Mainstream – Page 379 – Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog

August 20, 2007August 20, 2007

Ancient chewing gum

Neolithic Finns chewed birch bark tarÂ for fresh breath, clean teeth.

August 20, 2007August 20, 2007

Douglas Gayeton photography

Slow Food-type photographs from Tuscany.

August 18, 2007

Opiate supply and demand

More on legalizing poppy cultivation in Afghanistan.

August 17, 2007

Food miles to go before I sleep

A plea to rebuild regional food networks.

August 16, 2007

Ex situ conservation in NZ

New Zealand opens genebank for native plants. No crops, but maybe wild relatives?

1. In the UK, Herefordshire’s Museum of Cider is picking up national recognition for its genebank of heritage apple trees. The BBC’s canonical autumnal apple story comes a little early this year.
2. Speaking of iconic apples, Kazakhstan is scaling up efforts to bring back the Aport, the giant heirloom that once made Almaty famous. No word of museums, though. Or cider.
3. Over in the Philippines, Department of Environment and Natural Resources is beefing up its rattan genebank to keep pace with demand, with forest stewards in Bukidnon planting seedlings to match. Furniture makers need genebanks as much as cider makers.
4. Sri Lanka’s pre-Green Revolution heirloom rice varieties, purana haal, are being eyed for their resilience and disease-management potential. Good thing they’re in the national genebank.
5. Saudi Arabia’s Jazan terraced coffee farms are turning into rural and ecotourism hotspots, proving not all agrobiodiversity needs to be in a genebank to survive. But it helps.
Published on August 9, 2026