Information

November 9, 2012November 9, 2012

Severe, grave and philosophical

That, we are told by the BBC’s Material World presenter Quentin Cooper, is what Jonathan Swift thought coffee makes us. And I for one would agree with Mr Cooper that it is indeed also how Dr Aaron Davis, Head of Coffee Research at Kew Gardens, and global crop wild relative expert Dr Nigel Maxted, from the University of Birmingham, came over in an interview with him yesterday. It’s all because of that Kew study on the effects of climate change on wild arabica, which is really making the rounds, not least thanks to the BBC. You can download the whole podcast, but we’ve taken the liberty of filleting out the 10 minutes of the programme which feature Drs Davis and Maxted, with many thanks to the BBC. More background on crop wild relatives in Europe from the PGR Secure and the older PGR Forum project website. IUCN has a Red List. There’s a Global Portal. And a big global project on crop wild relatives too. Who says these things are not getting enough attention?

Listen to that key segment.

Read that paper on Arachis, Vigna and Solanum Nigel alluded to.

And dream about attending that FAO workshop he mentioned for next week.

November 8, 2012November 8, 2012

Nibbling as the berries go round

Issue 56 of Berry Go Round – the botany blog carnival – is up at Seeds Aside. Plenty of goodies there, and here are the ones more directly related to our own interests:

Phytophactor gives a one-word answer to the question “Can you eat flowering kale?” He also explains that “flowering” is a misnomer. To which I would add that as an ornamental, “flowering” kale is an abomination while as an edible, flowering kale is scrumptious.
The great P.Z. Myers shares a photograph of a curcurbit tendril. And unleashes a storm of comment crap. Some people…
And Joseph Craine has rounded up n most-important papers about N; where n=12 and N=nitrogen.

Now, why don’t you consider submitting to, or even hosting, the next Berry go Round?

November 7, 2012November 7, 2012

Nibbles: Biodiversity economics, ICARDA social network, Beyond food miles, Heirlooms on BBC, Cannabis, Research funding, Cacao diversity, Agriculture from the air, Sustainable intensification example, Research whine, Japanese botanic garden visit, European PGR network, Tribal Glycene, Youth in agriculture

Oxford Review of Economic Policy has special volume on biodiversity economics. Not much ag, though, settle down.
ICARDA announces on Twitter the existence of a new Facebook page which looks a bit like the old one.
It’s the fertilizer miles, stupid.
Great British Food Revival does heirloom carrots. Oh and beer.
Good news for a particular agricultural biodiversity subsector from Amsterdam and Colorado. The Dude unavailable for comment. For obvious reasons.
If you’re from Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda and are doing research on Neglected and Underutilized Species you’ll be interested in this call or research proposals from ISF.
Bioversity deconstructs that paper on the spatial analysis of Theobroma diversity. I still don’t quite get why they didn’t do the gap analysis.
Farming from the air. And more along the same lines. Or polygons, I suppose I should say. Can you estimate diversity from the air? I bet you can.
Sustainable intensification in (sort of) action.
Damn rice farmers not playing ball.
Oxford botany geeks visit Japan, identify wood of bench in noodle bar.
13th meeting ECPGR Steering Committee. All the documents you’ll need. And then some.
Soybean as a vegetable. Possibly an acquired taste.
How to keep young people on the farm? “Perhaps the first point to recognise is that the evidence base on which to build policy and programmes is frighteningly thin.”

November 5, 2012November 5, 2012

After the storm

Despite Sandy, NPR’s Planet Money, which is made in New York, had a brief podcast on Friday. After The Flood, The Backup Plan examined the different ways in which the US economy speeds recovery after natural disasters. ¹ One of those ways is insurance and, even more so, reinsurance.

Those are the guys who insure the insurers, and while the insurance business as a whole is certainly aware of the impact of climate change on their business model, one J. Eric Smith, CEO of Swiss Re Americas, was at pains to point out that their reserves are plenty big enough to pony up for at least a couple of big natural disasters simultaneously. That’s reassuring.

When asked who insures the re-insurers, Smith was forthright:

We’re insured by diversification.

Just sayin’.

November 5, 2012January 10, 2013

Nibbles: Taro value addition, Tree genomics special issue, MSB database, Japanese tubers, Ghana farmer awards, Omani genebank, Mexican cemeteries, Rotation, Root interactions

Dalo chips! With illustrative goodness.
Tree genomes! Whole journal-full.
Seeds! From Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank, that is. In a database. Or two. Online.
Japanese tubers! If anyone can find the actual video, I’d be very grateful. It’s not here yet. Or here. And I also want to find out more about the mythical Professor Sweet Potato.
Best farmer awards in Ghana! “He cultivates diverse crops…” Ah but not everyone is happy. Via.
An Omani genebank! Still “under process”? There was one of sorts 20 years ago when I worked there.
Day of the Dead! Nuff said.
Crop rotations! The NY Times plays catchup.
John Innes Institute video! Explains a couple of papers in Current Biology on root-microbe interactions, where the microbes are both good and bad.