- Dogs were first domesticated animal. But the love affair is cooling off, at least for some breeds.
- Building capacity for animal genetic resources use, and for conservation and sustainable use under the ITPGRFA. And tree domestication. Is someone keeping track?
- BGI continues to take over DNA world.
- And the Worst Plant Virus Oscar goes to…
- How PNG farmers cope with drought. From what is developing into a really useful blog.
- I wish I had time to read 200 pages on ancient Athenian food. But maybe you do?
- Learn about the USDA potato collection, including lots of wild relatives.
- The tree that thinks it’s a supermarket: Moringa in the limelight again.
Early warning system for heritage sites online
A propos of that idea to have a mobile phone app for documenting erosion of agricultural biodiversity. Only fair to say that the Global Heritage Network have a website that records threats to heritage sites. Can the app be far behind?
LATER: Or it did. I can’t get it to work.
Erna Bennett papers
Thanks to Helmut Knüpffer of IPK Gatersleben, for his comment pointing to two important papers relating to Erna Bennett.
- Erna Bennett: Her Career and Convictions and An Interview with Erna Bennett by IS Cunningham provides an insight into some aspects of her personality and drive. (Diversity 5(2 & 3), 60-63, 1989. As with the Ceres article reprinted by The Ecologist, if you do download and skim through the whole issue, you might, like me, wonder what on Earth we’ve all been doing for the past 40 years.)
- Award of Meyer Memorial Medal to Erna Bennett of FAO, including Presentation by Dr. Ralph W. Phillips, Miss Erna Bennett’s Acceptance, and Statement by Dr. A. H. Boerma. 1971. (J. Heredity 62(5), 277-279. That one’s behind a paywall, although I reckon snagging the photo above constitutes fair use.)
Helmut also wrote: “I just went to the Mansfeld Library. There are 2292 reprints in the “Reprint Collection Erna Bennett” sorted alphabetically by author and then numbered 1-2292.” Good to know.
And a couple of other links. Grain, the NGO, published its own tribute. Grain’s archives contain a piercing essay from Erna on The Summit-to-Summit Merry-go-Round, which should be on the reading list of everyone with an interest in agricultural biodiversity and the context surrounding its conservation and use.
Nibbles: Beetle diets, Seed hunters, NUS, Food security, Indian malnutrition, Craft Irish beer, Nordic livestock, Prosecco DOC, Artemisia, CGIAR
- Predators hunt for a balanced diet. So it’s not just people?
- Seeds of High Asia. Saudi Aramco World gives respect to the seed hunters.
- Obscure crops and an obscure book. Dorian Fuller gives respect to the neglected.
- “For the time being, I genuinely believe we must maintain yield growth, but we need to ensure that we preserve the natural capital for the future.” UK Food Security Czar speaks.
- Indian PM mea culpa on malnutrition. Will he listen to the above? Would it help?
- Beer in Ireland. Not Guinness. I may be gone some time.
- Nordics discuss AnGR and climate change. Successfully, natch.
- Prosecco runs to the IPR ramparts.
- Video on growing Artemisia to fight poverty.
- Help the CGIAR with its tagline. Beyond irony.
Nibbles: Brazil, Canada, Book, Lebanese food, Threatened dispersal, Jeanne Baret, Avinoam Danin
- In Mato Grosso, deforestation rates fell as agricultural production rose. I know.
- “Imagine Ontario without … a maple leaf.” It’s easy, if you try.
- Got a case study in Community Based Adaptation (to climate change)? A book author wants to hear from you. h/t CAPRi.
- And here are some case studies on local foods and nutrition, from Lebanon.
- BBC reports on an Indian study: Plants at risk from seed dispersal threats. No mention of seed systems, formal or informal, that support agricultural plants.
- First woman to circumnavigate the world was a botanizing French herbalist.
- Veteran Israeli botanist interviewed, mentions crops wild relatives without actually calling them that.