- Celebrating Charles Heiser and Bob Chambers.
- Quinoa coming into its own in Bolivia.
- Earthscan and Bioversity International team up for new Issues in Agricultural Biodiversity book series.
- Crop wild relatives not just useful to breeders, eggplant edition.
- Vitamin D 101 in pictures.
- Improving pitaya.
- Cassava production trends in Africa in 28 slides. Twenty slides too many, but it’s always good to have the data.
- Beetroot’s colour deconstructed.
- Worldwatch’s 2011 State of the World was released yesterday. Gives a “compelling look at the global food crisis, with particular emphasis on global innovations that can help solve a worldwide problem.” At $19.95 a pop. But supporting material available. Here comes the commentary.
- The genebank at the UK’s Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council gets its 15 minutes of fame.
Nibbles: Old fruit, Same fruit, Fruit juice, Dog breeding, Plant Cuttings, Seed storage, Romanian cattle breeds
- REALLY old fruit found in Chinese cellar.
- Marufo the same as Brujidera? Say it ain’t so!
- Rachel Laudan deconstructs a French depiction of cider-making. Well, someone had to.
- Genetic modification dates back to ancient Mexico.
- Rejoice, Plant Cuttings is out!
- Seeds of alpine plants don’t live as long as those of lower altitudes. So how many crop wild relatives are high-altitude species I wonder?
- Get your teeth into the work of the Transylvanian Rare Breeds Association.
The revival of taro biodiversity in Hawaii, in film
This just in from a reader in Hawaii. Thanks, Penny.
The film short “Na Ono o Ka Aina; Delicacies of the Land” featuring Jerry Konanui, a Hawaiian, expert in the identification of traditional Hawaiian taro cultivars, and an inspiration in their recovery. This film is the work of award winning Hawaii-based filmmakers, Na Maka o Ka Aina. The film garnered awards at the Aotearoa (New Zealand) and Hawaii film festivals in 2009 and 2010, and the short was featured on National Geographic’s “All Roads Film Festival” in 2008. One way to protect local crop biodiversity — reinspire everyone — from farmers to researchers to students; especially within the community that once created that diversity. It’s in the numbers; the more old cultivars we recover and grow and the more who grow, the less risk of loss we will have. You can get a taste of the film short — and the ono (delicious) taros of Hawaii below.
Breed Saviour Award to be handed out
An interesting announcement from DAD-Net.
In the workshop on “National strategy for conservation of indigenous breeds of Livestock” organized by Planning Commission on 28th Sep. 2010 [in] New Delhi, Dr. M.S. Swaminathan suggested the idea of “Breed Saviour Award” for those communities or traditional livestock keepers who are conserving and improving the local livestock breeds. This idea has been accepted by National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) of India. SEVA NGO in association with LIFE Network and NBA will be distributing Breed Saviour Award 2010 on 8 Dec. at Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Based on entries received from different parts of our country we selected 20 pastoralists/livestock keepers who are conserving local livestock breeds. Each awardee will receive Rs. 10,000/= (approx. 200 U.S. dollars ) and a certificate. Awardees are chosen based on criteria for selection of awardees. We have developed a simple format for documentation of individuals or communities conserving local livestock breeds. In the long run we look for formalising and evolving national regsiter for community conservation of livestock breeds with profiles of livestock keepers, indigenous knowledge, innovations and best practices. We look forward valuable suggestions on the format of documentation attached/comments on this process.
Sincerely,
P. Vivekanandan (vivekseva at gmail.com)
SEVA
45, T.P.M. Nagar
Virattipathu
Madurai — 625 010
Tamil Nadu, India
The magic number is 5000
How many times have we heard the (para-) phrase: “It’s simply impractical to bring populations of critically endangered species up into the thousands”?
Well, my friends, if you’re not talking thousands, you’re wasting everyone’s time and money. You are essentially managing for extinction.
Ouch.