- Hidden hunger experts come out into the open.
- Bioversity germplasm collecting reports go online.
- Where the threatened species are.
- Fair trade, shmare trade.
- The Lumper makes a comeback.
- Rice innovation in Bangladesh, abandonment in Nepal.
- Cherfas smears himself in bog butter for new podcast.
- Genomics and the livestock industry.
Cassava accessories in Oxford
The latest In Our Time sent me scurrying to the online database of Oxford’s Pitt Rivers Museum. Gotta love a museum whose collection you can search using the keyword “cassava accessory.” I also liked the historic photographs of the Luo, several of which include agricultural biodiversity.
Brainfood: Vinecology, African veggies, Land abandonment, Wheat special collection, Altitude and diversity, Persistence and diversity, Intensification, Rainfall and fruit, Mosaic tree
- Vinecology: pairing wine with nature. You can have wine, and drink it too.
- The role of wild vegetable species in household food security in maize based subsistence cropping systems. Is very significant, in South Africa.
- Does land abandonment decrease species richness and abundance of plants and animals in Mediterranean pastures, arable lands and permanent croplands? Well, we wont know until these guys do their review, as described here. What a weird paper.
- Development of a core collection of Triticum and Aegilops species for improvement of wheat for activity against chronic diseases. Used GRIN to select material from areas varying in cancer prevalence.
- Patterns of Genetic Variation across Altitude in Three Plant Species of Semi-Dry Grasslands. Populations on the edge altitudinally are not on the edge genetically.
- Is community persistence related to diversity? A test with prairie species in a long-term experiment. Yes. If by persistence you mean that the community resists invasion better after you stop weeding it.
- Agricultural intensification in Brazil and its effects on land use patterns: An analysis of the 1975-2006 period. Intensification leads to decreased expansion only where land is scarce, i.e. NOT at the frontier.
- Long-term Changes in Fruit Phenology in a West African Lowland Tropical Rain Forest are Not Explained by Rainfall. I don’t get it. Maybe someone can explain it to me.
- Differences in gene expression within a striking phenotypic mosaic Eucalyptus tree that varies in susceptibility to herbivory. One tree, 2 chemotypes, many genes differentially expressed, 10 SNPs that could affect secondary metabolism.
Nibbles: Organic tomato goodness, Golden Rice timeline, Beet nutrient changes, Finger millet intensification, Apple pix, Sourdough fungi, Rotational goodness, Bioversity DG, World Food Prize
- Another view of that organic tomatoes, stress and nutrients study that was all over the place yesterday.
- IRRI provides a reality check on Golden Rice. Maybe they should just have stressed it.
- Speaking of which, have we already linked to this piece on how beet has got poorer in nutrients?
- Thinking of setting up a map portal? Say about the geographic distribution of nutritional problems? Read this first.
- From SRI to SFMI. Yeah, but what is happening to nutrient levels?
- Did we also link to these pretty photos of apples before? Well, I don’t care, it’s worth seeing them again. And just imagine how much the different varieties differ in nutrients.
- How nutritious is sourdough anyway? Anyone?
- Yeah, yeah, but is rotation good for nutrient content?
- Which will all be very interesting to the new Bioversity DG, no doubt.
- Not to mention to some of the potential candidates for the World Food Prize.
Nibbles: Rwandan genebank, Quinoa consumption, Pre-Columbian garden, Tomatoes, Aerobic rice, World record potatoes
- Today’s new national genebank for food security? Step proudly forward, Rwanda!
- Bolivians are eating three times more quinoa. Or maybe three times more Bolivians are eating quinoa.
- Growing history in a pre-Columbian English cottage garden.
- Bland tomatoes all down to the lack of volatiles.
- Daily Kos spreads the Guardian’s gospel of SRI rice; so is aerobic rice a step down that path?
- Speaking of which, those Bihari farmers have snagged a world record potato harvest, using organic methods, and a relatively new variety from Indian breeders.