Mainstream

Nibbles: Neanderthal, CWR, Bioinformatics, Svalbard, Old Armenian wine, Maple syrup, Plants databases, Bananas in trouble

Neanderthals cooked and ate plants, but did not use toothbrushes.
Andy Jarvis talks up a crop wild relatives storm.
Towards an information infrastructure for the global genebank system. Maybe.
Aussies send seeds to wrong Global Seed Vault.
Oldest winery found in Armenia. Search still ongoing for oldest wino. Maybe in Lebanon?
Oh, to be at the Bigleaf Maple Syrup Festival!
The most important thing to happen in botany in, what, a couple of weeks? Ah, but the backlash is here.
Colbert finally works out why his high school teacher put condoms on bananas. Here’s his informant.

Iron-rich potatoes: from genebanks to “improving health in poor communities”.
Agricultural intensification in Nepal; positive impacts vs “potential negative implications”. Via.
Stray livestock wreak havoc in Sri Lanka. h/t CIAT.
New book on “ecologically based rodent management”. Rodents say: “Rats!”
Kew Director looks forward to 2011.
More on North America’s wonderful wheat breeders and their ability to weather climate change.
Plantations more profitable than pasture in Queensland — in a model that includes $4.4/tonne of carbon sequestration.

“It is urgent to mainstream urban and peri-urban horticulture, and to recognize its role as a motor in food security and nutrition strategies.” Course it is.
Top banana conference opens in Trichy, India.
School grows more than food; pupils and money too.
Ford has a great idea: Science Tourism. We’ve done a lot of that ourselves, but never categorized it.
ICRISAT protects non-agricultural biodiversity shock.
Cancun and agriculture: poised for success … imperiled … and finally, footnoted.
Meanwhile, our pals at the Climate Change blog ask the tough questions. Answers on a postcard, please.
Rice has “difficult” seeds, says Kew.
Michael Pollan leads the charge for DNA Deniers.
Popped rice in India, via Mexico.
Obesity more dangerous to US national security than homosexuality!
Four paradoxes on the ‘lazy man’s crop’.

Possibly interesting article on Nagoya ABS Protocol, but I’ll never know.
Pomegranate juice fraud?
Fort Collins genebank in the (local) news.
Sudan to become self-sufficient in wheat. Sorghum also involved.
James of the Giant Corn gives idiot pontificator a well-deserved drubbing.
Brachiaria forage not a “magic bullet” shock.
Chile moans about lack of benefit sharing, but fails to do anything about it.
DG of Bioversity beats agricultural biodiversity for nutrition and health drum shock.
Carol Deppe has a web site. (she’s the Backyard Vegetable Breeder person.)