- 5th European Symposium on South American Camelids.
- Wine makers count on biodiversity to help them out against pests.
- Sandor Katz, fermentation guru.
- Uttarkhand farmers turn to “herb.” Maybe they went to college here. Luigi comments: I’m on next flight.
- Kenyan governments counts on fish. Wont be holding my breath.
- Moises Jimenez, Bolivian farmer.
- Farming sponges. Not Luffa, the stuff in the sea!
Which came first, beer or bread?
Rachel Laudan tackles the perennial question that keeps food and agriculture nerds awake long into the night … by saying it’s a bad question and asking some better ones.
What problems did grains solve, what tools did humans have? Well, the problem they solved was one of fuel. Humans need fuel. Grains, if you can process them for fewer calories than you get out at the end, are great sources of fuel. Maybe you can even increase the calories by processing.
Blast! That’s another blog I’m going to have to subscribe to. h/t The Scientist Gardener.
A mold that changed the course of history
Here’s part two of that series on late blight I mentioned back on Wednesday. Of course you cannot do justice to the whole story in a teeny blog post, and the author does link to one of the books about the Great Famine. There are many, many more.
Part three digs deep into late blight’s genome to show how it manages to penetrate almost all the defences so far erected against it.
Nibbles: Bison, GMOs, Maize map, Snails, Fruit bat market, News
- Buffalo on California’s Santa Catalina island being sterilized. In other news, there are buffaloes on Santa Catalina island.
- GMO hotspots deconstructed. Zzzzz.
- Maize genome mapped. Zzzzz.
- Nigerian nutritionist pushes slimy micro-livestock. France surrenders.
- How to shop for fruit bats.
- New newsletter from Nepalese NGO. Li-Bird, where is it on your site?
Mobiles against hunger
Over at his other place, Jeremy expounds on an unusual idea for “solving” hunger. What do you think? Does he have too much time on his hands?