Indigenous knowledge systems

Nibbles: European plant conservation, Homegardens, Anthropogenic vegetation, Soil Association, Wheat and heat, Coconut meet, Pavlovsk beatdown, Plant species numbers, Vegetation and climate change, Genebank software

How is Europe doing at saving its threatened plants? Paper and website available. How many crop wild relatives are threatened in Europe? I think it should be possible to work it out…
Bioversity colleagues summarize their work on homegardens.
Introduced plants can be useful too!
Soil Association continues to quibble about need to double food supply.
ICARDA looks for heat-beating wheat.
“Coconut Biodiversity for Prosperity” meet coming up soon in Kerala. Local press excited.
Jeremy sets the world straight on Pavlovsk.
Kew et al. set the world straight on how many plants there are in the world. Jury still out on the number of crop wild relatives.
Vulnerability of vegetation to climate change varies around the world. Well there’s a thing now. Nice maps.
If you’re running a livestock cryobank I’ve got the software for you.

IITA set to expand its ability to provide the world with yam diversity.
“Agricultural biodiversity is essential for farmers as it places them in a better position to manage climate change.” Wait, what?
An exotic melon is found in Birmingham, UK. But can you make juice from its seeds?
James dissects the latest genome announcement: cacao. Ignore the press release, just read this.
Biotropica has a special issue on biodiversity. Even some agrobiodiversity.
The history of food consumption in the 20th century. Scary reading.
New Internationalist magazine has a special issue on seed saving! But only a couple of articles available online, alas.
Wonderful photos of the rice harvest from Flickr.
Mongolian cashmere can only get more expensive.
Australians have more to cope with than a back-stabbing prime minister, it seems. Their eucalypts are in trouble. Something to do with fire, maybe.

Maize boffins move on to RNA. Hard row to hoe.
The coolness of hybrids. No, not the cars. Includes crop wild relatives.
Bioversity makes the case that cacao is charismatic. Hard row to hoe.
IITA tries to crowdsource banana production data. Hard row to hoe. BTW, why not include variety information? Well, maybe they will.
Jatropha rebooted?
The history of barley water. Surprisingly weird.
Cory Bradshaw’s presentation on the global erosion of ecosystem services. A quick look reveals little on that often overlooked service: the provision of diversity for agriculture.
The importance of coca in Andean culture.
Chinese medicinal herbs doing just fine in North Carolina.
FAO hunger report parsed by The Guardian.

Good COP, bad COP? Registration opens for Agriculture and Rural Development Day 2010, at COP16, the Climate Change COP.
Maya in Haiti? Jamaica? Institute expands its reach.
India considering making the right to food an actual right to food. But how?
Science magazine shares the Pav-Love-sk.
“From 28 August to 3 October, the Curried Sausage Field is open to visitors on Diedersdorfer Weg in Berlin. This is BfR’s second didactic plant labyrinth.” Don’t even ask.
Bananas for juice. Power type juice.
New book explores history, future of international agriculture. Anyone reading it?
Hear Bioversity’s DG warn Pacific islanders of fast food health risks.
“Without the yeast, beer would be nonalcoholic and noncarbonated.” Yeah, but then what would be the point? The Ecological Society of America considers beer — and issues a delightful apology.
Video on saving Ankole cattle.
Amphibians find it hard to move higher in response to climate change. And plants? Crops? Wild relatives? Has anyone done the modelling?
The pristine Amazon. Not.
Wild tomatoes and drought.
The best plants for pollinators.
When are different crops sown around the world? Gotta love meta-analyses.
Apparently conservationists interested in the economics of it all must abandon the “straightjacket of the Walrasian core.” So now there’s no excuse.