The veritable comms machine that is Bioversity International has been stuck in high gear of late. There’s a fancy shmancy new infographic on agrobiodiversity, reproduced here without permission (let them sue me). And also a photo competition on Women and Agricultural Biodiversity, which is also a nice idea. Maybe I’ll even submit something.
Ruralium commodorum
Medievalists.net has a great article today on the yearly cycle of farming activities, as illustrated in a 15th century manuscript. It reminded me that I really ought to link to FAO’s crop calendar database one of these days.
Nibbles: EU meet, Green cities, Gates strategy, Indigenous hunger, Niche coffee, Salinity, Botany rules, Pollinator evidence, Sacred cows, Coke bottles
- A couple of EU DGs discuss farming for diversity, maybe even diversity in farming?
- They recently heard about urban farming from FAO, which might help. Oh no, wait, that’s a different DG.
- Gates Foundation doubles down on nutrition, nice to see agriculture in the mix too.
- Meanwhile, efforts are underway to measure the food security of indigenous people in better ways, so that we can figure out whether things like the above are actually working.
- Sourcing high quality coffee. I think we can all get behind that goal.
- Deconstructing salt tolerance in chickpea.
- Botany has an image problem. No, really?
- Fact-checking pollinator decline.
- Only local cows for Haryana. Seems extreme? Well, Michigan not above doing the same.
- Coca-Cola has plant-based bottles. Now to embed some seeds in them.
- Maybe Swedish vegetable seeds. Do they have Coke in Sweden?
Brainfood: Indian germplasm, Fancy cores, African veggies, Aquaculture, Characterization, Nature and ag policies, European rewilding
- Indian plant germplasm on the global platter: an analysis. There’s a lot of it out there. But there could be more. And the total number of accessions in Genesys is mis-quoted by an order of magnitude. The message obviously resonates back home, though.
- Signal-processing tools for core-collection selection from genetic-resource collections. Fancy maths lets you combine data types to make better core collections.
- Impact of nutritional perceptions of traditional African vegetables on farm household production decisions: A case study of smallholders in Tanzania. People grow them because they think they’re nutritious.
- Can the Global Adoption of Genetically Improved Farmed Fish Increase Beyond 10%, and How? Through more public breeding, training and benefit-sharing. Well that sounds familiar.
- Phenotypic or Molecular Diversity Screening for Conservation of Genetic Resources? An Example from a Genebank Collection of the Temperate Forage Grass Timothy. Both.
- The alignment of agricultural and nature conservation policies in the European Union. It “remains a challenge.” Which means there isn’t any.
- Mapping opportunities and challenges for rewilding in Europe. Yeah, but see above.
Jeremy Cherfas to make rare public appearance
You anywhere around Trinity College Dublin next Friday? If so, will you be in need of soup and bread? If so, would you mind very much listening to Jeremy while you eat? Ok, then, read this.