Mainstream

Nibbles: Diverse diets, Ancient diets, Urban veggies, Medicinal phylogenetics, Double blind cowpeas, Adaptation hope, Livestock emissions, Climate change data, Afghani poppies, Aussie ag & breeders, Chinese agrobiodiversity, Weird cherry

Meaty presentation on how biodiversity in the food system delivers a diverse diet. Could hardly fail to, really, could it.
What’s a diverse diet ever done for me, asks ancient farmer.
Vegetables an important part of diverse diets, of course. Especially in urban areas.
Interesting EU project on the phylogenetics of medicinal plants. Any vegetables in there?
Improved cowpeas only improved when farmers know they are improved. Wow.
Some glimmers of hope on adaptation? Maybe.
Not all livestock bad for climate change. And room for improvement on those that are.
Yeah, but who cares, global warming is just a giant natural fluctuation, no? No.
Legalize it, already! Poppy cultivation as a climate change adaptation measure?
Australian agriculture unprepared for climate change? With all these fancy breeders and access to the world’s genebanks?
Meanwhile, in China, the focus is on food sovereignty.
And in Japan on its spaced out cherry tree.

UAE date palms to get FAO recognition. So they’ll be ok then. Phew!
Unlike African agriculture, according to the IPCC.
Or Israel’s wild plants. Though what they intend to do about that is hidden behind a paywall. Can anyone tell me the answer?
The Australians know what to do. Build a new genebank…
…and grown ginarmous brassicas.
Pat Heslop-Harrison for his part thinks we should collect more wild Panicum. And who are we to argue with him?
Hey, worst comes to worst, we can always build our own beer yeast.

Tequila plant is possible sweetener for diabetics. Talk about a waste of raw material.
Would you Adam and Eve it? Women do not own 2% of the land. What next for the killer factcheck?
In related news, teacup pigs are a fraud.
Quinoa to feed the world, in Spanish.
The rice warrior! Isn’t that overegging the pudding just a smidgen?
Learn about plant genetic resources and seeds at Wageningen University.
African Agriculture Technology Foundation “to avail adequate quality seeds at the right time and affordable price”. You might think some of the folks at the AATF should avail themselves of Wageningen’s course.
Tough, flavoursome and bug resistant. Not Richard Markham, but a tomato bred specially for the Solomon Islands he’s talking about.
Kew’s new global kitchen cookbook narrowly avoids being crushed by bandwagon trundling by.
Cover crops are even more valuable than previously thought shock.
Indigenous sheep breeds even more valuable than previously thought shock.

CIP’s genebank in the limelight.
Egypt’s genebank in the limelight.
Australia’s genebank in the limelight. Limelight fast running out…
Ah, but genebanks not the only ones with cool videos: farmers in the limelight.
Yeah, it’s not just about the genebanks. Markets can help, I suppose. Especially if you have a famous name.
As with coffee, so with sorghum. Biofortified or not. All we need now is an agribusiness incubator, and here it is, courtesy of ICRISAT. But what will Japanese farmers think?
Same again for assorted African oils?
The diversity of cows has been driven by markets too.
Coffee 101 at UCDavis. Maybe they’ll invite Mr Marley to teach.
You want fructose in that coffee? No, probably not.
Maybe you prefer chocolate. From Vanuatu, natch. Looks like high quality stuff too, but even crap chocolate has its uses, like teaching taxonomy for instance.
No, you’re more a Japanese bourbon person, aren’t you? Wait, do you need barley for that? I’m sure those young Japanese farmers will be all over this.