- 94% is the new 75%. Here’s some of the survivors.
- But how many crafts have we lost?
- Win a prize for communicating about sweet potatoes.
- Pre-breeding eggplants using their wild relatives.
- Two waves of cat domestication.
- Svalbard double.
- 350 buck’s worth of apple history.
- 10 cent’s worth of strawberry history.
- Latest newsletter from those nice forages genetic resources conservation folks.
- Bananas good and bad news.
Brainfood: Kolli Hills diversity, Fergana diversity, Chinese rice terraces, ICRISAT prebreeding, Spanish CWR collecting, Edible flowers, Diversification, Prices vs volatility
- An ethnographic exploration of perceptions of changes in dietary variety in the Kolli Hills, India. Cassava cash cropping has had unforeseen effects on dietary diversity.
- Mapping and assessing crop diversity in the irrigated Fergana Valley, Uzbekistan. More crops on the edges.
- An Analysis on Crops Choice and Its Driving Factors in Agricultural Heritage Systems—A Case of Honghe Hani Rice Terraces System. Established for “red rice”, but that’s not enough.
- Prebreeding Using Wild Species for Genetic Enhancement of Grain Legumes at ICRISAT. It’s not easy, but it’s been worth it.
- A Multispecies Collecting Strategy for Crop Wild Relatives Based on Complementary Areas with a High Density of Ecogeographical Gaps. Collecting in Spain in “…top 10 selected complementary areas would allow the capture of 59 of the 88 targeted taxa and 31% of the 683 different taxa-ELC category combinations identified in the ecogeographical gaps.”
- Antioxidant power, anthocyanin content and organoleptic performance of edible flowers. Tycoon Blue will be quite the marketing challenge.
- Diversifying Food Systems in the Pursuit of Sustainable Food Production and Healthy Diets. And nary an edible flower mentioned.
- Cereal price shocks and volatility in sub-Saharan Africa: what really matters for farmers’ welfare? Prices.
Restoring agricultural systems, one field at a time
I know I Nibbled both of these things already, but I think it’s worth highlighting them again, and putting them together. I’m referring to two attempts to restore agricultural system, both, as it happens, involving sophisticated water management.
Here’s billionaire hedge-fund manager Louis Moore Bacon, owner and would-be restorer of Orton Plantation, Brunswick County, North Carolina, about 15 miles down the wonderfully named Cape Fear River from Wilmington:
Restoring the historic rice fields recognizes centuries-old rice farming practices of enslaved Africans… I am awed and inspired by the resilience that helped create these fields, and by saving them, I have an opportunity to commemorate the lives of those who were critical to the development of this land, rather than have their prodigious work swept under by the Cape Fear River. We must ensure these sacrifices are not forgotten and are properly recognized by the restored Orton Plantation.
And here’s Maui, Hawaii taro farmer Hōkūao Pellegrino of Nohoʻana Farm:
We had 125 people [in 2004] come and help open our very first loʻi ((Taro pond.)). Kalo farmers from the Big Island to Kauaʻi and everywhere in between; family members, cousins, neighbors—it was huge… If everyone who had loʻi kalo on their land decided to start farming, Waiheʻe would once again become a highly productive area… It looks like Hawaiians just picked up and left yesterday… I want people to eat healthy food at reasonable prices… Poi should be available to everybody, and at a cost that they can afford… Fixing our food system isn’t going to be the magic bullet… If we want a thriving community, we have to approach it from all angles… We want to be good neighbors, good to our land, and good to our people.
More power to both of them, and let’s hope they grow interesting varieties in their restored fields.
Nibbles: Dwarf rice, Ricestoration, Tarostoration, Biorepositories, Sustainable coffee, Cactus wars, Goaty portraits, Spandrels, Potato genebank, Forests and nutrition
- The long and short of Green Revolution rice.
- Restoring historical slave-worked rice fields in North Carolina.
- Kinda similar, but taro in Hawaii.
- There’s a bank for milk diversity.
- Nice review of sustainable coffee production.
- Opuntia: tasty but deadly (to some).
- Handsome goat pix.
- Festoons of fruits at the Farnesina: Jeremy is incensed.
- Great new webpages for the CIP genebank.
- Another report on a report that living close to forests is good for nutritional security, up to a point. But bushmeat?
Nibbles: Visionary edition
- New guy in charge Peter Wenzl gives us his vision for the CIAT genebank.
- Agriculture and Irrigation Minister of Peru gives us his vision for the Peruvian genebank.
- CIMMYT’s annual report gives us a vision of conserving maize in Guatemala.
- Farmer Somashekhara gives us his vision for finger millet farming in India. And two makes a trend…
- Retired agriculture expert Malcolm Hazelman gives us his vision for Samoan gardens.
- A Tagorean vision of radical relocalization involving perennial edimentals.
- Lots of people give us their vision for saving the wild apple.
- IFPRI gives us their vision for the future of food in a changing world. With infographic goodness.
- Natalie Mueller et al. give us their vision for reviving the forgotten crops of the Eastern Agricultural Complex.
- A vision of a planet protected in situ, in multiple ways. Yes, even pigeons. And yes, even cities, though agrobiodiversity neglected as usual.
- A vision of permanent identifiers everywhere.
- DNA gives us a vision of domestication explained. Yes, even sugarcane.