PROTA publishes expensive book on promising African plants. Promises, promises. NASA promised us the personal jetpack. Where are we with that?
- Nice summary of that Mesoamerican agricultural origins story we blogged briefly about a few days ago. So what exactly do you call hunter-gatherers who also grow crops?
- First International Symposium on Wild Relatives of Subtropical and Temperate Fruit and Nut Crops will be held March 19-23, 2011 in Davis, California on the campus of the University of California, Davis. Book early.
Nibbles: Peach genome, P, Marine protected areas
- Size isn’t everything, genome edition.
- Nutrient efficiency of agriculture, phosphorus edition.
- Win-wins, fisheries edition.
Nibbles: Apples, Mango, Atlas, Cheese
- NY Times touts heirloom apple book.
- Coca Cola to help Haitian mango farmers.
- Nature Conservancy launches online Atlas of Global Conservation. No agriculture, natch.
- Promoting Mediterranean cheese.