- CIAT crop wild relatives team announces 3 new papers on gaps in ex situ collections: potato, sweet potato & pigeonpea. Take a break, people, please.
- And CIAT genebank features in nice video on why we need genebanks. So also the IRRI genebank, which is relevant to the next Nibble. We do joined-up nibbling here.
- Fine dining with Filipino rice landraces. Go Manny!
- None of those rice landraces are perennial. Yet. If they ever are, it’ll be due to a wild relative.
- Fusarium head blight resistance in wheat dissected using a synchrotron. Avengers assemble!
- Oxyrhynchus papyrus identifies hangover cure. Or so the Daily Mail says, so, you know…
- Oh wow, the Mail is definitely on a botanical roll, now they’re all over a Kardashian-shaped tuber.
- New Edible Aroids Newsletter. Nothing Kim-shaped about these tubers.
- Wheat and barley replaced millet in E Tibet around 2000 BC after cooling period. This going into reverse now, I wonder?
- Some biodiversity you don’t want, trust me.
- Speaking of unwelcome biodiversity, there’s a new hope in the fight against malaria: hybrid artemisia.
- More on that potato that the Dutch are growing in sea water. Like they have a choice.
- Microbes are part of terroir.
- Q&A with The Triumph of Seeds author.
- The coco-de-mer is a pretty triumphant seed.
- You say ramòn nut, I say Maya nut.
- Kenya needs bamboo. Says the International Network for Bamboo & Rattan. Wow, two active crop networks in today’s Nibbles.
- Yesterday it was arabica that was in trouble, today tea. Damn you, climate change.
- They’re the lucky ones: they may be in trouble, but they’re not going extinct…
- More production does not automatically mean less stunting. Damn you, real world.
Cary Fowler receives William L. Brown Award
Congratulations to Cary Fowler for receiving the 7th William L. Brown Award for Excellence in Genetic Resource Conservation.
The William L. Brown Award recognizes the outstanding contributions of an individual in the field of genetic resource conservation and use. It is administered by the William L. Brown Center (WLBC) at the Missouri Botanical Garden and is made possible through a generous endowment from the Sehgal Family Foundation, in cooperation with the family of Dr. Brown.
Dr. Brown was a distinguished, internationally-recognized scientist, businessman, and humanitarian. Over the course of five decades, he devoted himself to the collection, preservation, understanding, and sharing of plant genetic resources in order to help meet the global demand for food. The William L. Brown Award recognizes an individual whose efforts and achievements reflect a concern for those issues that were so important to Dr. Brown.
Cary was presented with the award yesterday during his keynote lecture at the 9th BGCI International Congress on Education in Botanic Gardens, hosted by the Missouri Botanical Garden.
award to Dr Cary Fowler for his contribution to conserving world 's crop diversity #BGCI21015EDU pic.twitter.com/lvb1SXugeL
— Botanic Gardens Conservation International (@bgci) April 30, 2015
Richly deserved.
Nibbles: Gender myths, Cabbage myth, Deforestation, Urban ag, School gardens, Avocado disease, Tourism & conservation, African trees, European biofuels
- Hoary zombie gender myths bite the dust. Wish the same could be said of agrobiodiversity myths…
- The first cabbage, according to the ancient Greeks. A myth we can all get behind.
- WWF maps deforestation hotspots. Like the whole of Sumatra.
- Profits not the (only) point of urban farming.
- Maintaining food culture by gardening in a Native American community. See what I mean?
- After citrus greening, now comes laurel wilt. Poor Florida.
- Biodiversity conservation through tourism in Latin America. Including agrobiodiversity?
- The trees and shrubs of mopane woodlands, illustrated.
- European biofuels hit the buffers.
Nibbles: Long live genebanks, ART in Ireland, Peruvian cacao, Cacao & CC, Canadian aid & wheat, Coffee trials, Organic redux, American garden survey, Cranberry breeding, Bean breeding, Expo Milano 2015, Olive disease, Insect meal, Save cider, Garum, Asian PGR network, Fig vid, McCouch, Pastoralist Knowledge Hub
- Sexing up genebanks.
- Inventive wheat drought phenotyping. Want more?
- The Irish try out other Andean crops. Because the first one worked out so well.
- Peruvian cocoa goes up-market. Others might not get the chance.
- Latest batch of IDRC food security projects: African veggies, chickpeas, lentils… Meanwhile, back home in Canada…
- Some major coffee producers are probably in trouble. Will the International Multi-location Variety Trials help at all?
- Crop genomic data boffins say crop genomic data should be free. DivSeek unavailable for comment.
- The latest from Rodale on why organic is better. Well, it certainly affects microbial diversity.
- Smithsonian helps to preserve the Great American Garden through citizen science.
- Blimey, it takes 15 years to release a cranberry cultivar. That’s nothing, Kenyan canning bean breeders say.
- Expo Milano 2015 is coming, and Bioversity will be there in force.
- The olive is under threat. Always something.
- If you don’t want to eat insects, you can always feed them to your livestock.
- There’s a campaign to save small cider producers in the UK. which we can all get behind, I’m sure.
- Make your own garum. If you must.
- Asian countries to launch regional PGR network. What, again?
- An ode to figs.
- Gotta love
weedweeds. - FAO gives pastoralists a voice. Or a website, rather.
Nibbles: Heirloom apples, Cowpeas, Lettuces, Livestock, Taste, Soil, Nutrition, Meat, Malaria tea, SIRGEALC, ABS
- Is “heritage” just “heirloom” for “birds and animals”? I for one don’t think so. These apples are heritage, for example.
- Saving the Sea Island Red Pea. Which is a heritage cowpea, I think.
- 43 different types of heritage lettuce illustrated.
- Eat those heirloom pigs or lose them.
- Taste and nutrition go hand in hand.
- Soils are part of traditional agricultural heirloom systems.
- Heirloom shmeirloom, those food systems need some work if they are to deliver nutrition.
- The case for meat, heirloom or otherwise. And a whole series of posts on how to best feed all those cows.
- A herbal tea against malaria.
- The 10th SIRGEALC is on the horizon.
- A lot of people going to that will probably need these resources on implementing both the International Treaty and the Nagoya Protocol at the same time.