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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.

November 4, 2012November 4, 2012

Magical thinking about olives

Luigi nibbled the ancient olives of Gethsemane a couple of days ago, and I’ve tried to hold my tongue since then. Tried and, now, failed. It is such a crappy article, I’m wondering not only why I’m bothering to link to it but also why it had to be that way. OK, so there are some old olive trees in the garden of Gethsemane. Big deal. There are even older olive trees elsewhere.

And this is just garbage:

“Despite their age, the 900-year-old olive trees were found in excellent health, unaffected by lead pollution and bacteria.

Amazingly, the garden’s earth appears to block insects and bacterial proliferation.”

Amazingly, indeed. Naturally not one of the entirely uncritical news reports I read refers to the original scientific paper reporting the results, although amazingly, nor do any of them repeat the amazing claim. It might have been interesting to see how the DNA of the eight sampled trees — identical in every one, according to the reports — matches up against other olives in the area and further afield. But not sufficiently amazing, I suppose to interest the Vatican’s supported scientists.

So why am I bothering? Because sometimes the crap just gets too much.

November 2, 2012January 10, 2013

Nibbles: Audacity of hops, Potato catalogues, Heirloom apples, Heirloom wheat, UK systematics, Millennial olives, CIAT celebrates, IITA in the news, Agrobiodiversity marketing awards, Insects in orchards, Quinoa

U. of Minnesota has a poster of the pedigree of hop varieties which I covet.
Cool catalogue of the native potatoes of a bit of Ecuador. Via Red Electronica de la Papa.
Stark photos of a few heirloom apples, with descriptions.
Meanwhile, Brockwell Bake sows some heritage wheats. With stark photo
Report on the state of UK capacity in taxonomy. How many countries have reports on the state of their taxonomy? Anyway, here’s some of that capacity at work.
Farrago on some old olives in Jerusalem.
CIAT celebrates 45 years of existence.
Meanwhile, IITA pushes soil fertility management and cassava.
Arca-Deli Awards awarded.
Defra’s latest Biodiversity News has stuff on the importance of insect biodiversity to pest control and pollination in orchards.
The International Year of Quinoa, which is next year, has a website, and all sorts of associated social networking goodness. And here’s a nice little student video on the crop, for a somewhat different perspective.

November 1, 2012February 17, 2014

Nibbles: Using genebanks, Fonio collecting, Bean breeding, Caribbean PGR networking, Cotton breeding, Conflict prevention, Beer foam characterization, Soil microbes, 7ITS

IRRI DG on the Kasalath story and its wider implications.
French collect fonio. Glad someone is.
CIAT bean breeder complains about having too much diversity to play with.
Caribbean needs a regional genebank, catalogue of germplasm. What, still?
Improving cotton in Texas one (or two) chromosomes at the time.
Managing livestock-predator conflicts. The name of the game is prevention.
Candidate gene for improved beer foam identified. I knew all that genomics stuff would come in useful eventually.
Diverse root biome helps plants survive drought.
Gear up for the 7th International Triticeae Symposium, or 7ITS as it is widely, if unfortunately, known.