- Sierra Leone gets back to (rural) work.
- Rachel Laudan not keen on UNESCO protecting culinary traditions.
- Value chains are hard.
- Dual-purpose sorghum in the CGIAR spotlight.
- Andy does cassava. Looks like he may need to buy a house in Bellagio.
- Latest Animal Genetic Resources is out. In other news, there’s an international journal called Animal Genetic Resources.
Live blog today on food security, nutrition and agriculture
AED is
hosting a live blog Monday from an AED forum on food security, nutrition and agriculture. John Donnelly, former reporter at the Boston Globe, will be writing the posts. Watch here for updates.
Wait, that’s TODAY!
LATER: Also today, ask a UNEP expert what the Nagoya deal means.
Nibbles: African data, Wild beans, Wild chickens, Heirloom tomatoes, Wild wheat
- African data centre planned.
- “…genetic variability and phenotypic plasticity of plant anti-herbivore defences allow plant populations to rapidly respond to changing environmental conditions.” In a crop wild relative, no less.
- The genetics of chicken domestication. I’d like to see the results of those crosses.
- Do you have these heirloom tomatoes?
- Getting increased heat tolerance from a wild relative into wheat.
Toma cheese, phone home
“It’s not difficult,” Dr Lombardi said. “What is more difficult is to deliver the product the consumer wants, something not perfect, but with no big flaws either.”
What’s not difficult? To stick an RFID chip and a printed code on the wrapper of a cheese. The code can be read by a smartphone and links the cheese lover “to a phone-optimised website that allows them to browse the information registered about the cheese”.
Matt reports from Terra Madre on a scheme that hopes to add value to Europe’s vast diversity of cheeses and the breeds and ecosystems that produce in a way that even I can understand (and use).
Nibbles: Ethics, Seeds, Coconut, Nordic genebank
- Ethical Considerations in Agro-biodiversity Research, Collecting, and Use. In case you were thinking of doing some.
- Seed control ceded?
- “Scores of women from the rural households brought in finest homemade recipes on coconut.” My kind of conference.
- “Unique plant bank threatened,” says Google Translate of Nordic genebanks. Thanks Britta.