- New threats to endangered Cook’s scurvy grass (Lepidium oleraceum; Brassicaceae): introduced crop viruses and the extent of their spread. Introduced crop virus threatens endemic.
- Role of adaptive and non-adaptive mechanisms forming complex patterns of genome size variation in six cytotypes of polyploid Allium oleraceum (Amaryllidaceae) on a continental scale. It’s not the environment.
- Evolution and ecology meet molecular genetics: adaptive phenotypic plasticity in two isolated Negev desert populations of Acacia raddiana at either end of a rainfall gradient. It’s the environment.
- Using biodiversity to valorise local food products: the case of fish ponds in a cultural landscape, their biodiversity, and carp production. It could work, if only people liked to eat carp and knew what biodiversity was.
- Phenotype and genetic diversity in potato onion cultivars from three provinces of northeast China. In other news, there’s something called a potato onion. Otherwise, this is actually a deeply boring paper.
- The value of genetic information to livestock buyers: a combined revealed, stated preference approach. Low to none, for now.
- Ecosystem Services. Latest issue includes a bunch of interesting reviews, and an editorial summarizing each in like a paragraph. Great service, great value. See what I did there?
- Scientific documentation of crop land changes in the Sahel: A half empty box of knowledge to support policy? There is no data, not really.
Nibbles: Carnivory, Insectivory, Pearl farming, Development grants, CWR mapping, Cassava genes, Permaculture in Malawi, Sustainability book, Sustainability conference, Commission, Morality & conservation, Beer from genebank
- Eat steak!
- No, eat cicadas!
- Farm pearls!
- Get a grant!
- CIAT got one, to map crop wild relatives!
- Not sure if any of these drought tolerance genes in cassava are from wild relatives, but I wouldn’t be surprised.
- I would likewise not be surprised if both cicadas and cassava featured in Malawian permaculture.
- Punjab’s 1st investigative e-paper doesn’t allow visitors to highlight and copy text, which means that the potentially interesting book about agricultural sustainability it mentions will go ungoogled.
- Which is a pity because I was really hoping for a nice segue into this conference on, ahem, agricultural sustainability, to take place in a few months in China.
- Which I could then have followed with a plug for the FAO Commission on GRFA, which many of us will be attending next week here in Rome.
- No, wait: Agricultural Sustainability: Progress and Prospects in Crop Research.
- But of course the best argument for sustainability is the moral one, right?
- That. Or beer.
Brainfood: Moroccan almonds, MAS in potato, Mexican maize market, History of agronomy, Malian querns, Hani terraces, Conservation modelling, Wild Cucumis, Pathogens and CC
- Moroccan almond is a distinct gene pool as revealed by SSR. Ok, now what?
- Molecular markers for late blight resistance breeding of potato: an update. Ok, now what?
- Reconstructing the Maize Market in Rural Mexico. Not so free after all.
- Why agronomy in the developing world has become contentious. Neoliberalism, participation and environmentalism. The answer? Political agronomy.
- Millet and sauce: The uses and functions of querns among the Minyanka (Mali). Form depends on more than just function.
- Landscape pattern and sustainability of a 1300-year-old agricultural landscape in subtropical mountain areas, Southwestern China. If it ain’t broke, why fix it?
- Mathematical optimization ideas for biodiversity conservation. Fancy math works sometimes but not always. Wonder if it would work on the Hani terraces above. Or on Mexican maize for that matter.
- Mitochondrial genome is paternally inherited in Cucumis allotetraploid (C. × hytivus) derived by interspecific hybridization. Not the chlororoplast genome though. Weird. But now what?
- Migrate or evolve: options for plant pathogens under climate change. Or, indeed, both. But we need better models, and a better handle on what human interventions can do. Interestingly, pathogen diversity may well increase in some places.
Nibbles: Biofuels, Edible soybeans, Food policy, Nutrition rules, Seed course, TEK index, Doubled haploids, Pigeon fanciers, Gum arabic, Livestock goods & bads, Spanish genebank, SADC seed law, Heirloom tomatoes
- Big Oil vs Big Corn. The Economist says End the ethanol tax.
- Grow edamame, young farmer.
- Agri experts call for a comprehensive food policy in Pakistan. Not gonna happen. There or anywhere else.
- But is this where it would start?
- Utterly confused by second-hand sources, I’m sending you straight to the horse’s mouth for information on Plant genetic resources and seeds: Community resilience in the face of change, a three week course in November 2013.
- Yeah, but will they teach you about Terralingua’s Vitality Index of Traditional Environmental Knowledge?
- CIMMYT doubles its haploids centrally now, at least in Africa.
- He coulda been a contender, but instead he breeds pigeons. Which is just as good, in my estimation.
- Photo essay on Sudan’s gum arabic industry.
- ILRI spell out the pros and cons of livestock. Always good to have the data.
- Who needs a national seed bank when you can have local ones like this one in Spain?
- Remember that draft SADC seed law RAFI didn’t like yesterday? Well, they’re not alone.
- Remember that Syngenta tomato that won that award yesterday? Well, now try these.
Nibbles: Roman gardens, Gwich’in video, Medicinals, Crowdsourcing, Genomics in general, Genomics in particular, ICARDA strategy, Growing plantains, Fonio, Fancy chocolate
- All nice and rested, we are resolutely back. With the peaceful gardens of Pompeii and Herculaneum.
- With the very different lifeways of the Gwich’in.
- With Cassandra Quave and her quest for medicinal plants. Not among the Gwich’in, alas.
- With Jacob van Etten and his quest for crowdsourcing. Also not among the Gwich’in, who can’t buy a break, it seems.
- With Eve Emshwiller (and others) on the joys of genomics.
- With Mary Ndila and her efforts to get to the bottom of the good cow/bad cow dichotomy. Using genomics, natch.
- With ICARDA’s exhortation to be smart and systematic.
- With CTA’s instructions on how to plant better plantains. Presumably by being smart and systematic? Kinda. Not, apparently, by varietal mixing, though.
- With ICRISAT’s pean to fonio. And now I need another holiday.
- Or a piece of chocolate.