Mainstream

September 3, 2013September 3, 2013

Giant fruit update

For some reason, this seems to be the time of year which the media sets aside for stories on large fruits. Or largish, anyway. Because I may be spoilt by my time in the tropics, but this “Avozilla” doesn’t look like such a big avocado to me. I was hoping I’d be able to be more precise about this, but I couldn’t find systematic characterization data on the world’s avocado collections, not even in GRIN. And no, I’m not impressed that Avozilla has its own Twitter account either:

“@DailyMailUK: AVOZILLA, world's largest avocado goes on sale at Tesco http://t.co/8wCZl4WiNA pic.twitter.com/gLEV98M0It” Yes, I'm here!

— Avozilla (@Avozilla) September 2, 2013

And likewise, 14-15 grams is not bad for an olive, but there’s bigger, and not all of them are from Italy.

September 2, 2013September 2, 2013

Nibbles: Landscapes pod, Tartiness evolution, Diversity pix, Eve Crowley vid, Commons debate, Subsidies, Arabidopsis database, Beard beer, Kew herbarium vid, Minoan pests, FDish seeds, Extinction is forever

CIFOR scientist talks about the much-vaunted landscape approach.
The repeated evolution of lemony flavour.
Nice infographic of breadfruit diversity in the Pacific.
Better infographic of chili pepper diversity in Mexico. Both are on Facebook. Hope you guys can see them.
FAO’s Eve Crowley is didactic and inspirational by turns about women, co-operatives and rural development.
Hardin vs Ostrom. Walk-over.
How much does production have to increase, really? Lobell deals the cards.
What are the effects of input subsidies on maize prices in Malawi and Zambia? Small to none.
Plant database to charge for access? Never a good idea.
Ok, here’s a first, a beer I don’t altogether feel like tasting.
Last days of the soybean homecoming show in Hong Kong. Anybody out there seen it?
Video on the intricacies of Kew. Not as long as you’d think.
Weevils in sweet pea jar pinpoint season of Santorini eruption. Has anyone tried to recover DNA from the seeds?
Experts for ensuring quality fish seeds to enhance production. Say what?
How should we mark the extinction of the passenger pigeon next year?

August 30, 2013August 30, 2013

Nibbles: Kenyan millet, Nutritious fruits, Homegardens, Schools, CIAT genebank funding

Millet helps sends Kenyan to college. Which millet though?
Some fruits, but not juice, good against diabetes. Coconut not included, alas. Nor bananas, for all their recently revised taxonomic goodness.
Which both seem as good reasons as any to grown your own.
And teach about them in schools.
And conserve them in genebanks. Ok, this piece from CIAT is about neither millets nor fruits, but it’s friday, gimme a break.

August 30, 2013August 30, 2013

One more cup of coffee

For some reason, there’s been a sackful of coffee stories lately. Here’s a quick summary:

“Pistols for two, and coffee for one.”

“[Coffee] is of excellent Use in the time of Pestilence, and contributes greatly to prevent the spreading of Infection.”

“We just had to try at least a cup in every village we stopped at, and as they were small cups, sometimes more than one… The irony is that I am a ‘tea-only girl’.”

“Yes, Starbucks has announced it’s taking up shop in Bogota, Colombia. It says it wants to celebrate Colombian coffee.”

“Here, we do not work hard for survival, but we work hard to live a better life; that is what I’ve learned from working on this plantation.”

“In order to create these pre-breeding populations with enough genetic diversity for these economically important traits, WCR ¹ will utilize genetic material from the current germplasm collections as well as new material coming from wild populations from the WCR GERMPLASM Project.”

August 29, 2013August 29, 2013

Nibbles: Golden Rizzzzzz, Agronomy meet, Pricey poultry, Pricey Indian food, Target environments, NUS galore, G&T

The Golden Rice thing rumbles endlessly on.
I wonder whether it was discussed at the First International Agronomy Day. I bet that fertilizer thing in Malawi was.
The world’s most expensive cock. Made you look!
I wonder whether you can select sex in chickens like you can in cattle.
Anyway, speaking of expensive agrobiodiversity, a celebrity economist rounds up links on Indian food price inflation. Must have seen our recent stuff on onions. But can you grow them on the roof?
The secret of breeding? Location, location, location.
List of “indigenous” fruits and vegetables of allegedly potential global importance without a damn scientific name anywhere. Annoying on many levels.
Mind you, this piece on the threats faced by the wild herbs of Crete also doesn’t have any names.
See, you can include a scientific name of an underutilized plant and not look unbearable geeky. Well, kinda. Although this press release on burgeoning collaboration on NUS manages to avoid mentioning even common names.
Oh I so need a drink.
And some cheese.