- More than you’ve ever wanted to know about bison.
- Why can we all just get along? An effort to save The River Jordan. Via.
- Looking for the universe in a grain of sand? Apple diversity in East Yorkshire.
- The pros and cons of legalizing opium in Afghanistan.
Nibbles: Cacao, Pamphlets, Breadfruit, Goats, Milk, Economic drivers, Truffles
- Cacao comes in 10 “flavours”, not just 3.
- PDFs of pamphlets on different aspects of agricultural biodiversity from FAO.
- Diane Ragone interviewed on breadfruit.
- Something for the weekend, Mr Goat?
- Got yak milk?
- High livestock prices mean lots of livestock on the land means low biodiversity on farmland. Here comes the science.
- NatGeo video on the trouble with truffles.
Potato news
A couple of Spud-U-Likes. Tuesday sees the opening of the International Symposium on Living with Potatoes (ISLP’08). Yes! And according to the conference organisers:
The objective of the ISLP’08 is to provide an international forum for sharing and exchanging information amongst the growers, associations, academicians, researchers, students, practitioners, and government who are interested in promoting the sustainability of potatoes–one of the top three staple foods.
Right. But what about bloggers? Anyone who is at the Symposium and who fancies joining the hallowed ranks of our Guest Bloggers need only send us an email.
And then there’s the wittily headlined Eyes peeled, a report in The Australian newspaper of writer Judith Elen’s potato-focused agro-tourism in the Andes, starting off at CIP, the International Potato Centre in Lima, Peru. Not just potatoes either, but a host of delicious goodies. Sent abroad to eat for her readers, what a great gig. Her conclusion:
Meanwhile, CIP continues its work in the background, conserving and researching native potatoes. The purple-fleshed varieties are especially high in antioxidants, stored in the pigment, while yellow-fleshed varieties are higher in available iron. Andean highlanders serve red, yellow (yema de huevo, egg-yolk potato) and blue in a single dish. But even along the Inca highway, some native varieties have been lost. In this, the UN’s international year of the potato, awareness is the key to keeping cultivation and research funds flowing.
Judith Elen was a guest of Centro Internacional de la Papa.
Money well spent, I’d say.
Nibbles: Heirlooms, Seed, Ethnic cuisine, Meat, Sheep
- “The ‘Heirloom Tomato Salad’ was made with a mix of Sweet 100 and Sungold tomatoes — both of which are hybrid varieties.”
- FARMER’S NOTEBOOK: The importance of preserving native seed varieties.
- Increasing culinary diversity in the US.
- Eat a kangaroo and save the planet. No? How about moose then? You can have too much culinary diversity, perhaps.
- Climate change: the silver lining.
Nibbles: Research, Chilli, Gardening, Mice
- IFPRI says exchange of genetic resources a “best bet” for large-scale research investment. Ok, but why just research it? Why not just do it?
- Too hot to handle.
- World Food Garden. Via.
- Another commensal fingerprinted.