- Interesting take on Sudan’s vote; the South has the water, and yet, currently, the food insecurity. What next?
- Quinoa “isn’t lifting us out of poverty … But we are living better.”
- Agrobiodiversity Management for Food Security: A Critical Review. Book, due in April. h/t PAR.
- US seed industry concentration continues. Through an intellectual property lens.
- New IFPRI publication on agriculture, nutrition, health. “Agriculture is the only realistic way for most people to get the nutrition they need.” Can I get a “ramen”?
- USD32 million “to harness science to improve food security for millions of people in the developing world”. Get some while it lasts.
Nibbles: Squash etc, Potatoes, Economics, Pharaonic palm, goats, Chickpea
- Native American eating “best museum cafeteria in town”. “Makes up for the museum,” sniffs Jeremy
- Catalog of advanced clones and improved varieties going like hot potatoes.
- The Economic Impact of Bioversity is apparently “a seriously problem-rich, solution-craving topic”. Innovation Investment Journal says so.
- Pharaonic palm not immortal. Medemia argun “critically endangered”.
- Goat lineage diversity delineated. Paywalled.
- Chickpea diversity includes variability in resistance to salinity. Paywalled.
More on participatory breeding
Speaking of different approaches to breeding, one of the speakers at last year’s tri-societies meeting in Long Beach, California, sent me a link to the session on Participatory Plant Breeding for Food Security and Conservation of Agrobiodiversity. 1 This is very cool technology; given a reasonable internet connection you can hear the talks — and watch the slides, if you’re so minded — of six of the speakers. I listened to the first talk, by Cal Qualset, and the quality is excellent. I must try to find time for the others over the next few days.
Nibbles: Oranges, Pigs, Roundup, Agave
- The Human Flower Project uses Christmas oranges to teach about diversity and traditional knowledge.
- The New York Times discovered the hairy Hungarian Mangalitsa pig … so it must be real.
- SciDev.net’s highs and lows of 2010.
- “The genetic resources from landraces ignored by the tequila industry may be valuable for both ethanol production and conservation.” Uh-huh. h/t Jacob.
2010’s big hits
The Guardian lists “Conservation stories of 2010“. There are a few plants in there, but not much you can get your teeth into. Well, some endangered bushmeat, obviously, but who can afford that?
Cosmos, on the other hand, prefers Ten Biodiversity Hotspots to mark the end of this International Year of Biodiversity. Same old same old: Agriculture features only as the enemy.
This could get tedious …