Livestock

Nibbles: Wine, Ass, Maps, Mauka, Pest management, Photos

Mathilda on domestication of the vine and donkey.
New software for species mapping is out: Croziat.
Another day, another tuber.
Using Diversity as a Pest Management Tool. There’s a thought.
Pix of West African plants, including cultivated, with lots of assorted link goodness.

Evidence of extrogression from dogs. That would be the opposite of introgression, and there are apparently lots of examples from mammals.
â€œConservation agriculture is an essential element of … intensification.â€ Oh please.
Simon Maxwell, director of the Overseas Development Institute, on the Millennium Villages etc. Lukewarm, I’d say.
Louise Fresco makes bread at TED. Fiat Panis, eh?
India to manage abiotic stresses. I’ve got a few of those I’d like to manage a bit better.
Arab nations discuss differences of opinion on sustainability. Someone tell me the bottom line.

First Nation takes Canada to court over its salmon stocks. Lawyers exult.
“Radicchio di Verona”, “Zafferano di Sardegna,” “Aceite de La Alcarria” and “HuÃ®tres Marennes OlÃ©ron” protected. Lawyers exult.
Germans to set aside 100 fields to conserve Caucalido-Adonidetum flammeae and the like. That’s arable weeds to me and you. Nobody exults. Oh come on, some of them might be crop wild relatives!
Beetle threatens Florida avocado orchards with deadly fungus. Mexico exults?

Coffee: The World in Your Cup exhibit. I found it at Grist.
Making beer with less water. At last a worthy use for germplasm collections.
Rare Breeds Survival Trust take over sheep semen archive. Ah, those fun-loving Brits!.
Illinois, 1937: farm diary in twitter form.
Have chocolate, will travel.
February 2, 1659: “…today, praise be to God, wine was pressed for the first time from Cape grapes.”
Neanderthals hung out with — and hung on thanks to — biodiversity.
Yield is not enough.