- One crazy French guy, 1134 tomato varieties.
- The World Coffee Research International Multi Location Variety Trial really gets off the grounds. See what I did there?
- The Basques descend from Neolithic farmers.
- Ancient Sri Lankan irrigation systems. Which Bangladesh doesn’t need.
- National Heirloom Expo is on.
- Did we link to this three-trillion-tree story yet? I don’t think so. How many are edible fruit trees, I wonder?
- …or indeed agroforestry and fertilizer trees. Always worth listening to Jules Pretty.
- So much for the Paleolithic Diet.
- In agricultural innovation, “optimal IPR use depends on the technology itself as well as on market conditions.”
- Multinational food companies found to be short-sighted shock.
- The global impacts of UK food consumption.
- The Wheat Initiative has an agenda.
- Can you recognize these crops? ‘Course you can.
- Eggplant pre-breeding project involving wild relatives makes mainstream media. Faith in humanity restored. Until you see what else is on that page.
- Drought hits Ethiopia. Let them eat sweet potatoes?
Patently broken?
Patents are good for innovation, right? Well…
In 1970 the United States recognised the potential of crop science by broadening the scope of patents in agriculture. Patents are supposed to reward inventiveness, so that should have galvanised progress. Yet, despite providing extra protection, that change and a further broadening of the regime in the 1980s led neither to more private research into wheat nor to an increase in yields. Overall, the productivity of American agriculture continued its gentle upward climb, much as it had before.
From an interesting piece in The Economist on why patents may not be all they’re cracked up to be after all, not least for agriculture.
Nibbles: Conservation genetics, African fish farming, Ecological intensification, Elderly diets, Organic breeding, Conference tweeting, Mexican maguey, African PBR
- Conservation genetics papers from Latin America, courtesy of special issue of the Journal of Heredity. No ag, but no problem.
- African aquaculture takes off. Or perhaps rises to the surface would be more appropriate.
- Expert parses what experts said “sustainable intensification” means.
- Leafy greens and wine good for oldies. Good to know.
- Student Organic Seed Symposium to discuss “Growing the Organic Seed Spectrum: A Community Approach” in a few days’ time.
- How to tweet. At scientific conferences, that is.
- Maguey genebank in the offing. Well worth tweeting about.
- Arusha Protocol on the Protection of New Plant Varieties (Plant Breeders’ Rights) adopted. Basically UPOV 1999 for Africa. But I suspect the polemics are only just starting.
Nibbles: Barley domestication, Apple pie, Mexican food & drink, CABI, Old seeds, IT
- Secret of barley brittle rachis revealed. In other news, there’s a Centre of Excellence in Plant Cell Walls.
- Bramley apple pie filling protected. But from who?
- Participatively bred Oaxacan maize finds a market niche.
- Have some tequila with that participatively bred Oaxacan maize.
- “We can call a government and tell them our data is telling us that a pest is on the way.”
- The coolness of seeds.
- Yeah but “[g]ood seed in the wrong place is no longer good seed.”
Nibbles: Seeds, IPES report, Old wheat & bread, Twiga, Coca eradication, Double cheese, Breeding apples, Rose collection, Old tea, Insect as food, Fishing industry, UNFCCC negotiations, Famine book, Comms toolkit
- Seeds scoped in the Pacific. I doubt the region will feature much in the Access to Seeds Index. Not unless it features community seed production groups like Atauro in East Timor.
- Wanna reform the food system? Here’s the theory.
- And here’s the practice, at least for wheat (and bread). Though some would probably beg to differ.
- Blowing up African retail, one banana at the time.
- Biological control of coca. What could possibly go wrong.
- The reason for the holes in swiss cheese? We finally have the data.
- But personally I prefer halloumi.
- There are patents. There is PVP. And there are trademarks. A podcast on apple breeding, if you can believe it.
- A whole bunch of heirloom roses all in one place.
- Museum boffins find stale tea, Brits go ape.
- Go on, have an insect.
- Or maybe a nice piece of fish. While you can.
- Confused about the UNFCCC negotiations about agriculture? Farming First has you covered.
- Famine is history. Discuss.
- NSF toolkit for communicating science. Maybe I should have read this before Nibbling.