- Assisted location is now managed relocation. So that’s alright then.
- Transhumance is good for ecosystem. Oh, and bison too.
- Geotourism in Yellowstone has a website. Can agroecotourism be far behind? I’m afraid so.
- No relationship between parasite load and genetic diversity in earthworms. Alas.
- “The naming of fish is a nightmare. They have more aliases than Maltese pimps.” Which is why Latin binomials were invented, duh.
- Pix of Colombian cucurbit (and other) diversity.
Nibbles: Pepper, Persimmons, Prosopis, Bio-banking
- Is Kampot pepper the best in the world?
- How the Japanese deal with persimmons.
- Making the Atacama bloom. Sort of.
- Bio-banking is all well and good, but will it be applicable to agrobiodiversity as well as orchids and pandas?
Wouldn’t you know it. That Kampot pepper link has rotted away. But you can still find the original thanks to The Wayback Machine.
The connection between wine and beer is agrobiodiversity
Sandor Katz has even had a poem written about his singular obsession:
Come on friends and lend me an ear,
I’ll explain the connection between wine and beer,
And sourdough and yogurt and miso and kraut,
What they have in common is what it’s all about.
Oh the microorganisms, Oh the microorganisms. . .
But don’t let that put you off. Katz is the author of Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods. You can read the introduction, and various other excerpts online, as well as order the book, of course. Microbes are agricultural biodiversity too!
A tale of two countries
Straight.com ((Vancouver’s Online Source, no less.)) had a longish piece about GMOs a few days back. Normally I wouldn’t bother noting such an occurrence here. I’m bored with the whole debate, frankly. But the article actually strives for balance, which is too unusual to let pass without mention.
Where are the peanuts?
Another splendid Moche tomb has come to light: the finery buried with the Lord of Ucupe is said to be even more impressive than that of the Lord of Sipan. According to the archaeologists, “it’s unheard of to find so many precious funerary ornaments in a single Moche tomb.” Alas, no sign of the wonderful gold and silver necklace and earrings in the shape of peanuts (groundnuts) which graced the mummy of the Lord of Sipan.
I talked about this with our resident peanut expert David Williams and he said he expected that the excavators will have “found some jars full of actual peanuts as part of the all the stuff included in the burial; it’s very common in Moche tombs.” There is a theory, he explained, that peanuts were associated with death, the journey to the afterworld and reincarnation.
When planted, the peanut grows and flowers above ground like any other plant, but then it buries its fruit underground, where it germinates, returning back into the “world of the living”, growing and flowering and burying its fruit, and so on and on, for generations (or incarnations). Plus, the peanut shell is like a little coffin. Peanuts, because of their high protein and caloric value, as well as their lightweight, durable “packaging”, make great travel food, particularly for the long journey to the afterlife.