That’s the title of the European Plant Genetic Resources Conference 2011, organized by Eucarpia, and on right now in Wageningen. Are you there? Can you tell us about it? We would particularly like to know the answer to the question “Whither genebanks?” asked by our old mate Geoff Hawtin. Oh, and here’s a note for the organizers: our blogging and twittering services come quite cheap.
Behold, the coconut!
Myths and legends surrounding the origins of food are, not surprisingly, very common. Here’s a new one on me: according to one story, deftly told by Roland Bourdeix on one of his blogs, the island of Niue — the Rock of Polynesia — owes its name to two very special varieties of coconut. But don’t take my word for it; read Roland’s post.
Are there other places named specifically for foods? And is there some central repository of myths and legends that involve agriculture and food? I don’t know of one.
Six-horned Semien sheep
Couldn’t resist posting this photo of a truly weird sheep.
Nibbles: Pigeonpea, Agrobiodiversity book, Agroforestry
- USC promotes pigeonpeas. And why not.
- “Agrobiodiversity Management for Food Security: A Critical Review” by J M Lenné and D Wood hits newsstands.
- How ICRAF intends to stop agroforestry being marginalized in the new CGIAR. Their words (more or less), not mine.
The morality of data trawling
Is it morally questionable for a genebank to trawl the internet for information from other researchers about its accessions? Ruaraidh thinks maybe, Robert that it would be morally questionable not to do so. Read the full exchange in the comments to our recent post about germplasm documentation being a two-way street. What do you think?