I may have missed a couple, but at least two international agricultural research centres have big birthday bashes this month: CIMMYT is 50 and CIP is 45. CIMMYT has marked the occasion with the release of a very comprehensive history of its early years, with lots of cool vintage photos.
Nibbles: Plant blindness, Grape breeding, Mixed farming, Genebank crowdfunding, CGN collecting, Science comms
- Who needs plants anyway?
- Who needs seedless grapes anyway?
- Who needs livestock anyway?
- Who needs the CIMMYT genebank anyway?
- Who needs information on germplasm collecting missions anyway?
- Who needs science communications anyway?
Nibbles: Yeast phylogeny, Jurassic beer, Welsh drink, Italian fruits, Vinegar museum, Lethal yellowing, Wilderness loss
- Beer yeast was domesticated in the 1600s. Or maybe not.
- I see that and raise you 65 million years.
- If you don’t like beer, try Lurvill’s Delight, but it’s only about 100 years old, I warn you.
- Preserving ancient fruits in an Italian orchard.
- And how many different types of vinegar do you think the vinegar museum has?
- The Caribbean coconut is under attack.
- We’ve been such bastards to the environment.
Nibbles: Turkish seeds, KBA, Wild ginger, ICARDA, AGRA, Weird agrobiodiversity, Coffee journey
- Ancient seeds put on life support. Not holding my breath.
- Key Biodiversity Areas to be mapped. Agrobiodiversity also? Not holding my breath.
- Botany on reality TV? Not holding my breath. No, wait…
- More on the ICARDA story. Holding my breath.
- Kofi Annan on that “uniquely African Green Revolution.” Not holding my breath, but here’s the latest report on how AGRA is doing. Oh, and there’s more on Africa, from IFPRI this time.
- A caterpillar on the Silk Road. Now, that I’d like to see.
- But not before coffee.
The recent history of summer squashes
So you’re telling me 1 that sixteenth century Italian gardeners selected long, thin squashes from among those brought back to Europe from the Americas (actually two different places in the Americas) in conscious imitation of the bottle gourds they had used for centuries? And somehow kept them separate from other cucurbits so that they bred true? And that the word zucchini shifted to the former from a particular, Tuscan form of the latter in the 1840s? Which is 50 years earlier than originally thought? Oh boy, I think I’m going to need some help navigating through this. Fortunately, Jeremy had the bright idea to ask the authors for directions.