- Ah, summer and its funny medieval holidays.
- Making bread in Tajikistan.
- Making pizza in Sussex.
- Making cheese in (one village in) Sweden.
- Diversifying bananas in Queensland.
- Diversifying banana products in Kenya.
- Diversifying with trees in China.
- Better diversify coffee.
- I see your responsible soy and raise you responsible oil palm.
- Cocks of the walk.
- I’m so annoyed the New Scientist article on breeding less bitter veggies is behind a paywall that I won’t even link to it. Google it, if you must.
Brainfood: Vavilov then & now & always, Helmeted fowl diversity, MLND resistance, Sorghum diversity, Facilitation, Rice yields, Biodiversity services, Wild tomato diversity, Date diversity
- In the Footsteps of Vavilov: Plant Diversity Then and Now. The Pamiri Highlands of Tajikistan, the Ethiopian Highlands, and the Colorado Plateau of Southwestern North America compared at time of Vavilov and now: “Localities that have retained diversity have suffered the least.”
- Vavilovian Centers of Plant Diversity: Implications and Impacts. “His concept of specific centers of origin for crop plants was not an isolated aphorism but has directed breeders, on their study and reflection, to the continued improvement and economic development of plants for humanity.”
- Mitochondrial DNA variation of Nigerian domestic helmeted guinea fowl. Recent domestication, and lots of intermixing mean not much diversity, and what there is doesn’t have structure.
- Genome-wide association and genomic prediction of resistance to maize lethal necrosis disease in tropical maize germplasm. That’s when two viruses attack synergistically. Resistance is from multiple loci with smallish effects, and there are some promising markers.
- Genome-environment associations in sorghum landraces predict adaptive traits. Genotype predicts drought tolerance.
- Facilitation and sustainable agriculture: a mechanistic approach to reconciling crop production and conservation. Understanding facilitative plant–plant interactions (intercropping, varietal mixtures) in crops leads to more sustainable farming practices. Or it could.
- The relative contribution of climate and cultivar renewal to shaping rice yields in China since 1981. Mainly new varieties. Climate change has actually helped, but for how long?
- Biodiversity inhibits parasites: Broad evidence for the dilution effect. Meta-analysis shows biodiversity decreases parasitism and herbivory.
- Using genomic repeats for phylogenomics: a case study in wild tomatoes (Solanum section Lycopersicon: Solanaceae). Data that are usually thrown away turn out to be useful for something after all.
- Genetic structure of the date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) in the Old World reveals a strong differentiation between eastern and western populations. Asian and African genepools, with geneflow E to W.
Nibbles: Barley domestication, Apple pie, Mexican food & drink, CABI, Old seeds, IT
- Secret of barley brittle rachis revealed. In other news, there’s a Centre of Excellence in Plant Cell Walls.
- Bramley apple pie filling protected. But from who?
- Participatively bred Oaxacan maize finds a market niche.
- Have some tequila with that participatively bred Oaxacan maize.
- “We can call a government and tell them our data is telling us that a pest is on the way.”
- The coolness of seeds.
- Yeah but “[g]ood seed in the wrong place is no longer good seed.”
Orcadian bere in Canada shock
Beremeal is an earthy, nutty and nutrient-rich flour made from bere, an ancient six-row barley. It was traditionally used to make bannocks, soft rolls that are a speciality of Scotland’s north-eastern ilses, and now the only remaining mill to process this grain is in Orkney. The bere barley shaped the diets of Orcadians for generations, but came into sharp decline in the 1950s with the birth of white supermarket loaves. It was also less productive as modern barleys and required a lengthy milling process. By the early 1990s, the last remaining mill closed and bere almost entirely disappeared until a campaign was launched to bring bere back. Now, 200 tonnes are being milled today as people start to redisocover this ancient grain.
Hear all about it on the BBC’s Food Programme. Then head over to Genesys and reassure yourself that should these efforts fail, there are quite a few samples of “bere” in genebanks. Though those responsible for that of Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture may want to check some of the longitudes in their database.
Nibbles: Native American foods, Responsible soy maps, Ocean blue, Social academics, Kenyan vendors, Coffee pix, Local food takedown, Ancient horses, Kava bar, Plantae, Root fungi
- Traditional foods fight Native American obesity.
- Round Table on Responsible Soy makes some nice maps.
- The Decade for African Seas and Oceans is off to a blue start.
- Face it, academics, social media are good for you.
- You think Pres. Obama checked out some Nairobi street food?
- Pics of coffee value chain. Wow, that makes it sound really boring.
- Calling bullshit on farm to fork.
- A day in the life of an archeologist of Iron Age horses.
- Kava reaches NYC hipsters.
- Plantae is coming!
- Rice plants colonized by mychorriza express different genes and have more lateral roots.