- 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.
Frost on vegetables
It’s a hard winter for British homegardeners…
Christmas agrobiodiversity
Agricultural biodiversity on display for Christmas in a Parisian street market.
Nibbles: Iron, Nepal, Livestock, Rats, Kew, Wheat, Carbon
- 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.
Nibbles: Micro-gardens, Bananas, School farm, Tourism, Conservation, Cancun, Rice, DNA, Rice again, Obesity, Coconut
- “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’.

