Mainstream

January 8, 2020January 7, 2020

Visualizing broccoli

Zachary Stansell, who seems like a very interesting guy, had the top post on all of Reddit late last year with — wait for it — a picture of broccoli diversity. And rightly so. It is beautiful.

The coloured bars? They are based on ~10K SNPs, with varieties that share a given colour sharing more of these markers, and being more closely related genetically.

January 7, 2020January 7, 2020

Nibbles: USDA maize genebank, Apple breeding, Seed conservation, Soil map, Scoring supermarkets, DNA barcoding, Stone Age Hypoxis, Hybrid wine, Lost crops, Boswellia, Leucokaso, Species mixtures

Nice student video on the genebank and breeding programmes at Iowa State.
Speaking of breeding programmes and videos, here’s Sean Myles on his work on apples in Canada.
Seed conservation legend Richard Ellis on what climate change is doing to seed quality.
An amazing new global soil properties map is open for business.
Scoring supermarkets for the human suffering they represent.
The future of DNA barcoding…is here.
Cotton 101.
Strong evidence of Middle Stone Age tuber cooking in southern Africa.
French wine growers dip a cautious toe into the grapewine interspecific genepool.
Yields of mixtures of now “lost” native American crops comparable to those of maize.
The canonical yearly frankincense story in honour of Epiphany.
Biblical white olive makes a comeback in Italy.
Useful update of mixture studies.

December 16, 2019January 6, 2020

Brainfood: Diversification, Chefs, African rice breeding, Sustainable livestock, Miscanthus origin, Sweetpotato diversity, Wild banana seeds, Olive diversity, Tilapia diversity, Half Earth, Food access, Speedy pigeonpea, Peanut allergy, Colombian seed saving

Modelling crop diversification and association effects in agricultural systems. Intercrop, people!
Cooking up Diverse Diets: Advancing Biodiversity in Food and Agriculture through Collaborations with Chefs. Yeah, yeah, chefs are great. Now show me the data.
Multivariate analysis and selection criteria for identification of African rice (Oryza glaberrima) for genetic improvement of indica rice cultivars. Go for high number of productive tillers and early maturity.
Strategies for Sustainable Use of Indigenous Cattle Genetic Resources in Southern Africa. Not just genetic improvement: also need better nutrition, healthcare, marketing, and infrastructure; integration and empowerment of women and youth; and capacity building, regulatory, and policy frameworks. Not unlike crops, really.
Population structure of Miscanthus sacchariflorus reveals two major polyploidization events, tetraploid-mediated unidirectional introgression from diploid M. sinensis, and diversity centred around the Yellow Sea. The centre of origin in under water.
Remote sensing for agricultural applications: A meta-review. Yeah, yeah. Call me when you have a way of distinguishing landraces from modern varieties.
Genetic Diversity of Sweet Potato (Ipomoea batatas L. Lam) Germplasms Collected Worldwide Using Chloroplast SSR Markers. 500 is not enough.
Seed germination and storage studies in seed-fertile Musa indandamanensis and its conservation. Intermediate.
Cultivated olive diversification at local and regional scales: evidence from the genetic characterization of French genetic resources. Areas with unexpected frosts have been, paradoxically, good for olive diversity.
Genetic diversity of Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) throughout West Africa. Corresponds to river basins. Well there’s a shocker.
Protecting half of the planet could directly affect over one billion people. Add lowest-footprint pixels to PAs until you get to 50% coverage of each ecoregion, then count how many people live in PAs, for good or ill.
Food Access Deficiencies in Sub-saharan Africa: Prevalence and Implications for Agricultural Interventions. Livestock helps, higher income not necessarily.
Can a speed breeding approach accelerate genetic gain in pigeonpea? I’m going to guess yes.
Hypoallergen Peanut Lines Identified Through Large-Scale Phenotyping of Global Diversity Panel: Providing Hope Toward Addressing One of the Major Global Food Safety Concerns. Lots of diversity to play with.
Revolturas: resisting multinational seed corporations and legal seed regimes through seed-saving practices and activism in Colombia. Everybody’s at it.

December 13, 2019December 13, 2019

Nibbles: Cheese history, RethinkX, Cosmopolitan Chicken, Natural capital accounting, Supply chains, Healthy policies, NordGen

Fruit flies facilitated the birth of the hybrid yeast that made cheese possible. Thanks, fruitfly!
Ah, but an upgrade is coming: precision fermentation.
How business can track its effects on biodiversity. Should it want to.
How to make it easier, more profitable and more sustainable to bring healthy foods to market. Someone mash it up with the above?
How to design policies for countries seeking to provide healthy diets. Someone mash it up with the above?
40 years of NordGen. Happy birthday! Then someone mash it up with the above…
Celebrating poultry diversity through art. No need for mashing, just celebrate the weirdness.

December 6, 2019December 6, 2019

TED-Ed has a bunch of videos on the history of different crops: cacao, tea, and maize for a start. They’re cute, and do provide some interesting information. But a pinch of salt is recommended with your corn on the cob.

Category: Mainstream

Visualizing broccoli

Nibbles: USDA maize genebank, Apple breeding, Seed conservation, Soil map, Scoring supermarkets, DNA barcoding, Stone Age Hypoxis, Hybrid wine, Lost crops, Boswellia, Leucokaso, Species mixtures

Brainfood: Diversification, Chefs, African rice breeding, Sustainable livestock, Miscanthus origin, Sweetpotato diversity, Wild banana seeds, Olive diversity, Tilapia diversity, Half Earth, Food access, Speedy pigeonpea, Peanut allergy, Colombian seed saving

Nibbles: Cheese history, RethinkX, Cosmopolitan Chicken, Natural capital accounting, Supply chains, Healthy policies, NordGen

Deconstructing crop TED