Mainstream – Page 369 – Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog

November 16, 2007

Elephants free to drink in peace

We were had. Paris Hilton does not care about drunken elephants or rice wine. What does she care about?

November 16, 2007March 31, 2008

Mongolian megafish

Mongolians protect giant trout by not eating it. More for everybody else, I guess.

November 14, 2007November 13, 2007

Phytochemicals in yams

Yoruba twins due to yams?

November 13, 2007

Paris Hilton and agrobiodiversity

Paris Hilton worried about elephants getting drunk on rice beer. Pocket pig bandwagon awaits her.

November 13, 2007November 13, 2007

Garlic; cooking and diversity

How to cook garlic. Oh, and also how to identify duplicates in garlic germplasm collections by DNA fingerprinting.

1. Haga Hideo’s 1950s photos of Fukushima farming rituals are now being used to revive them: ex situ conservation, but for culture.
2. Long before photography, or “pre‑breeding” was a buzzword, Belgian pomologist Jean‑Baptiste Van Mons was running massive pear selection trials and gifting us Beurré Bosc and Doyenné Boussock.
3. As Southern Africa’s miombo woodlands shrinks, scientists are cloning wild trees so the fruit — and food security — outlive the forest. Now for the pre-breeding.
4. Greenpeace Africa’s Seed Project makes the case for indigenous seeds as a route to farmer independence. And you can help.
5. And oh so coincidentally, a network of community seed banks in Kenya is rescuing indigenous seeds so the diversity is still around when opportunity (or crisis) knocks.
6. Also in Kenya, the national genebank’s collectors are racing to secure opportunity crops.
7. Nepal’s indigenous crops and landraces are at the same time more needed than ever, and under threat. So, much like in Kenya.
8. The Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT says women are at the center of sustainable food systems; the fine print adds: “as they have always been.”
Published on September 30, 2026