History

May 4, 2009May 4, 2009

Baroque painting celebrates agrobiodiversity

I did not expect much agrobiodiversity in the Victoria & Albert’s exhibition on the baroque. But I found some anyway, in the mid-17th century Flemish oil painting Flower Garland with the Holy Sacrament and an Angel’s Head, possibly by Daniel Seghers (1590-1661). It’s reproduced below, but you can consult a better image on Flickr.

It looks to me that what I’ve marked are maize cobs, although the one on the right could, I suppose, be sorghum. If they are maize, it is interesting that they seem to show three distinct varieties. There’s variation in the other cereals too. I guess it goes with the general exuberance of the baroque. But what’s with those peduncles?

May 4, 2009May 4, 2009

Nibbles: Asparagus, Eels, ICT, Dingoes, Phoenix dactylifera, Apples, Bear-pit

Liguria’s asparago violetto gets Slow Food treatment.
“The bottom line is we just don’t know why they are struggling so badly.”
Using mobile phones to treat plant pests and diseases in Uganda.
Dingoes have positive effect on biodiversity.
Date palm genome mapped.
Boffins see the light, explain negative effect of fertilizers on biodiversity.
Brogdale situation “better,” but for how long?
Wait, Bern has a bear-pit?

April 29, 2009

Nibbles: Farmer suicides, Mexican drink

Vandana Shiva on Indian farmer suicides.
Make mine a tejate.

April 27, 2009April 27, 2009

Nibbles: Sheep, Yams, Satellites, Payment for ecosystem services, Museum

Domesticated sheep spread in two waves.
How IITA helps yam farmers in West Africa.
“…it is vital that we develop some sort of early warning system that will enable us to take timely action if we see part of the landscape suffering and signs of the loss of species richness.”
First issue of newsletter on Agricultural Payments for Ecosystem Services online at Ecoagriculture Partners.
Visit Cairo’s Agricultural Museum. If you think you can take it.

April 24, 2009April 24, 2009

In praise of Granny Smith

Our regular readers ¹ will know that there’s been a regular deluge — windfall? — of apple stories in the past few months, in particular about the imminent demise of the British orchard. The latest surfaced today. In such stories, aspersions are often cast on the qualities of such commercial favourites as the Granny Smith. ² I guess the unspoken implication is that this and similarly successful varieties are the evil spawn of some sinister multinational, and probably contain, to boot, genes cruelly extracted from some Arctic fish without its prior or informed consent and unnaturally inserted into the pristine apple genome by soulless pointy-headed boffins with Nazi sympathies.

Nothing could be further from the truth, it turns out, at least in the case of the Granny Smith, which was, in fact, spotted as a seedling and first grown by Maria Ann Smith on her farm in Ryde, New South Wales around 1868. ³ It started life as the kind of backyard variety that would later become known as a heirloom. So, I ask myself, what obscure pome, currently languishing in some forgotten British orchard, soon to be rescued by the imminent influx of National Trust money, will eventually knock old Granny from her pedestal? And when will we be complaining about that one?