Mainstream

February 3, 2015February 4, 2015

The US picks…wheat

Nice to see a commercial airing during the Super Bowl that highlighted the importance of biodiversity in general and agricultural biodiversity in particular.

http://youtu.be/pkPZ-xW1DM4

Not so cool that they managed to ascribe the origin of wheat to the wrong continent, and indeed hemisphere, but I guess they were thinking of those amber waves. For me, the US should have picked the cranberry. Complements anything.

February 3, 2015February 2, 2015

Nibbles: History of beer, St Bridget, Gaulish bread, Ancient cocktails, PGR course, ECHO, Breakfast pix, Development vs biodiversity, Fairtrade African veggies, Indian medicinals, Phytoliths, CC adaptation

I say ale, you say beer.
Ireland has a patron saint of beer. Well of course it does.
The bread of the Gauls was made from beer foam.
Reviving ancient beers. Wait, what’s with all this beer today?
Genetic Resources in Plant Breeding: Conservation, Characterization and Utilization, 17-28 August 2015, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Alnarp, Sweden: More detailed information on this course coming soon…
Not that these guys in Florida need it.
Pix of kids’ breakfasts from around the world.
Development and biodiversity can coexist: here come the data.
African leafy veggies have truly arrived, haven’t they, if they’re getting the Fairtrade treatment.
But it might be too late for some medicinal plants.
Phytoliths 101.
What’s that you say? You want to integrate agrobiodiversity in your climate adaptation plans? Got just the thing for you.

January 31, 2015February 1, 2015

Nibbles: CWR conservation, Small farms & food security, iPlant, Forgotten edibles, James Wong, Google Earth Pro, Wageningen course, Journalism fellowship, Vavilov-Frankel

Draft technical guidelines from FAO on conserving crop wild relatives at national level.
Small farms are beautiful.
Finding the climate adaptation needle in the genomic haystack. Hint: supercomputers needed. DivSeek alerted?
Emma Cooper asks: “…have you got a favourite ‘forgotten’ edible plant that you’d like to champion?”
James Wong talks about that kind of thing too, and much else garden-related besides, on his new website.
Rejoice, Google Earth Pro is now free!
Wageningen UR course on Food For All.
UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism is offering ten $10,000 postgraduate Food and Farming Journalism Fellowships. ‘Nuff said.
Speaking of fellowships: the 2015 call for Bioversity’s Vavilov-Frankel Fellowship is open.
Possible new Cannabis species from Australia: watch them do the DNA work and spoil it. Gap analysis, anyone? … As you were, didn’t need DNA after all.

January 29, 2015January 30, 2015

Nibbles: FAO Commission, Private genebank, DivSeek duo, Biofortified sorghum, African supermarkets, Enset, Health crops, Breadfruit conference, Denison podcast, Saving chocolate, Paramo app, CIMMYT genebank video, Pig milk

FAO says genes are good for climate.
India’s first private sector genebank established.
Well, at least one person is really excited about DivSeek.
And one major journal.
DuPont video on increasing sorghum Fe and Zn levels in Africa.
Will they sell it through local vendors or supermarkets?
Let them eat enset. Which is not, however, on this list of today’s top healthy crops.
Neither is breadfruit, but that shouldn’t stop you going to this conference in Trinidad.
Ford Denison writes about his appearance on Eat This Podcast.
Enough with the scary chocolate stories already.
Here, go play with this app about the flora of the paramo from Missouri Botanical Garden.
The CIMMYT genebank in the news.
Pig milk in your tea, vicar?

January 25, 2015May 2, 2018

Nibbles: Tilapia pros & cons, Cotton history, Potato diversity, Mars sustainability, Forest conservation, Homegardens, Village forests, 14th century gardening, American chestnut, Soil barcoding, Non-cow milk, Conserving Spanish grapes, Biodiversity & poverty

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.