- Banana going extinct. Again.
- Pigs are good weedkillers.
- Bee bailout in the UK.
- India has an agricultural Wikipedia. With a blog. Via.
- Do you know this cat?
- SEED 2009 Awards for entrepreneurs. Found at the LEISA blog.
- TED talk on building better wines through genomics.
Local food systems deconstructed
A bunch of French research organizations have got together into a Groupement d’Intêret Scientifique on “Local Agri-Food Systems.” And the latest volume of Cahiers Agricultures is dedicated to the subject. The articles are free and in French, but with summaries in English.
Nibbles: Training, Teapot, Onion
- Food and Nutrition Security training course starts 30 March 2009. Is biodiversity involved?
- Giant teapot made of coconut shell wins national record.
- Giant database made of food items claims world record. Via.
- Heroes of Horticulture exhibit interrupts US Inauguration. Jeremy comments: “Yay!”
Gorge yourself on chocolate…videos
The great How Stuff Works website has a whole series of videos on how to make chocolate. If only the World Cacao Federation had got in touch with them!
Genebanks not (yet) trendy
WorldFish has a new blog, focusing on spatial data. It’s only been going a few months, but it looks like it may well have some interesting stuff of relevance to agrobiodiversity. One of its early posts reminded me of something I’ve wanted to do for a while, and that is use Google Trends to look at interest in genebanks. In particular, I wanted to know whether all the news about the Svalbard Global Seed Vault has excited people about genebanks in general. Apparently, not.
The various spikes in interest in Svalbard do not seem to have resulted in increasing searches for “genebank” or “seed bank.” At least not that you can yet see clearly. Here’s hoping…