- GRAIN found and shared a 1986 Canadian documentary that includes interviews with Erna Bennett.
- “Critical minds and ‘vegetal life’.” Plants and philosophy. Wacky, yes. But perhaps of interest.
- Are you near Port Townsend, WA? Go hear a lecture on “Farming with Nature: Agroecology for the Olympic Peninsula” on Monday at 7.30.
- While the EU potentially gives diversity a break, the US judge rejects organic suit against Monsanto.
- Open sesame (yeah, I know). Oxfam documents how best to use sesame to lift Ethiopians out of poverty.
- Nominate someone who has “made outstanding contributions for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity at global, regional or local levels” for the Midori Prize. We’re available.
- The Atlantic and NPR do the Svalbard thing. Gotta hand it to the Trust.
Nibbles: Chinese agriculture, Domesticating trees, Greening economies, Genebanks, Millets
- Modern Chinese agronomist praises ancient Chinese agriculture, possibly gets in trouble.
- Domesticating trees is still the next big thing.
- Transform agriculture for a greener economy, says SciDev.net.
- VoA on genebanks, including Svalbard.
- Gerbil enthusiasts tackle millets. Yes, gerbils.
Nibbles: Book, Nutrition, Etrogs, Horse in ancient Israel, Ocean access, Climate change, Mexican smallholders, Fruitpedia, Root crops meeting, Bayer wheat breeding, Old seeds, Viking barley, Cattle rock art, Safe meat & milk
- 1.24 kg of book about Biodiversity in Agriculture.
- Everybody’s already linked to The Economist on The Nutrition Puzzle but we’re not proud.
- And lots of people have linked to the biblical garden story; we’re proud to point out that one of the plants was a culturally important cultivated citrus.
- And while we’re in biblical mood, here’s a culturally important animal to go with that citrus.
- Biopirates plundering the oceans’ genetic resources must be stopped with international agreements, ‘cos that’ll work.
- Big session on Food security, climate change and climate variability at big scientific meeting. Eventually we’ll hear more.
- As when UK Chief Scientist tells Voice of America about agriculture and climate change.
- Small farmers in Mexico are making a difference to agrobiodiversity and politics.
- Fruitipedia! 433 fruits and counting.
- 16th Triennial Symposium of International Society for Tropical Root Crops in the works.
- Bayer CropScience buys into the Texas A&M University wheat genebank?
- Seeds survive in the permafrost. Good news for Svalbard.
- Seeds don’t survive in the permafrost. Bad news for Vikings?
- The connection between the the engravings found on ancient graves and current cattle brands in the same general area. Turkana, that is. Not much is the answer. Pity.
- And how did they make all that meat and milk safe for use, I hear you ask.
Prof. Clive Francis passes away
We unfortunately seem to be doing a lot of this lately. Dirk Enneking informs us on Facebook that Prof. Clive Francis, a famous Australian genetic resources scientist, has died. You can get an idea of his influence from a blog post by Ken Street dating back to 2008, but describing a situation that, alas, has not changed much. Sad to remember that one of the commenters to the post, my one-time collecting partner in Sicily Geoff Auricht, is also now deceased.
Nibbles: Underutilized foods, Overutilised food components, Potato microplants, Maize archaeology, More potatoes, Ag innovation
- Crops for the Future has news of a symposium to promote underutilized food resources in May.
- Or you could go to a report on fibre, an overused resource. I love how they blame the Limeys for all that’s wrong with nutrition.
- Potato Professionals hear the good news about in situ conservation using disease-free microplants.
- The archaeology of maize among the Mississippians.
- The archaeology of Mike Jackson among the Andean roots and tubers.
- Thomson Reuters Foundation has a big package on agricultural innovation. And many more topics you can trust.