Markets

January 11, 2014January 12, 2014

Dope diversity denied?

There’s one thing I want to know about what’s going to happen now that marijuana has been legalized in a couple of states in the US. And it’s not on CNN’s list. ¹ No, not where a visitor can actually smoke the stuff legally, as opposed to just buying it. Or how I can get a job in the industry. What I want to know is what will happen to diversity. There are some indications that legalization may lead to an increase in intellectual property protection over particular strains. I hope someone out there is gathering the baseline data, and saving the seeds, just in case. Not to mention learning lessons that could then be applied to, I dunno, opium in Afghanistan?

January 10, 2014January 10, 2014

Nibbles: Potato journeys, European collections, European bees, Wheat breeding, Mountains, Forest restoration, Tall trees, Symbioses, Guanaco reintroduction, Plant genomes, Improving GBIF, 2 sides of beef

The European encounter with the potato. A Google Earth tour by Jorge L. Alonso, and really rather fun. In Spanish.
The European encounter with virtual germplasm collections. AEGIS takes another step.
The European encounter with the honeybee. Bad news for the latter.
The European encounter with wheat. Its promiscuity will save us. Wheat’s, that is, not Europe’s. No, wait…
Nope, mountains will save us. Including Europe’s?
We should be doing reforestation in discrete patches, not huge swathes. Even on mountains, I suppose.
But if you want those trees to grow really tall, your options are limited.
No harm in adding a few fungi though. On the contrary…
And maybe a few guanacos?
Well we must have at least one genome piece in Nibbles, mustn’t we? Turns out plants are good models for everything else, including us.
And one database hell piece too, natch. Some thoughts on improving GBIF. Could be applied to Genesys too, I fear.
Meat: One side, and the other.

January 9, 2014

Nibbles: Pig evolution, Genomics field guide, Genome editing, Chilean agroecology training, Oxford Farming Conferences, Grape variety database, Food prices database, Amazonian history, Debunking tomatoes, INFOODS NUS list, Coptic gardens, Aid agencies map

The catching up continues:

“Genomics is a powerful tool…”: Pigs speciate, admix, fly.
But in the wrong hands…
I wonder which types of hands these genome editors have.
Ok, enough of that. Women, agroecology, capacity building, a fashionable country: what’s not to like?
I wonder if any of the ladies are at the Oxford Real Farming Conference. Or were. They were probably NOT at the Oxford Farming Conference. Oh the wit of these alternative farming types. You could have followed both on Twitter, were you so minded, and less confused than I.
Chile — for it is she — of course grows a lot of grapes. Want to know which varieties? Course you do.
Damn, grapes not included in this World Bank crowd-sourced food price dataset. Which I think we may have linked to before, but what the hell.
I know we’ve linked to ancient Amazonian civilization stuff before, but this is a predictive model, no less.
Busted: The tomato.
The INFOODS “List of underutilized species contributing to the Nutritional Indicators for Biodiversity” is out. Prices not included.
I somehow thought there would be more underutilized species in this Ethiopian monastery.
Who pays for (some of) this? Check out the Guardian’s interactive map of European development agencies.

January 8, 2014

Nibbles: Information, Domestication, Cats, Conference, Gunpowder gardening, Policy advice, Potatoes, Ancient vineyards, New UG99, Bovine emissions, Cacao ants, Palaeo-diet, Bloody quinoa, Tokyo’s honey, Urban biodiversity, Ilex, Conifers

Wow! Just wow. Big Picture Agriculture has launched an incredibly useful website.
Chromosomes, crops and superdomestication, a slideshare presentation by Pat Heslop-Harrison.
Cats, domesticated? Not as far as I’m concerned. Still, Ancient Chinese cats ate rats, leading to their domestication.
Independent plant breeders, a conference just for you.
Great ammunition for the lazy gardener.
IBPES told to “tap the wisdom of indigenous peoples”.
Kenyan policymakers told to consider the potato.
Basque vineyards of a millennium ago.
A new strain of UG99 wheat rust? But this time, the world is ready.
Variable diets linked to variable emissions shock.
scidev.net reports that ants protect cacao trees from fungal diseases. (Yes, I’m taking short cuts here.)
Palaeolithic people preferred nutrition-rich places.
And quinoa remains as confusing as ever.
Tokyo’s local honey.
Although agriculture barely features in a paean to urban biodiversity. It should.
The holly and the coffee: The Botanist in the Kitchen does Yerba Maté
Ready for the inevitable ennui of next Christmas, a taxonomy of conifers.

December 30, 2013January 9, 2014

Brainfood: Chinese heritage sites, Chinese farmer coops, Seasonal foods, Agroforestry markets, Quinoa roadmap, Swedish pseudo-coffee, Barley phylogenetics, Switchgrass diversity, Italian maize composition, European forest vulnerability

Conserving agricultural heritage systems through tourism: Exploration of two mountainous communities in China. Hopes of benefits are high. And will no doubt be cruelly dashed. What all this means for crop diversity is anyone’s guess.
Farmer cooperatives in China: diverse pathways to sustainable rural development. Hopes of benefits are high. And will no doubt be cruelly dashed. What all this means for crop diversity is anyone’s guess.
Seasonality and dietary requirements: will eating seasonal food contribute to health and environmental sustainability? Maybe, but other things are more important.
Collective action to improve market access for smallholder producers of agroforestry products: key lessons learned with insights from Cameroon’s experience. It can work, and it helps if there is fun to be had.
Quinoa biodiversity and sustainability for food security under climate change. A review. We’re going to have to move beyond Quinoa Real. Here comes the model.
Swedish coffee (Astragalus boeticus L.), a neglected coffee substitute with a past and a potential future. It could be revived, and here’s how, but why would anyone want to?
Phylogeny of ten species of the genus Hordeum L. as revealed by AFLP markers and seed storage protein electrophoresis. Breaks down into Old and New World species.
Genetic Structure of Remnant Populations and Cultivars of Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) in the Context of Prairie Conservation and Restoration. Have to be careful using cultivars in the restoration of natural populations. Not because they are lower in diversity than natural populations, but because they are different.
Carotenoids, Phenolic Compounds and Antioxidant Capacity of Five Local Italian Corn (Zea Mays L.). Kernels. Roccacontrada Rosso could be marketed as a functional food. But you lost me at that capital M.
Vulnerability of dynamic genetic conservation units of forest trees in Europe to climate change. By 2100, about half of the species in the conservation units will be at the edge of or outside their climate niche.