History – Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog

June 10, 2019June 11, 2019

New Vavilov movie in the multiplex

The Scientist, the Imposter and Stalin: How to Feed the People is a new film on Vavilov by Gulya Mirzoeva. It looks like it can be ordered from Icarus Films.

Made entirely with previously unreleased archival footage, THE SCIENTIST, THE IMPOSTER AND STALIN offers a rare immediacy to events that took place decades ago. It is both an engrossing story and a warning about the disastrous results of yoking science to politics.

Here’s the teaser.1

There seems to be a French version on YouTube, but I have no idea whether it’s legally there. [↩]

June 7, 2019June 7, 2019

Nibbles: Coffee science, Bob Marley’s weed, Diversity video, CIP genebank, Cornell potatoes, Fiji hibiscus, Cereal festival, Organic breeding, British Neolithic, Wheat & CC, Celery history

The Coffee Science Foundation is the science foundation we all need.
In search of Bob’s ganja.
Vox vid on saving crop diversity. Pretty good, except for that thorn apple thing.
GIZ support for the CIP genebank.
Ex-CIP breeder works with VIR to bring wild potatoes to Cornell.
Or friend Lex Thomson on why Fiji is a hibiscus hotspot.
Celebrate European cereal diversity.
Dan Barber on freeing the seed. The polarisation continues.
The first British farmers walked there.
CIMMYT rebuttal of a paper saying European wheat varieties are decreasing in their climate resilience.
Celery was once a luxury.

June 4, 2019June 3, 2019

Nibbles: Ancient drugs, Potato genebank people, Hot potato, IPBES report, Iowa State doc, Vanilla banana, Indian rice lady, ITPGRFA

The deep history of inhaling.
CIP genebank scientists honoured.
But do they know about the most expensive potato in the world?
The thinking behind that IPBES 1 million threatened species number.
Seed documentary wins awards.
Tasty blue bananas.
One-woman genebank in India.
Meanwhile, in Rome, negotiations to improve the Plant Treaty continue… Fingers crossed.

June 3, 2019May 28, 2019

Brainfood: Plant blindness, African goats, Tissue culture, Phenotyping databases, Mekong transformation, African Fertile Crescent, Salty tomatoes, Pigeonpea domestication, Pharaonic watermelon, Apple domestication, Social media and PAs, Messaging, De novo domestication

Resetting the table for people and plants: Botanic gardens and research organizations collaborate to address food and agricultural plant blindness. There are so many ways to get people interested in plants.
A review on goats in southern Africa: an untapped genetic resource. 500-600 years of natural selection must count for something.
Agromorphologic, genetic and methylation profiling of Dioscorea and Musa species multiplied under three micropropagation systems. Methylation at some loci, but no phenotypic differences.
Modelling Crop Genetic Resources Phenotyping Information Systems. Field to figures.
Agricultural and food systems in the Mekong region: Drivers of transformation and pathways of change. Corn everywhere.
Yam genomics supports West Africa as a major cradle of crop domestication. The Niger River Basin, to be precise. How long before corn takes over?
A diversity of traits contributes to salinity tolerance of wild Galapagos tomatoes seedlings. 3 out of 67 accessions of 2 wild endemic species showed particularly high salinity tolerance.
Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp. origins and domestication: the South and Southeast Asian archaeobotanical evidence. Here’s ground zero for domestication about 5000 years ago: 19.397833, 80.813132.
A 3500-year-old leaf from a Pharaonic tomb reveals that New Kingdom Egyptians were cultivating domesticated watermelon. A Nile Valley origin?
Origins of the Apple: The Role of Megafaunal Mutualism in the Domestication of Malus and Rosaceous Trees. Large fruits originally evolved to attract wild horses, deer and bears, which spread them far and wide; populations isolated by the Ice Age were brought back together by humans.
Assessing global popularity and threats to Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas using social media data. Accessibility and infrastructure more important than biodiversity.
Messaging matters: A systematic review of the conservation messaging literature. Communications professionals think that more input from communications professionals is needed for conservation professionals to communicate professionally.
De Novo Domestication: An Alternative Route toward New Crops for the Future. Lots to play with, that’s for sure.

May 30, 2019

Nibbles: Japan rice ceremony, Breeding for CC, MSB, ICARDA, Peanut genome, Wild sorghum, Macadamia diversity, Eucalyptus taxonomy, German foraging, Kenya agricultural biodiversity, Mexican CWR video

New emperor, new rice.
Breeders discover GxE.
The Millennium Seed Bank is not just for millennials.
ICARDA’s genebank in the news again.
ICRISAT’s gene-jockeys have their 15 minutes.
Australia’s genebank in the news again too.
Maybe they should sort out macadamia next.
How botany works. Lots from Oz today.
Foraging in Berlin.
Kenya sees the agricultural biodiversity light.
Video on CWR from Mexico.