- National Organic Coalition suggests USDA’s National Institute for Food and Agriculture separate conventional and participatory breeding from anything involving DNA in considering projects for support.
- Second-guessing the Three Wise Men.
- Yet more on attempts to deconstruct ancient Roman medicines using DNA from tablets found in a shipwreck. Real Indiana Jones stuff.
- Botanic garden and genebank for drought-resistant plants to be established “in Asia’s largest wild fruit forest.” That would be in China. I really don’t know what to make of this. Really need to find out more. But why am I talking to myself?
- Brown (rice) is beautiful.
- Feedback from a genebank user. Kinda.
- Rooibos gets itself certified.
- The oldest cultivated tree on record.
- The taste of Massachusetts.
- “…strongly conservation-minded botanic gardens appear to be in the minority.” Easy, tiger. Will that new one in China (see above) feature in this minority?
- ILRI on an Aussie TV program on conserving local livestock breeds in Africa.
Feeding Pacific voyagers
A rainbow appeared in the sky, its end grounded firmly in the wharekai (food tent) set up and run by the wonderful people here. Small specks of the late afternoon sun drifted around us, light golden rain, as the skippers sat in counsel. “Basically,” Magnus was saying, “we go north for a while and then turn right.” Highly technical stuff only grasped fully by the trained mind. “Umm…yeah, okay.” We all agreed.
“Here” is Kaua’i, oldest of the Hawaiian islands, and the skippers and their crews of Pacific islanders are “sailing across the Pacific to renew our ties to the sea and its life-sustaining strength.” But they also needed something a little more solid in the way of sustenance, of course, hence the wharekai. And here’s what that looks like.
The photo comes from Angela Tillson of the Breadfruit Institute. I’ll let her tell the story.
Yes, the Breadfruit Institute donated about 20 breadfruit of different varieties for their voyage back to S.F. When they landed on Kauai, they were asking for breadfruit to eat and take with them. They were very happy since there were really no Hawaiian breadfruit fruiting this time of the year here. I took it down to their base camp on Hanalei Bay and as a Thank you for it, they let me go for a sail on the Samoan Canoe with the rest of the Hawaiian Helpers. What an honor and dream come true that was for me…!
You have no idea what a “HIGH” & “Bliss” state I’ve been since Sunday, with that mind blowing experience of leisurely talking to different
key crew members of the Vakas about their experiences, reasons, and
visions for this world crossing educational voyaging… And than finding out we could go sailing for Helping out with Breadfruit… We all 50 locals had a Blast time on such a perfect day… We were all in Heaven on Earth just like in ancient times, with only the basics… Seeing adults & kids faces light up in awe once boarding the canoes, watching everything the sailing crew did and listening to the incredible stories. WOW…
Nibbles: Cuba, India, Kansas, Amazonia, Rice, Fonio, Rare breed
- A Cuban tells us what he thinks is wrong with Cuban agriculture.
- Rahul Goswami has two long, thoughtful articles, on how India’s next five year plan is not realistic about either food or urbanisation.
- And what’s worse in the US today, drought, or heat? Do we have to choose?
- Less than 1% of Amazonia is made of Terra Preta. Is that enough? I dunno, how about you?
- Wanna buy some rice? I wonder if African rice, heirlooms and endophytes will get a look-in.
- Better bread from minor African grains. Digitaria, that is.
- Dairy Shorthorn in trouble in the UK.
A banana is a banana
The identification of Musa paradisiaca with a plantain and Musa sapientum with a sweet banana probably reinforced the tendency to associate each name with a type of fruit, respectively plantain for the cooking types and banana for the sweet types. In fact this distinction is entirely semantic and artificial. It has no botanical basis, nor indeed any consistent culinary basis. A banana is a banana, whether it is cooked or eaten raw.
But you knew that, right? The quotation is taken from the Musapedia on the all-new, all-singing, all-dancing ProMusa website. So for more than you could possibly want to know about banana nomenclature, and much else besides, you now know where to go.
Now, just remind me, what is the difference between a banana and a plantain?
Brainfood: Tomato erosion, Cassava starch, Landscape diversity, American chestnut, Niche models, Dormancy genes, Herbarium collections, Indian livestock breeding, Banana breeding, Pollinators, Shattering gene, Participatory research
- The risks of success in quality vegetable markets: Possible genetic erosion in Marmande tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum L.) and consumer dissatisfaction. Market takes the fun out of landraces.
- Genetic variability of root peel thickness and its influence in extractable starch from cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) roots. Starch content depends on dry matter content and peel thickness. About 1500 accessions from CIAT evaluated for the latter, so lots to play around with.
- A meta-analysis of crop pest and natural enemy response to landscape complexity. More landscape complexity means more natural enemies. Still no cure for cancer.
- American Chestnut past and future: Implications of restoration for resource pulses and consumer populations of eastern U.S. forests. Reintroduction of blight-resistant chestnut may have some weird effects on other species.
- Keep collecting: accurate species distribution modelling requires more collections than previously thought. Oh damn.
- Variation in seed dormancy quantitative trait loci in Arabidopsis thaliana originating from one site. Is due to two QTLs. Also flowering time. But no, I don’t understand that “In contrast…” at the end of the abstract either.
- Tracking origins of invasive herbivores through herbaria and archival DNA: the case of the horse-chestnut leaf miner. Another use for old herbarium specimens: finding evidence of pests.
- Animal breeding in India – a time for reflection, and action. The reflection is that genetic improvement has stagnated, so the action needed includes better phenotypic record keeping, more attention to local diversity and community-breeding programmes.
- Performance of micropropagation-induced off-type of East African highland banana (Musa AAA – East Africa). A promising avenue for improvement, the off-types yield more better bananas, a month later.
- Pollination services in the UK: How important are honeybees? Not as important as you might think!
- The same regulatory point mutation changed seed-dispersal structures in evolution and domestication. Cabbage-family fruit development and rice shattering share the same single point mutation.
- Participatory research and on-farm management of agricultural biodiversity in Europe. By Michel “Pimpert”. That should be Pimbert. Old news, but worth mentioning.