Information – Page 2 – Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog

October 4, 2018October 4, 2018

Keeping up to date with data from CGN

Interested in new vegetable germplasm? The Centre for Genetic Resources, the Netherlands (CGN) has you covered.

CGN frequently adds new material to its collections and new information to its publicly available data. Via this page you can easily check what’s new!

This is the page to bookmark.

Remember that these data eventually find their way to the European genebank database, Eurisco, and thence to Genesys, which is your global gateway to germplasm collections, and thence to the Global Information System of the International Treaty. This will cover not just genebank collections, but eventually also in situ conserved material and the products of plant breeding using either of these.

October 2, 2018

Eat up Edible Memory this month

Jennifer Jordan’s Edible Memory: The Lure of Heirloom Tomatoes and Other Forgotten Foods can be downloaded free as an ebook from the University of Chicago Press website during October.

Sandra M. Gilbert, author of The Culinary Imagination: From Myth to Modernity
“Edible Memory is a compelling exploration of the lure and lore of foods that have become culinary ‘heirlooms,’ especially some kinds of tomatoes, but also apples, stone fruits, even leeks and turnips. A meticulous scholar and an incisive sociologist, Jordan writes with verve and wit throughout this beautifully nuanced study. Exploring the many varieties of culinary nostalgia, she avoids sentimentality while investigating our sometimes paradoxical yearnings for fruits and vegetables we may not even have eaten in our own lives and our curiously Proustian longings for (even) Jell-O molds and boxed cakes. Her book is an important contribution both to food studies and, more generally, to the history of taste.”

September 24, 2018September 24, 2018

Brainfood: NUS crackers, Genomic prediction, Chicken double, Wild German celery, Cretan sheep, Boricua papaya, Sorghum breeding, Wheat breeding, Italian carrots, Mining barley, Onion review, Fertilizers

Development of value-added nutritious crackers with high antidiabetic properties from blends of Acha (Digitaria exilis) and blanched Pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan). Putting orphan crops to work.
A deep convolutional neural network approach for predicting phenotypes from genotypes. Artificial intelligence applied to genomic selection. Sexy enough for you?
Genomic diversity dynamics in conserved chicken populations are revealed by genome-wide SNPs. Gotta watch those effective population sizes.
Chicken semen cryopreservation and use for the restoration of rare genetic resources. Maybe a way to help with the above?
Patterns of Genetic Diversity and Implications for In Situ Conservation of Wild Celery (Apium graveolens L. ssp. graveolens). 15 Most Appropriate Wild Populations out of 78. Still seems like a lot.
Challenges for local breed management in Mediterranean dairy sheep farming: insights from Central Greece. Conservation through cross-breeding. But how long can it last?
Genetic Diversity of Puerto Rican Farmer-held Papaya (Carica papaya) Using SSR Markers. I wonder how many are left after Maria.
Breeding Sorghum for Diverse End Uses: Genetic Improvement of Grain Sorghum. More germplasm could be used.
Harnessing genetic potential of wheat germplasm banks through impact-oriented-prebreeding for future food and nutritional security. Getting impact from “exotic” germplasm is possible. To be clear, I think that just means wild stuff.
BiodiverSO: A Case Study of Integrated Project to Preserve the Biodiversity of Vegetable Crops in Puglia (Southern Italy). Saving the Polignano carrot.
Genomics Approaches to Mining Barley Germplasm Collections. Management, cores, history. But we knew that.
Allium Genetic Resources. Significant progress in data availability, cryopreservation protocols, health status and levels of evaluation. Maybe acquisition and exchange could be increased?
Review: Taking stock of Africa’s second-generation agricultural input subsidy programs. 80 studies from 7 countries show that helping smallholders obtain fertilisers gives rapid but short-term and lower-than-expected increases in production. One reason is that yields don’t respond to fertilisation as much as they should. Is it because it’s mainly landraces?

September 19, 2018September 20, 2018

Nibbles: Transformation, Restoration, Renumeration, Validation, Mensuration, Celebration, Visualization, Diversification, Fructification, Information, Fermentation, Sustentation, Association, Migration, Transformation, Microconservation

Lawrence Haddad on how to start transforming the food system.
Here’s an idea: CIMMYT genebank recognized for restoring agricultural diversity in Guatemala.
And another. Cash transfers are better than more conventional interventions for malnutrition, but they have to be real money.
But, of course, they don’t always work. That’s one of many development myths listed in this fun Twitter thread.
We also need metrics, sure, but the right ones, and we may already have them.
The first ecologist remembered. That would be Humboldt.
Terrible visualizations of the changing geography of American agriculture.
But where are heirloom grown? Rice, say?
And where are all the pomegranate farmers?
I’m sure there are plenty of grape maps of France somewhere. But what’s with all these varieties? And are there more than in pomegranate?
IUCN launches a new Red List website.
Laos launches a sort of Red List website on traditional foods. Here it is. No word on linkages with Ark of Taste.
Belgian lambic beer threatened by climate change. Now it’s personal.
In Italy, the landscape needs people to keep it safe.
Even olive landscapes, which maybe need to be more promiscuous.
Early agricultural migrations fuelled by cheese.
Early eggplant migrations fuelled by elephants.
Microbes to the rescue.

September 17, 2018

Brainfood: Social media, Wheat double, Apple diversity, Land use change theory, Land use change praxis, Intensification, Ag metrics

How Do Young Adults Engage With Science and Research on Social Media? Some Preliminary Findings and an Agenda for Future Research. Facebook, not Twitter. So I’m doing it all wrong? Any young adults reading this and want to tell me how I’m doing?
Genetic dissection of grain zinc concentration in spring wheat for mainstreaming biofortification in CIMMYT wheat breeding. Two interesting regions on different chromosomes.
Harnessing genetic potential of wheat germplasm banks through impact-oriented-prebreeding for future food and nutritional security. Not just Zn.
Genetic analysis of a major international collection of cultivated apple varieties reveals previously unknown historic heteroploid and inbred relationships. The deep history of the justly famous UK collection.
Middle-range theories of land system change. Towards a Grand Unified Theory. But do we need one?
Classifying drivers of global forest loss. Commodities, basically. But what’s the good of that without a theory?
The environmental costs and benefits of high-yield farming. Theory shtheory: measure externalities.
Beyond Calories: A Holistic Assessment of the Global Food System. Micronutrients get lost disproportionately badly along the supply chain. How’s that for a theory?