- Rubber is running out.
- Hand pollination is better than fertilisers etc. for cacao yields.
- When all is said and done, agriculture is a third of emissions.
- A wild Mexican yam is behind the Pill.
- The cultural history of plants.
Nibbles: Zoos, China genebank, Trinidad genebank, Patagonia & Breadfruit Institute, Dichotomising food, African food, Twitty on rice
- Seed banks, but for animals.
- New genebank, for seeds, in China.
- Old genebank, for seeds, in Trinidad & Tobago.
- Food company collaborates with oldish genebank, of trees.
- Industrialist or organicist, we’re still going to need genebanks.
- Podcasting on African food. Not a genebank in sight.
- How an African food became an American food.
Nibbles: Millets 2023, Pygmy hog, Iraqi seeds, Botanicals, Business, EU
- Watch out for the millets renaissance.
- This small wild pig is already having a renaissance.
- Can you help with the renaissance of some Iraqi vegetable seeds?
- Alpine botanicals will be having anything but a renaissance. Genebanks anyone?
- No way to call the uptick in interest in biodiversity in the financial industry a renaissance. I’m not even sure it’s an uptick, actually. Absinthe, anyone?
- Will the EU’s Farm to Fork plus biodiversity strategies lead to an environmental renaissance?
Nibbles: Bean atlas, Community seedbanks double, Canadian stamps
- New edition of the Atlas of Common Bean Production in Africa still doesn’t have localities of genebank accessions.
- Community seed banks have genebank accessions in Kenya and India.
- Canadian stamps have crabapple varieties that are probably genebank accessions somewhere.
Brainfood: Extra livestock edition
- Resilience and livestock adaptations to demographic growth and technological change: A diachronic perspective from the Late Bronze Age to Late Antiquity in NE Iberia. The changing balance between sheep, cattle and pigs through time was driven by socio-economics more than environment.
- Heat stress will detrimentally impact future livestock production in East Africa. 4-19% of livestock production will have more heat to cope with.
- Pastoralism in the highest peaks: Role of the traditional grazing systems in maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem function in the alpine Himalaya. A ban on grazing would be counter-productive.
- The evolving interface between pastoralism and uncertainty : reflecting on cases from three continents. Adaptive herd management, livelihood mosaics, persisting mobility, reticular territories, and articulated social networks have been enough, but for how long more?
- Redefinition of the Mora Romagnola Pig Breed Herd Book Standard Based on DNA Markers Useful to Authenticate Its “Mono-Breed” Products: An Example of Sustainable Conservation of a Livestock Genetic Resource. Fraudsters beware.
- Estimating the genetic diversity of Pacific salmon and trout using multigene eDNA metabarcoding. DNA was recovered from the water, for pity’s sake.