Mainstream

Nibbles: Flower rules, Ancient cycles, Forage diversity, FAO stats

Flower gardeners discover what their edibles colleagues have suffered under: new EU rules.
“Hard Times Followed Booms for Europe’s Ancient Farmers” Ya don’t say.
“Diversity in Forage Management.” Yes, even in the US.
Makanaka sticks it to the FAO’s State of Food Insecurity in the World 2013.

5th Global Botanic Gardens Congress coming up in Dunedin, New Zealand. Isn’t that somewhere near the Shire? And one garden’s engagement with agricultural biodiversity.
“It’s 2050, and Australia’s bounteous wheat harvest has been saved.” You see, as a total amateur at this lark, I’d have started with that.
Loren Rieseberg, interviewed.
HarvestChoice using fancy remote sensing imagery to improve crop calendars, give themselves excuse to quote Byrds classic.
European rye collection a little closer to reality.
WorldVeg turns 40.
Bellon and Ntandou-Bouzitou explore the tail. Talk about local innovation…
Old friends talk about crop wild relatives.

Colony collapse disorder. It’s still complicated.
The Botanist in the Kitchen is at it again, with an in-depth treatment of okra, slime and chocolate.
But seriously, why don’t Anglo-Saxons eat equids? It’s all down to religion.
Nigeria embraces UNCTAD report that warns against monoculture.
An interactive map of crop wild relatives. If it showed barley too, I know someone who would be in heaven.
As so often in these matter, Kew comes to the rescue.
A history of the peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich. My kind of dietary diversity.

Backyard chickens too much hassle? We have the solution for you.
Supplies go up, prices go down. Those pesky speculators had nothing to do with it.
Prices go up … The story for India’s agrciultural labourers.
Colombia’s loss will Ecuador’s gain. Predictions for bananas in the 2060s.
Conventional farmer loves cover crops. Shurely shome mishtake.
Building the pyramids. It’s a tough job, but at least you eat well.
Beans with benefits. On the road with a breeder in Rwanda.
Chinese maize diversity explored, a bit.
Massive diversity of all sorts of thing, in German.
Rhizowen has another favourite underutilised legume crop: Amphicarpaea bracteata subsp edgeworthii.
It’s vino, but is it natural?
How is a fig like a mulberry? The Botanist in the Kitchen explains.
Capturing wild relative and landrace diversity for crop improvement. A conference, in June 2014.
Agricultural Biodiversity Community @ Work. A conference, in June 2013. PENHA was there.
Preparations are underway for Kew’s Great Seed Swap. Call me dumb, but I cannot see a date anywhere there.
Purple sweet potatoes to dye for.
Oh boy! A regional genebank for bamboo. A bambusetum, no less.

An ODAP detective story.
Ancient maize gets a map.
Diversity is the key to sustainable cacao.
New Bioversity DG answers the tough questions.
Be the first on your block with an unusual fruit tree.
How to grow awesome carrot seed.
The hard life of Nigerian wine tappers.
Bringing back buckwheat in Bhutan.
Annals of Botany to do halophytes.
Come down to earth with the realization that most people have never heard of cowpea and cassava. Would they have heard of black-eyed peas and tapioca, though?
Big report on urban malnutrition. Maybe cassava (see above) can help?
The last orange grove in the San Fernando Valley. No word on what the variety might be.
All about molasses.
Indian tree breeding institute, and accompanying genebank, get a write-up.
Yes, I know that I could have done a better job of pointing out the connections among some of these things, but it’s been a long week.