Mainstream

Nibbles: Seed Conference, High carotenoid bananas, DIVA-GIS, Protected area map, Pulse domestication, Food policy, Torreya rewilding

The 2nd World Seed Conference is coming up soon.
Orange bananas make it big in the Solomon Islands. Thanks, Lois.
DIVA-GIS website gets a makeover. Watch out for the blog.
Global protected areas map mashed up.
Dorian Fuller blogs lentil and bean domestication.
Bookforum.com does food.
While people discuss the pros and cons of assisted migration, one group has actually gone out and done it.

Click on the photo to find out more.

“USDA’s Bourlaug International Science Fellows Program has partnered with non-profit and for-profit organizations to identify new agricultural techniques for cocoa cultivation and to control cocoa diseases.” And do some conservation and breeding, surely.
Big shots call for a decent global digital soil map. Seconded.
Cool photos of rice agricultural landscapes.
Roasting maize, Mexico style. Oh yeah, there’s also a nifty new maize mapping population out.
Peruvian apple cactus doing just fine in Israel.

There are 227 bee species in New York City. Damn! But not enough known about the work they (and other pollinators) do in natural ecosystems, alas.
Borlaug home to be National Historic Site?
Archaeobotanist tackles Old World cotton.
FAO suggests ways that small farmers can earn more. Various agrobiodiversity options.
About 400 new mammal species discovered since 1993 (not 2005 as in the NY Times piece). Almost a 10% increase. Incredible. Who knew.
But how many of them will give you nasty diseases?
The caribou wont, I don’t think. And by the way, its recent decline is cyclical, so chill.
Saving the American chestnut through sex. Via the new NWFP Digest.
“The best thing IRRI can do for rice is to close down and give the seeds it has collected back to the farmers.” Yikes, easy, tiger! Via.

So, drowning turkey chicks: is it a rural myth? Have your say.