- The Half-Earth Map is better than none.
- Repurposing rice fields in the off season to help out California’s Chinook salmon.
- Photogenic melons.
- A famous community seed bank is in trouble.
- While elsewhere in India, a new genebank takes off.
Nibbles: Tutwiler interview, Cherokee seeds, Cryo, Bordeaux rules, Oz maize, Food as medicine, In situ CWR
- Ann Tutwiler (ex Bioversity DG) on the importance of agrobiodiversity.
- Cherokee Nation may deposit seeds in Svalbard.
- Millionth sample deposited in USDA livestock genebank.
- New grape varieties to be allowed in Bordeaux because of climate change.
- Hawkesbury heritage maize regenerated.
- Some Filipino rice is medicinal.
- Germany designates first CWR genetic reserves in Europe.
Go North, rice!
You might think that Queen’s Line off Drake Road, Chatham, ON N7M 5T1, Canada is the furthest north that rice grows in the world. That’s near Lake Erie, after all.
But you’d be wrong, and so was I. The latitude is 42°19’59.7″N. And there’s rice cultivation in China and central Asia, maybe even Italy’s Po valley, north of the 45th parallel, according to this map. 1
We know the furthest south that rice is grown.
Fact-checking extreme seed-saving
The story of the 800-year old squash seeds has surfaced again. We blogged about it way back, pointing out that it was, in fact, fake. But Archaeology Review does a great job of debunking it yet again. Be careful out there, people.
Nibbles: Bean and chili diversity, European Neolithic, Microbiota Vault, Paški sir, Freeze dried potatoes, Rice art, ABS
- Collecting beans in the American SW.
- Chilis too.
- Updated map of Neolithic expansion in Europe.
- The Microbiota Vault is a thing.
- Wind-flavoured cheese.
- But is chuño worth saving, really?
- The art of rice diversity.
- Using Jerry Maguire to explain the Plant Treaty. It is not well done. But one is surprised to see it done at all.