- CIFOR has a blog!
- Nice series of videos on eating weeds.
- Video on Peru’s “Andean rodeo.” You heard me.
- Africa needs drought-tolerant maize. Ok, fair enough, but here’s my question. Shouldn’t they have done this study before doing all that breeding? Oh, who knows, maybe they did.
- “Biofortification will thus remain relevant to poor rural populations in the years to come, as their incomes will still be far too low to afford a more diversified diet.” What? Who says a diversified diet need be expensive?
- Russia faces looming buckwheat crisis. At least the genetic resources are safe in the Vavilov Institute. Unless of course somebody decides to, I don’t know, build luxury villas there, or something.
Nibbles: Eggplant, Cactus domestication, Berries, Conservation, Drought, Conference, Chaffey, Rice relative, Cornus, Adansonia, Pavlovsk, Genebanks, Dams
- How can you do Eggplant’s Rich History and not wonder why this generally huge, generally purple thing is called an eggplant?
- Domestication of the Gray Ghost Organ Pipe cactus; exceedingly complex. Oh and there’s a cool photo here.
- How berries protect the brain from age-related malfunction. Are you listening, Dmitry?
- Protect medicinal plants, says letter-writer.
- The world doesn’t understand drought tolerance, says another letter-writer.
- Agrobiodiversity in Mesoamerica conference.
- Chaffey’s Plant Cuttings from Annals of Botany. Must-read stuff.
- A wild relative contributes trait for early morning flowering to rice, allowing it to escape sterility induced by high temperatures.
- The Cornelian Cherry and the Baobab explained.
- Voice of America devotes Special English report to Pavlovsk. If that ain’t viral, what is?
- Genebanks on a roll in China. In Australia, not so much.
- Dam dataset online. Let the mashups proliferate.
Pavlovsk update
The Associated Press had a big round-up on the threatened Russian genebank at Pavlovsk late last week. We’re linking to the version that appeared at the National Public Radio website because they used lots of photographs, many of which give the lie to statements that the land is not being used. Kudos to AP for doing some fresh reporting. Kudos also to Science magazine, for a report from a correspondent in Moscow. The article is behind a paywall.
We’re still not getting much news out of Russia herself. What exactly is going on, officially? And is anyone there blogging about it or otherwise commenting? If you know, please let us know.
Nibbles: Coral genebank, Seeds, PROTA
- A new frozen genebank — for corals.
- CAS-IP blogs about the launch and success of MASA, the Malawi Seed Alliance.
- Promising new plants for Africa from the PROTA database; a book. So many promises …
Nibbles: Agretti, Pavlovsk, Nutrition, Turkeys
- The Ethicurean digs into agretti (Salsola soda).
- Pavlovsk in the St Petersburg Times …
- … and in the Sydney Morning Herald.
- Conference in November: Nutrition Security in the Developing World ABD?.
- CIAT’s library showcases nutrition.
- More on turkey domestication.