Mainstream

There’s a stuffed St Bernard called Barry in a museum in Berne.

January 19, 2008

Cattalo complicating plans to restore Great Plains

Heal thyself

Medicinal plants in trouble.

January 16, 2008

Archaeo-agrobiodiversity discoveries highlighted

Squash seeds and chickens feature among theÂ Top Ten discoveries of 2007, according to Archaeology Magazine. I believe we linked to both of these stories when they first appeared. The article on Polynesian breakthroughs also mentions work on pigs that we blogged about.

1. A North Macedonian professor’s 15-year rescue mission for landraces and crops surviving only in remote villages. Why bother? Stay tuned…
2. Ancient grapevines in Tigray represent a unique genetic lineage with potential value for breeding varieties adapted to dryland conditions.
3. Hawai’i Public Radio checks in on Maui’s coconut genebank. Useful to breed varieties adapted to really wet conditions, presumably.
4. The Cayman Islands are also hoarding coconuts, along with lots of tasty fruits.
5. A USD 400,000 boost from Taiwan for the Eswatini national genebank. Indigenous vegetables get much-needed love.
6. A regional survey of 25 orphan crops across 13 Latin American countries finds quinoa and amaranth well-catalogued, but characterization budgets are the real bottleneck. Collecting and conserving in genebanks is great, but not enough.
7. South Korea puts 330,000 seed accessions under “double lock”, hedging against both climate change and war. Conserving in one place is not enough.
8. FAO warns that nearly a third of the world can’t afford the USD 4.28 a day that a healthy diet costs — nearly three billion people, and rising. That’s why we need al the above, I guess.
Published on July 28, 2026

Category: Mainstream

The phylogeny of a human disease

The story of the St Bernard

Cattalo complicating plans to restore Great Plains

Heal thyself

Archaeo-agrobiodiversity discoveries highlighted