- The Global Fossil Record. Visualized. Not agricultural, but couldn’t resist it.
- Malnutrition? It’s the culture, stupid.
- Check out the world’s largest chickpea drought trial.
- Overfishing the Amazon.
- Ah, so that’s how wheat did it!
- Food aid can support sustainable livelihoods too.
- Soon, most crop production will go to feed China’s pigs. And you’ll be able to follow that on FAOStat’s interactive thingie on agricultural tradeflows.
- But it can’t possibly be good for sustainable diets, can it?
- New book on fermentation. Never enough of those.
Vavilov all over
Just a quick reminder that the BBC’s wonderful From Roots to Riches programme, charting the history of botany, tackles Nikolai Vavilov today. Coincidentally, one of Vavilov’s stamping grounds, Central Asia, has been featuring prominently at the 2014 Festival of Fruit, on now in Portland. Megan Lynch has been tweeting the hell out of it. Well worth following.
https://twitter.com/may_gun/status/497136905624899584
Nibbles: Sorghum research, Alternative millet, IRRI genebank genomics, Cattle genomes, CIAT genebank, Rainforest genebank, Saving seeds, Millet in India, Varied diets, Cheese rind microbes, Fermentation, Artisanal hooch, Truffle oil, Coconut water, Fancy carrots, Edible insects, Farming tuna, Saving cetaceans, Fancy tomato database
- What must be done about sorghum in Africa, by someone who should know because they worked at ICRISAT, which has a sorghum genebank.
- ICRISAT also has pearl millet genebanks — in India and Africa. So when did pearl millet become “alternative” in India? Well, at least it’s not on this list of “indigenous foods.”
- 3000 rice genomes (from the IRRI genebank), and 1000 bull genomes. Brave new world.
- The CIAT genebank makes the news, and not a genome in sight.
- An in situ forest genebank deep in the heart of Sabah.
- And you can bet they’re all saving seeds the right way. But there’s always a webinar if not. Or this.
- Micronutrients? It’s the food system, stupid. Yes, indeedy. And there’s even a webinar about it.
- The fascinating microbial system of cheese rinds.
- Sauerkraut has a pretty fascinating microbial system too, I bet.
- Artisanal whiskey is a thing? Isn’t it, basically, moonshine?
- Truffle oil is a scam. Damn.
- Coconut water tries not to seem a scam.
- Heifer Farm shows off its weird carrots. Yeah, they’re more than just about livestock at Heifer.
- Though that doesn’t include insects, I don’t think. Yes, insects.
- Or bluefin tuna. Or the vaquita. But enough of that.
- Plenty of weird tomatoes on this great wiki I came across.
Gadam sorghum in the limelight
Remember the Gadam variety, saviour of Kenya’s sorghum farmers? Well, I came across it again a couple of days ago, on the occasion of International Beer Day 1, as part of an advertizing feature in the Kenya’s Nation newspaper.
Talk about mainstream.
Wheat everywhere
Wheat has been much in the news in the past few days. There’s been the announcement of the draft genome sequence. And some fancy gene editing from China. But I want to point to a couple of more down-stream stories.
From Spain, there’s news of how an old variety — and much effort from a local family — brought back the particular taste of Los Monegros’ bread. Should anyone else be interested, the variety in question, Aragon 03, seems to be available in various genebanks.
And, from an area that is even more inhospitable to the crop, comes an announcement by Nigeria’s minister of agriculture himself that a new variety may turn the country into a major producer:
#Nigeria to be a major wheat producer with new tropical wheat that gives 6 tons per hectare. It will change the north pic.twitter.com/QRDQw9jdrP
— Akinwumi A. Adesina (@akin_adesina) July 27, 2014
Intrigued, I investigated further, and found that the variety in question, called Norman Borlaug in Nigeria, is Norman F2008, which was released by a private company a few years back in Mexico, based on CIMMYT material.
We’re going to need heat resistant wheat like this.