- Farmer Brian Schaumburg has planted corn for five straight years in some of the thousands of acres he tends in central Illinois. Good thinking; it’s non-native, and it’s a monoculture.
- Douglas of the Douglas Fir remembered.
- Tom tackles “globesity“.
- Enriching rice with iron and zinc using rice’s own genes. Because they can.
- How Richadella dulcifica works its miracles.
- In the contest between fish and bovine, the outcome is not always certain.
Khan you say agrobiodiversity educational videos?
The Economist’s hymn of praise for the Khan Academy naturally sent me over to explore those of their 2,400 educational videos that had anything to do with agricultural biodiversity. And there, between Logarithmic Scale and Proof by Induction in the New & Noteworthy section, I did indeed find Firestick Farming. But that, good as it was, alas, was all. At least for now.
In-flight agrobiodiversity entertainment
Interesting to see that one can watch the germplasm collecting documentary Seed Hunter on Turkish Airlines now. That must count as some form of mainstream.
Nibbles: Collecting, US heirlooms, Sequencing NUS, Nutrition strategies, Potatoes and climate change, Italian genetics
- NSF re-invents the genebank wheel. No, that’s unfair, they’ve given much-needed money to evolutionary scientists to go out and collect seeds of 34 species in a really pernickety way.
- Heirlooms being lost (maybe) and being re-found in the US. Thanks to Eve (on FB) for both.
- A Cape tomato by any other name…
- Gates Foundation has a new nutrition strategy. Gotta admire the chutzpah of summarizing the thing in basically half a side of A4. Compare and contrast, both as to content and presentation, with the CGIAR. Unfair again, I know, but that’s the kind of mood I’m in. Jess unavailable for comment.
- Very complicated, very pretty maps about potatoes and climate change.
- “I failed to notice substantial contributions to discussions or presentations from breeders or seed organizations, the end users of so much of the research discussed.” Pat Heslop Harrison calls ’em like he seems ’em.
Nibbles: Baobab, Plant cuttings & carnivalia, Apples, Fodder, Range management, PNG blog, Cattle breeding, Food security questions
- Baobab: your favourite nutritious neglected species for the next 10 seconds.
- Nigel Chaffey’s fresh selection of Plant Cuttings is up.
- Which reminds me; don’t forget to submit to Berry go Round.
- Searching for lost apples in the Scottish Highlands. A job for mountain rescue?
- Why feed my cow? A more interesting question than it seems.
- Rangeland scientists take photos of their study sites shock. Applications for crop wild relatives? Bound to be.
- Glad to give my friend Seniorl Anzu at NARI in PNG a plug for his new(ish) blog, PNG-Agrinews.
- Wageningen solves that cow burping problem.
- Cambridge says I see your cow burps and raise you food security.