Indigenous knowledge systems

January 21, 2011June 20, 2011

Uncontacted agrobiodiversity

Survival International has a new website on Uncontacted Tribes:

More than 100 tribes around the world reject contact with outsiders. This is their story.

Somewhat weirdly, the website includes a map, although it is pointed out that it “won’t help anyone make ‘first contact.’ But it will help to stop oil companies and loggers from invading the lands of uncontacted tribes.”

Be that as it may, I could not resist mashing it up in Google Earth ¹ with the data in Genesys on the world’s holdings of agrobiodiversity. This is the result for an area comprising the Brazilian state of Rondonia and some surrounding regions.

Not surprisingly, there’s not much in the way of germplasm accessions from the general areas occupied by uncontacted tribes. Oil and logging companies may not be the only things that these tribes should be worried about.

January 20, 2011January 20, 2011

Nibbles: Dog, Beer, Human Planet, Entomophagy, Food Atlas, Pepper, Barley

When dog was on the menu.
Going far, and far back, for beer. And indeed yeast. Always worth the effort.
BBC launches Human Planet, focusing on “man’s remarkable relationship with the natural world.” Which apparently doesn’t include agriculture.
Mexicans eat many moth species, and not just the larvae.
Amazing interactive food atlas for the US. wish I had a use for it, but someone surely does.
Breeding a “better” Jalapeño pepper — to hold more cheese, natcho.
Food as politics; the tsampa-eaters of the TAR. h/t GOOD.

January 19, 2011January 19, 2011

Nibbles: IK, Fragaria, Citrus, Millet breeding, Vitis, Agricultural biodiversity, Satellite imagery, Subsistence

Indigenous knowledge of agrobiodiversity makes the news in Indonesia.
Reconstructing the strawberry.
And reconstructing the history of cultivated citrus fruits.
ICRISAT millet breeders get an a new toy.
Plenty of diversity in the cultivated grape still. And it’s going to need it.
Biodiversity (and agrobiodiversity?) needed for farm productivity. Well I never! But more mixed results available too. What’s a poor boy to think?
SPOT 5 imagery can be used to identify crops. In Texas. But in Tanzania?
Agricultural biodiversity and subsistence traditions, Part 2. In the Ozarks. But in Omo? (And here’s Part 1.)

January 13, 2011January 13, 2011

Nibbles: Heiser & Chambers, Quinoa, Books, Grafting eggplants, Vitamin D, Pitaya, Cassava, Beetroot, Worldwatch, BBSRC

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.

January 12, 2011January 12, 2011

Millets go back home

You’ll have to take my word for it, unless you read Chinese, or can make head or tail out of the Google translation of the announcement on the Environmental Information E-News website, but it looks like a number of accessions of Setaria millet from the USDA collection have been “repatriated” to some Taiwanese hilltribe communities who had lost them over the years. Me, I’d have asked for stuff from other places too while I was at it, what with climate change and all, but anyway. There will apparently be more on the project on the website of the Department of Agronomy, National Taiwan University, but again you’ll need some language skills to get the full benefit. Prof. Warren H.J. Kuo is the man in charge. The word is that Taiwan’s Public Television Service will upload something in English to youtube very soon. Looking forward to that.