- No member of the plant kingdom has ever been so willfully and stubbornly misunderstood.
- EU funds US$ 300 million to develop galip nut (Canarium indicum) in New Britain.
- Happy Birthday, Fort Collins.
- First, pocket pigs. Now, mini-cows. Watch our hits go through the roof.
- The story of the mother who went to Hell to protect her daughter.
- Kiribati to get atoll agriculture development centre. But where will they put it?
New media at IRRI
Our friends at the International Rice Research Institute seem to have some newish toys to play with, based on a couple of recent uploads to YouTube. If you’ve been molested by the speed bumps on the IRRI campus, you’ll want to hear how Mrs Carolyn Moomaw Wilhelm was responsible for setting them up, when she and her husband, the renowned rice breeder James Moomaw, first arrived at IRRI. Or you may prefer to hear Peter Jennings, IRRI’s first rice breeder, reminisce with “singular wit” on the importance of luck. And do stick with Nyle Brady’s reminiscences, (above); he eventually says that resistance to grassy stunt virus was found within just a few months, in samples that nobody suspected were resistant.
Underwater sunflower
Update here.
You may have seen news of the dam that burst in the Grand Canyon National Park, necessitating the evacuation of several dozen people from the native American village of Supai. What you may not know is that Supai is quite famous in agrobiodiversity circles. ((And thanks to Colin for reminding me.))
Here’s an excerpt from a 2004 issue of Seedhead News, the newsletter of Native Seed/SEARCH, which focused on sunflower:
Anthropologist Frank Cushing found sunflowers growing in the gardens of the Havasupai when he visited in 1881. Although a decline in agriculture was noted around the 1940s, there were still sunflowers being grown in Supai when NS/S co-founders Gary Nabhan and Karen Reichhardt collected there in 1978. This was timely as devastating floods later nearly wiped out farming in the Havasupai’s homeland. Those seeds found in the bottom of the Grand Canyon are now being regenerated on our farm.
And here’s the money quote:
Australian sunflower farmers experienced a crisis when a new type of rust (a fungus) infected their plants. Research scientists found that Havasupai varieties of sunflower exhibit a unique gene that is resistant to this rust. Commercial varieties of sunflower seeds to be sold in Australia will now contain this important gene. Native Seeds/SEARCH was also instrumental in returning sunflower and other native crop varieties to the Havasupai to help rebuild their farming tradition.
But here’s the really cool part. The flow of genetic resources has not been in only one direction: USDA researchers are collecting sunflowers in Australia. Interdependence is all.
Masanobu Fukuoka R.I.P.
Masanobu Fukuoka, the author of The One Straw Revolution, and a pioneer of “natural” or no-till farming, has passed away at 95.
Nibbles for the road: Baobab, Breeding, Gardening, Earthworms, Taro, Pollinators, Llama, Trees, Chili peppers
- More on how the baobab is coming to Europe.
- Review of breeding for nutritionally improved crops.
- Book on the origins of British gardening.
- Earthworms “modulate the competition between grasses and legumes.”
- ACIAR publishes book on taro pests in the Pacific.
- UNEP launches global pollinator conservation initiative.
- Unusual use for livestock fetuses.
- “And she grows more than 100 types of trees…“
- “Along the equator, without access to refrigeration, you could be dead pretty quickly unless you can find a way to protect yourself against the microbes you ingest every day.”