- Britain gets a tree seed bank. Wait, it didn’t already have one? St Helena seems to, sort of. And Cameroon. And why they’re needed more than ever; and more. Although in Brazil trees can be the bad guys.
- Bill Gates praises CIMMYT, and the CGIAR as a whole.
- A Renaissance garden recreated in NYC.
- A survey on moringa. And one on achocha and oca.
- And speaking of deconstructing weird crops, how about saffron?
- Yet another one of those GMOs-are-not-as-bad-as-you-think pieces. Is any of this getting through, I wonder?
- Free range pigs in Kenya and the USA.
- Speaking of free range livestock… Well, a species distantly related to livestock anyway. Oh, and here’s another restoration story, from another continent.
- Free range glass eels too. And salmon, after a fashion.
- Traditional potatoes in fancy Lima restaurants. Maybe with pork or fish?
Nibbles: Historical coffee, Conservation agriculture, Ecosystem services, Good weeds
- Kew’s data manglers are breathing life into the archives, but I need more narrative on coffee rust.
- Singing the praises of conservation agriculture in Tanzania.
- IFPRI discovers ecology, and it’s complicated.
- Not to be outdone, CIAT discovers weeds are important food.
Nibbles: GMO promises promises, African livestock outside & in, Vegetables galore, Farmer videos from US & Sri Lanka, Fermentation beery & otherwise, Yam people & traits, Botanic garden diversity, ECPGR, CWR in US & Benin, Herbarium data, Baobab info, Olean info, Pix, Indian cooking
- Nature “celebrates” 30 years of GMOs.
- African pastoralists know how not to destroy their livelihoods shock.
- African urban dwellers keep livestock shock.
- Vegetables can be perennial too. Oh yes indeedy. Not bitter gourd though, alas. Nor cucumber. And in other news, there’s a Bitter Melon Council. And also a campaign to promote zucchini in Iowa.
- Climate change reaches farmers in the Pacific NW. Can their Sri Lankan colleagues be far behind?
- Always good to have a beer story. Well, maybe not.
- Speaking of fermentation, this WSJ piece looks interesting, from the two sentences of it I can read. No, wait. Oh crap, try this.
- A hummus dip goes really nicely with beer. Is this the quinoa story again?
- A yam conference for the ages. Will they discuss the new trait ontology?
- Botanic gardens reach out. Genebanks next? Maybe not.
- You mean like the European ones, perhaps?
- That US CWR paper from the horse’s mouth. And a similar thing from Benin. But where does all that data come from?
- Baobab notes to go with all those factsheets.
- The Saharan olive needs a factsheet too. IRD obliges.
- Cool set of agriculture photos.
- A couple of different views of Indian food. Thanks to Cara de Silva and Diana Buja.
Nibbles: Chickpeas, Cassava, Maize diversity, Potato diversity, Palm display, Global mistrust, Asparagus, Ramps, Local strawberries
- Chickpea harvest more than doubled last year – in the US. Whatever happened to garbanzos?
- Introduction to cassava and cyanide.
- Conserving maize diversity in Guatemala.
- And potato diversity in Peru.
- Historical insights into Kew’s museum display of an economically important palm.
- Mainstream media still confused about Svalbard and all that.
- Asparagus is topologically artichoke. The Botanist in the Kitchen continues her exploration of bracts.
- Linguist ramps up his knowledge of the Alliums. (See what I did there? Nothing remarkable, almost everyone else succumbs too.)
- It takes real research to grow food locally, ask the scientists in Arkansas. And their supporters.
Tracing the Polynesian migrations through DNA, but not only
I know you probably don’t have an hour to spare to listen to a lecture on the evidence for pre-Columbian contacts between Polynesians and South American cultures, but Dr Lisa Matisoo-Smith does a really good job of galloping though the DNA and archaeological evidence from humans, commensals and livestock in a recent podcast from the Bishop Museum. She even mentions crops.
The bottom line? The human anatomical and artifact evidence is compelling, but the DNA is not cooperating yet. At least the human DNA. But listen to it. While you’re preparing dinner or something. I just wish the Bishop had thought to put the slides online too.