Mainstream

April 6, 2017

Are you a new or a traditional conservationist?

Although discussions about the aims and methods of conservation probably date back as far as conservation itself, the ‘new conservation’ debate as such was sparked by Kareiva and Marvier’s 2012 article entitled What is conservation science?

Two prominent positions have emerged in this debate, that of Kareiva and Marvier, which we label ‘new conservation’ (top-left quadrant of the figure below), and a strongly opposed viewpoint that we label ‘traditional conservation’ (bottom-right quadrant).

These positions can be clearly distinguished by their views on nature and people in conservation on the one hand, and on the role of corporations and capital in conservation on the other hand (the two axes in the figure).

Want to know which quadrant you fall into? Take the survey.

I did, and this is what I got.

Which basically means I’m wishy-washily neutral (agnostic? conflicted?) on the role of the private sector, and apparently think conservation needs to show some benefit for people, in particular poor people. And in that it seems I’m pretty near the centroid of opinion, at least when it comes to the last 100 people who took the survey. Of course, this is for biodiversity conservation. I wonder if the results would be different for conservation of agricultural biodiversity.

April 3, 2017April 10, 2017

Brainfood: Banana identification, Donkey domestication, Mouse domestication, African cattle, Pig domestication, Biofuels, Biofortification, Genomics for breeding, Species movement, Crop diversity double, N fixation, Ag commercialization models, Wild beans, Brassica domestication, Teaching biodiversity

Molecular and cytological characterization of the global Musa germplasm collection provides insights into the treasure of banana diversity. 16% of 1500 accessions need taxonomic verification. Could have been much worse.
Why the Donkey Did Not Go South: Disease as a Constraint on the Spread of Equus asinus into Southern Africa. Gap in distribution between Kenya and southern Africa until colonial times probably down to trypanosomiasis.
Origins of house mice in ecological niches created by settled hunter-gatherers in the Levant 15,000 y ago. Hunter gatherers inadvertently domesticated the mouse.
The genome landscape of indigenous African cattle. Now we know where the genes for heat tolerance and tick resistance can be found, and it’s where you’d think.
Insights into early pig domestication provided by ancient DNA analysis. In northern Europe, around 4000 BC, people started crossing pigs from the south with local wild boars. What were they thinking?
Recent grassland losses are concentrated around U.S. ethanol refineries. The revenge of geography.
Provitamin A biofortification of crop plants: a gold rush with many miners. “One crucial aspect that needs further experimentation is whether β-carotene-fortified crops can improve vitamin A status in the main targets of the biofortification efforts, that is, malnourished adults and children.” Just going to leave that out there.
Genomic innovation for crop improvement. Longer reads needed. Is there no satisfying these gene-jockeys?
Biodiversity redistribution under climate change: Impacts on ecosystems and human well-being. Species movements affect ecosystem functioning and service provision: “The indirect effects of climate change on food webs are also expected to compound the direct effects on crops.”
Feeding the Household, Growing the Business, or Just Showing Off? Farmers’ Motivations for Crop Diversity Choices in Papua New Guinea. Some people grow lots of crops because it’s cool. But why wasn’t this done at the intraspecific level?
To Specialize or Diversify: Agricultural Diversity and Poverty Dynamics in Ethiopia. Forget coolness, crop diversity makes you less poor.
Biogeography of nodulated legumes and their nitrogen-fixing symbionts. Australia is weird.
Plantations, outgrowers and commercial farming in Africa: agricultural commercialisation and implications for agrarian change. They all have their place.
Genomic history of the origin and domestication of common bean unveils its closest sister species. Wild populations from northern Peru and Ecuador are not derived from wild Phaseolus vulgaris which migrated there from Mesoamerica but are actually a different species which predates the evolution of wild common bean.
Genomic inferences of domestication events are corroborated by written records in Brassica rapa. Five genetic groups, with rapini at the base.
Walking and talking the tree of life: Why and how to teach about biodiversity. Forget ranks, try clades.

March 31, 2017March 31, 2017

Nibbles: Mango genebank, Japanese elite fruit, Mother Hass, African cattle diversity, New wild ginger, Seed saving, False ivory, ABS, Deforestation, Blight causes, Desert ag, Conserving potatoes, Imperial botany

Goa to set up a mango genebank. Where do I donate?
The murky world of really expensive Japanese fruit.
What is this one avocado tree worth?
The importance of indigenous African cattle breeds.
You can never have too many wild ginger species.
Saving seeds in South Carolina.
Seeds save elephants.
IFPRI meeting discusses the increasing complexity of germplasm access and benefit sharing.
Food giants look to their greenify their value chains. Will they finally decide to secure their genetic base too?
Irish potato famine: don’t blame the near-fungus.
Chinese oasis is engineering wonder: and the crops?
Pachamama and the ever-so-humble potato.
Review of book on the imperial origins of botany.

March 17, 2017

Nibbles: Chocolate & deforestation, Sweet potato breeding, Diversification, Aurochs redux, Flower viewing, Saharan history, CeCaCT

Chocolate makers decide to go green. How about conserving the genetic resources of the crop, though?
“Being a crop breeder in the modern world sometimes feels like being a fire fighter equipped with a very slow truck.”
UNDP supports agricultural diversification.
Reconstructing the aurochs.
We could all do with some hanami. And a hug.
Livestock keeping caused the Sahara?
President of Fiji visits regional genebank. Cue photo of people peering at test tubes.

March 15, 2017

Nibbles: Give a man a chicken, Pollinator selection, Bananapocalypse redux, Red kiwi, ICARDA genebank, Dark comms, Food design, Traditional diets, Revitalizing villages, Peruvian diversity, Moving botany

Which should come first, the chicken or the cash? MIL unavailable for comment.
Pollinators are mini plant breeders.
Save the Cavendish! No, wait…
There’s a red kiwi coming. Eventually. No, not left-wing New Zealanders.
ICARDA decentralizes its genebank. But we knew that.
GFAR webinars on communicating research.
Designing food. What could possibly go wrong?
Decolonize it instead.
Ecotourism in Portugal. No word on whether decolonized food involved.
Kickstarter on documenting food crops in Peru, decolonized or not.
Tracing the colonization and (hopefully) decolonization of economic botany products. Fascinating idea.