Scientia pro publica

GrrlScientist launched Scientia pro Publica a couple of weeks ago, and yesterday saw the second edition. SPP, to save digits, is a carnival of general science blogging that goes some way to replacing Tangled Bank, which seems to have gone extinct in a burst of random inactivity. As its title proclaims, SPP is Science for the People, and as GrrlScientist, who I guess felt the lack of Tangled Bank more acutely than the rest of us slobs, says, it exists to celebrate and “to promote the value of communicating science, nature and medicine with the public”.

There’s not a whole heap of agricultural stuff in there, apart from our recent post on heirloom tomatoes. I’m not going to whinge about that, as I now realize that we’ve got your all day, every day carnival of agricultural biodiversity right here. That said, there are a couple of posts that interested me. There’s Kelsey’s post on what happens to cigarette butts, ideal fodder for quiet moments in an awkward conversation. And there’s Tim’s post on triage in conservation which — wouldn’t you know it? — has nary a word on agriculture or crop wild relatives. (Oh dear, I seem to have whinged.)

Nibbles: Assisted migration, Livestock and ecosystems, Agrobiodiversity tourism, Earthworms, Fish, Cucurbits

The connection between wine and beer is agrobiodiversity

Sandor Katz has even had a poem written about his singular obsession:

Come on friends and lend me an ear,
I’ll explain the connection between wine and beer,
And sourdough and yogurt and miso and kraut,
What they have in common is what it’s all about.
Oh the microorganisms, Oh the microorganisms. . .

But don’t let that put you off. Katz is the author of Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods. You can read the introduction, and various other excerpts online, as well as order the book, of course. Microbes are agricultural biodiversity too!

Crops watched at Cropwatch

This is a new one on me. Cropwatch “is an independent watchdog for Endangered & Vulnerable Natural Aromatic Products used in the Aroma (Perfumes, Flavours, Aromatherapy, Cosmetics), Herbal, Traditional Medicine & Phytochemical Industries.” All those capitals give a bit of the flavour of the site. Let’s just say it’s not really beautiful. But it is informative.

Bees for Development

A new web site — beesfordevelopment.org — is your one-stop-shop for information about beekeeping anywhere in the world. The site recently announced new funding from the Wales for Africa Fund of the Welsh Assembly Government and the Rowse Family Trust that is allowing it to offer a specific African Beekeeping Information Portal. You need to register, which is a minor inconvenience, but I’ll bet there are lots of goodies once you are in.