- Japan’s unemployed end up farming.
- Somewhat uninformed comments about the perfection of the banana.
- “…traditional genetic crosses outperform genetically modified crops by a wide margin.”
- Alice Waters takedown.
- Brits throw money at bees.
- Red squirrel missing link found through DNA fingerprinting. Red squirrel pie, anyone? Ok ok, make it grey.
- Mexican mangroves in trouble.
- “Indigenous Peoples have contributed the least to the global problem of climate change but will almost certainly bear the greatest brunt of its impact.”
- Go go goji.
- Secretary General of the Nordic Council of Ministers and former Icelandic Prime Minister waxes lyrical about genebanks.
- So there’s a Carolina Gold Rice Foundation. No, not Golden Rice. Via.
- Help the Biodiversity Heritage Library decide on a citation format. Or not. whatever.
Nibbles: Assisted migration, Livestock and ecosystems, Agrobiodiversity tourism, Earthworms, Fish, Cucurbits
- Assisted location is now managed relocation. So that’s alright then.
- Transhumance is good for ecosystem. Oh, and bison too.
- Geotourism in Yellowstone has a website. Can agroecotourism be far behind? I’m afraid so.
- No relationship between parasite load and genetic diversity in earthworms. Alas.
- “The naming of fish is a nightmare. They have more aliases than Maltese pimps.” Which is why Latin binomials were invented, duh.
- Pix of Colombian cucurbit (and other) diversity.
Supporting local breeds in the UK
Our friend Danny over at Rurality has been on a bit of a rare livestock breeds hobbyhorse lately. First he noted that the UK’s new biodiversity indicators include consideration of native livestock breeds but not crop landraces. And that prompted him to sing the praises of the Rare Breeds Survival Trust. Quite right too.
Nibbles: Bees, Bacteria
- A cure for honey bee colony collapse?
- Rhizobia bacteria protect soybeans from aphids. More.
“Warty vegetable comes to the rescue”
It looks like a wart-covered zucchini and has an equally unappetising name, but experts say it could help rescue the world’s population from malnutrition and disease.
You can’t always trust a journalist to get it absolutely right, but the above quote does seem to be heaping the manure on just a bit too high. The new boss of the Asian Vegetable Research and Development Center is in Australia talking up his book, which includes the bitter gourd or bitter melon, Momordica charantia. He’s full of sensible advice to Australians, to whit:
“The take-home message for Australians is to eat as many varied vegetables as you can – different colours, orange, green – and make sure you have them in balance with the rest of the diet. … cut back on some of the meat consumption, have less carbohydrates and increase the fruit and vegetable intake, then you will live a longer and healthier life”.
But what kind of a lede would that make?
Thanks Dirk for the tip.