- Lethal Yellowing doing for coconuts — and livelihoods — in Mozambique. And typhoons in the Philippines.
- Potted history of maize hybrids from 1998.
- Unusual rice and tomato species sequenced.
- The challenges of measuring the impact of nutrition interventions.
- Old interview with Michael Pollan on biodiversity and health resurfaces, maybe to coincide with the above.
- What will be the nutrition impact of replacing matooke with cassava, I wonder? Maybe if it was yellow cassava it would be ok?
- Maybe Shamba Shapeup will tell us.
- Well, there’s always wine. Even in Ethiopia.
- Or insects. Or roiboos. If you’re in South Africa.
- Chinese dumplings responsible for climate change.
- New Scoop.it page on downy mildews.
- And new Flipboard section on quinoa. And something to add to it.
- Eid Mubarak! Celebrate with mango kunafa.
- But which variety?
Brainfood: Agricultural anthropology special edition, Breeding gourami, FGR indicators, Solanum phenomics, Organic aphids, Restoration genetics, Wild Vigna, Genebanks & genomics
- Tending the Field: Special Issue on Agricultural Anthropology and Robert E. Rhoades. Agrobiodiversity conservation, participatory and collaborative research, and the politics of agricultural development.
- Genetic Diversity of Siamese Gourami from Sumatra, Java and Kalimantan for Selective Breeding of Fish Culture. Yeah, but does it taste nice? Time for some fishicultural anthropology, methinks.
- Global to local genetic diversity indicators of evolutionary potential in tree species within and outside forests. You can’t use indirect indicators of pressure, benefit or response independently of state indicators for genetic diversity. Anyway, here’s a bunch of all of those for you to ponder.
- Conventional and phenomics characterization provides insight into the diversity and relationships of hypervariable scarlet (Solanum aethiopicum L.) and gboma (S. macrocarpon L.) eggplant complexes. High-throughput phenotyping platform built for tomatoes distinguishes between really variable complexes of other solanaceous berries.
- Organic vs. conventional farming dichotomy: Does it make sense for natural enemies? Yes.
- Genes are not information: Rendering plant genetic resources untradeable through genetic restoration practices. Decommodify to commodify. No, really.
- Prioritising in situ conservation of crop resources: A case study of African cowpea (Vigna unguiculata). 9 of 13 priority wild cowpea taxa are likely to be found in protected areas.
- Genebanks and genomics: how to interconnect data from both communities? Beyond databases.
Brainfood: Landscape preferences, Livestock selection, Romanian conservation, Nordic Horseradish, Social structuring, Darjeeling tea, ZFarming, Pineywoods cattle, Cotton breeding, Neglected veggies
- Public preferences for ecosystem-enhancing elements in agricultural landscapes in the Swiss lowlands. People don’t like complex agricultural landscapes as much as they should. Well, in photos anyway.
- Some traditional livestock selection criteria as practiced by several indigenous communities of Southern Ethiopia. The selection methods of elders are based on characters that correlate with production and reproduction efficiency. Now there’s a shocker.
- Needs and gaps in the conservation of wild plant genetic resources for food and agriculture in Romania. 4 out of 300 useful wild species may need better protection. Sounds like a pretty good score to me.
- Genetic diversity in Nordic horseradish, Armoracia rusticana, as revealed by AFLP markers. Each Nordic country has pretty much its own.
- How social organization shapes crop diversity: an ecological anthropology approach among Tharaka farmers of Mount Kenya. Diversity of crops and of sorghum landraces is structured socially, with neighbourhood groups being an important organizing principle.
- The labor of terroir and the terroir of labor: Geographical Indication and Darjeeling tea plantations. GI has worked because marketing has convinced people that industrial plantations are also idyllic gardens, but the workers know better.
- Urban agriculture of the future: an overview of sustainability aspects of food production in and on buildings. You need to work at it.
- Long in the Horn: An Agricultural Anthropology of Livestock Improvement. “Livestock as landscape” in the southern US.
- Usefulness and Utilization of Indian Cotton Germplasm. Need to try chemical and physical mutagenesis as well as bring in new diversity from abroad. Do I detect a slight whiff of desperation?
- Potential and biodiversity conservation strategies of underutilized or indigenous vegetables in Himahal Pradesh. Improve provision of planting materials, management practices, harvesting methods, post-harvest , marketability, nutritional status and policies and legal frameworks. Really? Is that all? I suspect anyone into NUS could have told you that before you even went into the field.
Brainfood: One Thai rice landrace, Adding value to coffee, Dairy cattle in Mexico, Sugarcane core, Bermudagrass salinity, Developing the Tibetan plateau, Amazon oil palm, Pollinator diversity
- Natural and human-mediated selection in a landrace of Thai rice (Oryza sativa). There is selection, but that’s counteracted by exchange and diverse agronomic practices. The result is diversity, but structured.
- Trademarks, Geographical Indications and Environmental Labelling to Promote Biodiversity: The Case of Agroforestry Coffee in India. Adding value locally is the only way to stop a really lucrative cash crop destroying the forest.
- Characterization of dairy cattle germplasm used in Mexico with national genetic evaluations in importing and exporting countries. Bringing in diversity from another country is not always the best approach.
- Phenotypic characterization of the Miami World Collection of sugarcane (Saccharum spp.) and related grasses for selecting a representative core. 300 accessions will do. That’s a bit more than 10% of the total.
- Genetic variation of salinity tolerance in Chinese natural bermudagrass (Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers.) germplasm resources. There is some. Good for all those golf courses.
- The sustainable development of grassland-livestock systems on the Tibetan Plateau: problems, strategies and prospects. There are 19 things to do, and genetic resources are important across the board.
- Status and prospects of oil palm in the Brazilian Amazon. On already deforested land, for biofuel. What could possibly go wrong?
- Bee Species Diversity Enhances Productivity and Stability in a Perennial Crop. That would be the highbush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum). Can we take this for granted now?
Nibbles: Dryland agroforestry, Parmigiano DOC, Killer tomatoes, Purslane salad, Breadfruit $, Community seedbanks, Kiribati under water, Landscapes
- At the risk of annoying Dave Wood again, here’s something on agroforestry in Africa.
- A podcast on what it takes to make parmigiano reggiano.
- Speaking of Italian agricultural products, it’s not all sweetness and light.
- But can you put purslane on pizza?
- Funding breadfruit.
- Community seed banks take off in India.
- Kiribati will need some too. But in Fiji.
- The Landscapes for People, Food and Nature Initiative is on Slideshare. Not much comfort for Kiribati, I suspect.