- Change at the helm at Crops for the Future. Best wishes to all concerned.
- African Rice Congress wraps up. Successfully, no doubt.
- Tell you Sacred Garden story. Go on then…
- Nigel Chaffey rounds up botanical news. The best of the kind, for my money.
- The art of eating durian.
- Bye, and thanks for the fish.
- DFID on undernutrition in India. Very short on specifics. Where’s the varied diets stuff?
- Gotta virus clean those heirloom sweet potatoes.
- Latest from CBD ABS negotiations in Cali. Anybody there want to give us the scoop?
- Endemic wild tomato relatives from Atacama Desert… I dunno…investigated I guess.
- Russian boffin grows apricots in Siberia.
Nibbles: Sheep genotypes, Farming Matters, African Rice Congress, Malawi food, Quinoa et al.
- Better sheep through information. From Australia, natch. Thanks, Dirk.
- New Farming Matters out. When did this ILEIA magazine change its name? Remains essential reading anyway.
- Some participants voice their expectations of the African Rice Congress.
- A traditional Malawi meal.
- Whole grain recipes.
Nibbles: Seeds, Organics, Absinthe, Potato, Cattle genome, Tree diseases, Rice, ABS, Avian flu
- Software will ease seed availability. No, really.
- Enforcement of organic regulations sometimes flawed. No really.
- Absinthism a myth. No, really.
- Potato film hits big time. No, really.
- “Influential” bulls sequenced. No, really.
- Tree diseases distribution will change under climate change. No, really?
- Boffins in drive to double rice production in Africa. No, really.
- Boffins and lawyers meet to sort out biodiversity access and benefit sharing thing. No, really. And, incidentally, what could possibly go wrong?
- H5N1 committee wonders whether they have sampled enough. No, really.
A trifecta of fishy stories
Lots of fish stuff on the tubes today, mainly from the CITES conference in Doha. There’s of course news of the rejection of the proposed ban on bluefin tuna. But the beluga is also in trouble. Why are such fish threatened? Increasing consumer demand large, predatory — and therefore rarer — species, says a study.
A study of a century’s worth of seafood recipes has revealed that big, predatory fish like salmon and tuna have grown in prestige, even as overfishing has caused their populations to plummet – sometimes to the point of endangerment.
Time for a move back down the food chain.
Nibbles: Fungi, Dogs, Protected areas, Banana, Ethiopia, Haiti
- Chromosomes can hop from one pathogenic fungus to another. Probably not a good thing.
- Dogs originated in the Middle East after all. Decide, already, will ya?
- IUCN also has a Protected Area of the Day. Genebank of the day, anyone?
- Problems with bananas in Uganda surprisingly mainly abiotic. Live and learn.
- Vaviblog celebrates Gary Nabhan’s birthday. Kinda. Which is also St Patrick’s Day? How cool is that?
- Report on Haiti’s seed security. Needs digesting.