- REALLY old fruit found in Chinese cellar.
- Marufo the same as Brujidera? Say it ain’t so!
- Rachel Laudan deconstructs a French depiction of cider-making. Well, someone had to.
- Genetic modification dates back to ancient Mexico.
- Rejoice, Plant Cuttings is out!
- Seeds of alpine plants don’t live as long as those of lower altitudes. So how many crop wild relatives are high-altitude species I wonder?
- Get your teeth into the work of the Transylvanian Rare Breeds Association.
The truth about camel wool
Now, you may think … [that] … camel wool is quite famous for making rather nice garments. However, normally such wool is sourced from two-humped camels who live in the cold and high-altitude deserts of Mongolia and China. Our wool is from one-humped dromedary camels 1 whose hair is quite short and rough and was until now believed to be much too scratchy to process into any thing else than a rope or a rug.
Actually I did think that. You live and learn. But really, would it kill the Rolex Award people to enable an RSS feed from the blogs of their laureates?
Breed Saviour Award to be handed out
An interesting announcement from DAD-Net.
In the workshop on “National strategy for conservation of indigenous breeds of Livestock” organized by Planning Commission on 28th Sep. 2010 [in] New Delhi, Dr. M.S. Swaminathan suggested the idea of “Breed Saviour Award” for those communities or traditional livestock keepers who are conserving and improving the local livestock breeds. This idea has been accepted by National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) of India. SEVA NGO in association with LIFE Network and NBA will be distributing Breed Saviour Award 2010 on 8 Dec. at Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Based on entries received from different parts of our country we selected 20 pastoralists/livestock keepers who are conserving local livestock breeds. Each awardee will receive Rs. 10,000/= (approx. 200 U.S. dollars ) and a certificate. Awardees are chosen based on criteria for selection of awardees. We have developed a simple format for documentation of individuals or communities conserving local livestock breeds. In the long run we look for formalising and evolving national regsiter for community conservation of livestock breeds with profiles of livestock keepers, indigenous knowledge, innovations and best practices. We look forward valuable suggestions on the format of documentation attached/comments on this process.
Sincerely,
P. Vivekanandan (vivekseva at gmail.com)
SEVA
45, T.P.M. Nagar
Virattipathu
Madurai — 625 010
Tamil Nadu, India
Nibbles: FAO newsletters, Spanish fowl, Jamaican cattle, Food composition database
- New Plant Breeding News and Non-Wood Forest Products.
- Nice pix of Spanish chicks.
- Jamaican cattle in trouble, man.
- FAO/INFOODS Food Composition Database on Biodiversity will be published on 15 December 2010. Put out more flags.
Nibbles: Caucasus, Disease, Pork, Nepali genebank, Rare Breeds, Climate
- All hail the garden of agrobiodiversity that is the Southern Caucasus, says FAO.
- Paywalled Nature paper links biodiversity with disease spread — even in agriculture. Get it here.
- Roman pig yields the secrets of tasty pork — in about another 2000 years.
- Nepal’s genebank goes from strength to strength.
- Rare Breeds Survival Trust gets lifetime achievement award. Good to gnaw.
- “It’s high time the ancestral knowledge possessed by small farmers and indigenous people was appreciated at its true value.” Climate change edition.