- FAO really very worried about cassava. Does it know that the CGIAR has the technology?
- In today’s “crop X domesticated earlier than usually thought” story, X = soybean.
- The Deccan Chronicle discovers the Bitter Gourd Project and likes what it sees.
- How to drought phenotype crops.
- The Christensen Fund has a position open for a Program Associate – Agrobiodiversity and Biocultural Landscapes. Damn, that sounds interesting.
- “But, miraculously, the Ghost Turkey survives.”
- Eurisco has a new website!
- Artisanal wheat on the rise. I love the quip in the caption.
- Vancouver ♥ Millennium Seed Bank, and fawns over faux royalty.
- Amaranth and pizza offer entreés to culture and politics.
Nibbles: Gums & resins, ITPGRFA, Soy sauce, Med diet, Aquaculture, Cacao, Sugar industry, Nomenclature, Yam (Chinese), Urban agriculture
- After yesterday’s thing on gum arabic, CIFOR’s blogger weighs in on frankincense and myrrh. Gums and resins renaissance, anyone?
- VoA on the ITPGRFA, with interview goodness.
- Soy sauce in bullet points.
- A Spanish food historian’s deconstruction of the Mediterranean diet deconstructed by Rachel Laudan.
- Fish in paddies: here comes the science.
- Côte d’Ivoire to revive cacao cultivation. By building a research centre?
- Pleasant, cultured and not so short foray into the history of the sugar industry in Kenya and Mauritius.
- You say sweet potato. I say yam.
- You say yam, so does Rhizowen, and yet … he’s talking about neither Ipomoea nor Manihot.
- Urban agriculture thriving in DR Congo.
What’s the Greek bank worth?
Among 18 new projects funded by the John S. Latsis Public Benefit Foundation is Valuation of the Greek Gene Bank. The project summary makes fascinating reading. Here’s a snip:
[R]esources of the Greek Gene Bank are under imminent threat, linked to financial pressures, with risk of loss affecting as much as 50% of the Collections …
Do you suppose that 50% might be an under- or over-estimate? Either way, the announcement creates all sorts of temptations to speculate on links between the health of genebanks and that of central banks. Just a thought, but wouldn’t it be a great idea to have a European Central Genebank to, like, remove the temptation for countries to neglect their national genebanks and fib about accessions, viability levels, distribution and so on?
Still, the project report should make interesting reading for genebank managers and their friends everywhere.
Nibbles: R&D for Botswana, Grasses, Phytoliths
- Botswana wants more home-grown R&D for horticulture.
- The wonder of Aberyswyth’s high-sugar grasses. (Linking to the link farm because Aber has only a PDF.)
- The Archaeobotanist points to an online database of phytoliths … because you never know when you’ll need one.
Nibbles: Gates, Small farmers, Romans in Britain, Ancient Americans, Chocolate, Talks, Climate change, Heirloom apples
- Bill Gates Accepts Hunger Award, Says Focus on Poor Farmers “More Important Than Ever“. Go Bill!
- Small farmer in Mozambique doing well by doing good.
- Ancient Romans drank in South Tyneside. What else was there to do?
- Ancient Americans moved down the coast. That’s where the food was.
- Rewarding excellent chocolate from smallholder farmers.
- Food & Communication: Recipes for Development. IFPRI plays TED on Thursday.
- Climate change adaptation and mitigation: just do it! A. Jarvis comes out storming.
- West African farmers ‘already adapting to climate change’. A. Jarvis picks up his ball and goes home.
- Desperately seeking heirloom apples in Idaho.