- Early Neolithic (ca. 5850-4500 cal BC) agricultural diffusion in the Western Mediterranean: An update of archaeobotanical data in SW France. Agriculture came to southern France from southern Italy around 5700 BC, initially focusing on hulled wheats, then transitioned to naked cereals as it moved inland.
- Improved feeding and forages at a crossroads: Farming systems approaches for sustainable livestock development in East Africa. Adoption of tropical forages at scale can make a big difference to livelihoods in East Africa, but will need careful consideration of agroecological and socioeconomic settings. My mother-in-law unavailable for comment.
- Comprehensive 3D phenotyping reveals continuous morphological variation across genetically diverse sorghum inflorescences. Fancy gadgets and maths show that botanical sorghum races overlap more in morphology than genetics.
- Using clear plastic CD cases as low‐cost mini‐rhizotrons to phenotype root traits. Now do roots.
- A 1000-year-old mystery solved: Unlocking the molecular structure for the medieval blue from Chrozophora tinctoria, also known as folium. 6′-hydroxy-4,4′-dimethoxy-1,1′-dimethyl-5′-{[3,4,5-trihydroxy-6-(hydroxymethyl)tetrahydro-2H-pyran-2-yl]oxy}-[3,3′-bipyridine]-2,2′,5,6(1H,1′H)-tetraone, if you must know.
- Generating a rule-based global gridded tillage dataset. The most amazing thing about this is that there are only 6 types of tillage.
- The global cropland-sparing potential of high-yield farming. We could give up 40% of current farmland if yields of 16 major crops were higher. Unclear what all those farmers would do. Or what kind of tillage they would use.
- Local food crop production can fulfil demand for less than one-third of the population. Still going to need global supply chains.
- Regional differences in agricultural and socioeconomic factors associated with farmer household dietary diversity in India. And national supply chains for that matter.
- Influences of Ingredients and Bakers on the Bacteria and Fungi in Sourdough Starters and Bread. Bakers are part of bread.
- Strategies for reducing per‐sample costs in target capture sequencing for phylogenomics and population genomics in plants. Down to $22 per sample, if you play your cards right.
- Evolutionary insights into plant breeding. When you’ve played those cards, target selective sweeps for introgression, among other things. Oh, and gene editing. Here, read these tweets from one of the authors.
From Collection to Cultivation
Applications are invited for two Research Associate positions, each with a fixed-term of 36 months, working on a Wellcome Trust-funded project on the recent histories of food, agriculture, and crop science to start on 1 September 2020 (or as soon as possible thereafter). The successful candidates will be based in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science (HPS) at the University of Cambridge and will be collaborators in the research project “From Collection to Cultivation: Historical Perspectives on Crop Diversity and Food Security” led by Dr Helen Anne Curry.
If only I were younger…
Nibbles: Costs edition
- What should food cost? Enough to support genebanks and breeding, natch.
- What would sustainable coffee cost? Including genebanks and breeding, I hope.
- And sustainable bananas? Including genebanks and breeding, of course.
Nibbles: CGN, Software, Foods, MSB, Old date, Cacao lab, Cherokee seeds, Data viz, Popmillets
- New-look website for the Dutch genebank.
- Software for germplasm management.
- 198 countries, 198 fave foods.
- A visit to the MSB. With video goodness.
- Cherokee Nation sends sacred seeds to Svalbard. No video yet.
- Update on that 2000-year-old date.
- UC Davis gets a new cacao lab from Mars. Maybe a genebank next?
- Plot your data online, why don’t you.
- Puffing up millets.
Want to document the economic impact of genebanks?
The Crop Trust, through the CGIAR Genebank Platform, is recruiting 5 fellows in 2020 for the ‘Genebank Impacts Fellowship’. The goal is to document the economic importance of conserving the diversity of plant genetic resources held in the international genebanks. Through this, we hope to raise awareness of the value of genebanks among users, donors, and other stakeholders.
The outputs of the previous cohort of fellows can be found on the website of the Genebank Platform.
Details here. Deadline for applications is Friday, 28 February 2020.