Markets

July 19, 2015June 30, 2016

Digital filmmakers (and others) tackle African leafy greens

I came across this cool video about African indigenous vegetables via the Horticulture Innovation Lab newsletter. Made by a student at Rutgers University’s Center for Digital Filmmaking, it describes work led by Jim Simon of Rutgers and Steve Weller of Purdue University in Kenya and Zambia on growing and marketing plants like African nightshade (Solanum scabrum?), amaranth (Amaranthus spp), and spider plant (Cleome gynandra).

There’s another video on the website too. Well worth watching both, and indeed following the blog.

And if you want more video on African leafy greens, they feature in several episodes of Shamba Shapeup, Kenya’s version of Extreme Makeover: Farm Edition.

Oh, and BTW: vote for me!!! I’m only about a thousand or so “likes” behind the leader. Ok, it’s a mere photo rather than a video, but still…

July 16, 2015July 18, 2015

Nibbles: Fertile Crescent, Hawaii taro, Purple spud, Caribbean yams, UNESCO wine & rice, VIR rye, Diverse barley

Video of Robin Allaby on that find of underwater Mesolithic wheat DNA off England. Well, that’s just the intro. Most of the rest is about the movement of flax north through Europe.
There’s a great Facebook group on the taros (or kalos) of Hawaii.
Weird coloured potato could be a hit Down Under.
New yams for Guadeloupe. No news on their colour.
Nice scenery and wine. Sign me up.
Also on the UNESCO heritage list: China’s rice terraces.
The Russian rye is coming! The Russian rye is coming!
Learn about the Oregon Wolfe Barley population. Thanks to Trust Me, I Am a Seed “Scientist”, another Facebook group worth following.

July 3, 2015July 3, 2015

Nibbles: Monocultures redux, Seedless watermelons, Red kiwifruit, Herbaria problems, Forest foods, Sorghum beer, SIRGEALC, Chinese veggies, Organic tomatoes, Andean women, Rise origins, Fermentation

Deploy your cover crop diversity in time rather than space. But deploy it.
Triploid goodness.
Searching for a red kiwi.
Herbaria on the rack.
Let them eat non-timber forest products.
Sorghum spurts in Kenya. Because beer.
Sign up for SIRGEALC 10.
Knowing your 菠菜 from your 西洋菜.
400 tomato varieties. No pesticides. No water. No problem.
Women are conserving Andean crops. Sure, though with some occasional help from genebanks.
The Rice Origins Wars continue.
Sauerkraut changed the world.

June 30, 2015June 29, 2015

Nibbles: Organic research, Plant models, Tabasco peppers, Andean shepherds, Weird pigs, Wild rice harvesting, Heritage ducks, Nutrient content

An investment in organic research. At last.
Plant models go online. Not those kinds of models.
Where the peppers for Tabasco sauce come from.
Apparently, “[w]hite alpacas have been overbred.” But not that kind of breeding, I think.
Pigs are weird.
Learn how to make poles. Yes, those kinds of poles.
Even ducks can be heritage.
Higher carbon dioxide bad for nutrition.

June 29, 2015June 23, 2015

Brainfood: Nigerian fruit & veg, South African veggies, Veggies in home gardens, Standardizing phenotyping, Potato diversity, Triploid chamomile, Chocolate chip, Fungi & oils, Melon diversity, CC and grasslands

Promoting food security and enhancing Nigeria’s small farmers’ income through value-added processing of lesser-known and under-utilized indigenous fruits and vegetables. It’s the infrastructure, stupid.
The role of wild vegetables in household food security in South Africa: A review. No, it’s the information, stupid.
Indigenous wild food plants in home gardens: improving health and income — with the assistance of agricultural extension. Nope, it’s the extension, stupid.
Towards recommendations for metadata and data handling in plant phenotyping. It’s the standardization, stupid.
Cytoplasmic diversity in potato breeding: case study from the International Potato Center. It’s a genetic bottleneck, stupid.
Towards breeding of triploid chamomile (Matricaria recutita L.) — Ploidy variation within German chamomile of various origins. It’s the triploids, stupid.
Making a chocolate chip: development and evaluation of a 6K SNP array for Theobroma cacao. Oh, very clever, now everybody and their uncle will be able to breed cacao, stupid.
Arbuscular mycorrhiza differentially affects synthesis of essential oils in coriander and dill. It’s not just genetics, stupid.
Comparative transcriptional profiling analysis of developing melon (Cucumis melo L.) fruit from climacteric and non-climacteric varieties. It’s the sugar metabolism, stupid.
Climate-driven diversity loss in a grassland community. It’s the increasing aridity, stupid.