- The truth about tilapia. Well, according to Fox News, anyway.
- “..the greatest industry that ever had or could by possibility have ever existed in any age or country.” Go on, guess. No, not tilapia aquaculture, though it has time.
- Modern Farmer gives us its hipster take on the potato. And bows out?
- Mars unleashes its sustainability policies.
- The Forest Stewardship Council gives examples of community-based conservation success stories.
- Homegardens for nutrition. (No, no pre-cooked bean products here).
- Ok, put the two previous together and you get this: Sumatran village forests.
- Bet those villagers don’t need a gardening manual, unlike Henry VIII of England.
- The American chestnut continues its comeback. Manual probably available.
- After barcoding: metabarcoding.
- Symposium on non-cow milk. Sounds like fun.
- “With more diversity, the more tools we have to fight against problems like climate change.” Yes, even with wine grapes.
- Biodiversity goods and bads: the role of biodiversity in poverty alleviation.
Nibbles: Potatoes, Saffron, Mammoths, Yield variation, African CWR, Indian cattle
- China needs potatoes. And McDonalds.
- And Afghanistan needs saffron.
- Mammoths killed by people, not asteroids.
- A third of yield variability due to climate.
- Conserving crop wild relatives in southern Africa.
- “The fascination for exotic cattle breeds has been the bane of Indian dairy industry.”
Tracking down Chinese pigs
The most obvious impact has been on the pigs themselves. Until the 1980s farms as large as Mr Ouyang’s were unknown: 95% of Chinese pigs came from smallholdings with fewer than five animals. Today just 20% come from these backyard farms, says Mindi Schneider of the International Institute of Social Studies in The Hague. Some industrial facilities, often owned by the state or by multinationals, produce as many as 100,000 swine a year. These are born and live for ever on slatted metal beds; most never see direct sunlight; very few ever get to breed. The pigs themselves have changed physically, too. Three foreign breeds now account for 95% of them; to preserve its own kinds, China has a national gene bank (basically a giant freezer of pig semen) and a network of indigenous-pig menageries. Nevertheless, scores of ancient variants may soon die out.
That comes from an article in the Christmas edition of The Economist dissecting the consequences of the vertiginous increase in pork consumption in China since the liberalization of agriculture in the 1970s. I tried to find out more about that pig genebank, but it hasn’t been easy. The Country Report for the First Report on the State of the World’s Animal Genetic Resources mentions State Domestic Animal Gene Banks in Beijing and Jiangsu, but adds few details. I suspect the institute in question is CAAS’s Institute of Animal Sciences, but its website does not help much. Wherever it is, the Chinese national pig genebank is going to be busy. DAD-IS lists something like 125 named pig breeds from China, from the Anqing Six White to the Zhejiang Middle Large. One of them — the Wuzhishan — has even had its genome sequenced. On the other hand, it may not be so bad, as according to a 2003 paper, “extensive research on pig genetic diversity in China indicates that these 18 Chinese indigenous breeds may have one common ancestor…”
Incidentally, another agrobiodiversity-themed article in the same issue of the magazine deals with the turkey, and is a nice complement to Jeremy’s two forays into that succulent subject over at Eat This Podcast.
Nibbles: CGRFA, Kew crop job, CC and PGRFA, MAGIC, SDGs, Bushmeat, Biofortification, Protecting trees, Wild coffee, Money honey, Nutmeg story, Colonial cooking, Armenian food
- The Platform for Agrobiodiversity Research breaks down this week’s Fifteenth Regular Session of the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture for ya.
- Kew looking for a crop person! I wonder if the successful candidate is in Rome today.
- Mauricio Bellon on why smallholder farmers need crop diversity to adapt to climate change. He’s in Rome.
- Multi-Parent Advanced Generation Inter Cross (MAGIC) deconstructed. Compare and contrast with above.
- The SDGs in one cool interactive infographic. But where’s nutrition?
- Where is overhunting for bushmeat occurring? Gotta get your nutrition where you can…
- Want to invest in a biofortified crop like iron beans? Here’s how to work out where you should do it. Interesting to cross-reference with that bushmeat thing above?
- Ancient Greek tree preservation order.
- Ethiopian forest dwellers protect wild coffee. No preservation orders needed.
- Tracking honey. Follow the money.
- Could say the same about nutmeg.
- Meat stew with garden eggs. Sounds yummie. Not much used in Kenya these days any more, alas.
- Delving into Armenian Ottoman foods. Because we can. No sign of garden eggs.
European livestock breed conservation assessed
A further addition to the mass of online information on livestock genetic resources around the world. It’s the final report of the SUBSIBREED project, providing and “Overview and assessment of support measures for endangered livestock breeds” in Europe. It was put together by the European Regional Focal Point for Animal Genetic Resources (ERFP), which is hosted by the Information and Coordination Centre for Biological Diversity (IBV) of the Federal Office for Agriculture and Food (BLE)
in Bonn, Germany. I suppose the information will eventually find its way into the relevant databases?
