Information – Page 394 – Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog

December 6, 2010December 16, 2010

Tajikistan landscape with wild relatives

Tajikistan landscape

Originally uploaded by luigig

Wild relatives of apples, cherries, almonds and grapes are to be found in this landscape, apparently. More later on my trip.

December 6, 2010December 6, 2010

European production and yield data online

Just a quick addendum to the recent discussion of maps of crop production statistics. I’ve found a source of geographical data on crop production for Europe. And also one on yield forecasting in Europe (and elsewhere) based on satellite imagery.

December 6, 2010

Nibbles: FAO newsletters, Spanish fowl, Jamaican cattle, Food composition database

New Plant Breeding News and Non-Wood Forest Products.
Nice pix of Spanish chicks.
Jamaican cattle in trouble, man.
FAO/INFOODS Food Composition Database on Biodiversity will be published on 15 December 2010. Put out more flags.

December 2, 2010December 2, 2010

What is biodiversity?

You know what? This video is really rather good. Hats off to the team at the Vancouver Film School.

December 1, 2010December 1, 2010

Nibbles: Cancun, Wine, Zambia, Bees

Just in time. Agriculture and Rural Development Day 2010 now has RSS.
“It wasn’t debilitated in any way.” World’s oldest beer and wine drunk.
Zambian farmers buy seeds, fertilisers and herbicides by mobile phone. What could possibly go wrong?
Red bees! A little too much biodiversity to blame? h/t Tasting Cultures

1. Ancient farmers didn’t have to wait for the genetic diversity that made domestication possible. They selected from variation already present in wild plants, including the ancestors of rice and maize. Domestication was as much about spotting (or happening upon) useful differences as creating new ones.
2. English colonists in America called Indigenous dogs “wolves,” revealing as much about colonial perceptions as about the animals themselves. This history of Indigenous dogs shows how unfamiliar animals were classified through peculiarly European ideas about wildness.
3. Austria is bringing forgotten apple varieties back to life. Saving old varieties in genebanks is one thing: getting people to grow, sell and eat them is another, but it can be done. Or at least tried.
4. Jordan’s olive-oil heritage centres on traditional varieties such as Nabali and ancient Rumi trees, but most production is consumed locally, leaving exports limited and making provenance, cultivar and harvest date important indicators for buyers. Compare and contrast with Austrian apples.
5. Small island developing states have distinctive food cultures and ingredients, but face particular challenges in building sustainable and resilient food systems. FAO’s A Taste of SIDS explores the connections between island food, biodiversity and culinary heritage. Nice to see diversity within crops considered, though a few local variety names would have been nice.
Published on October 21, 2026