Markets

Nibbles: Phenomics, Genomes, Indian cucurbits, Argania, Food in history, Sourghum & drought, USDA genebanks, Queenly pear, CIMMYT genebank, Malawi cowpea, Nutrition strategy

Phenomics is the new genomics.
No, wait. Peanuts to get a genome. A rice relative’s got one already.
All the Cucurbitaceae of India, in one handy checklist.
The paradox of argan oil.
Couple of things on the history of food. And one on the ethics of food.
Big push for drought-resistant sorghum. Wait, I thought it was drought-resistant already.
Ft Collins gets yet another media write-up.
Telegraph says Queen gets rare pear. Letter writer to Times begs to differ on the whole rarity thing. It sounds like, damn thing being (mostly) behind a paywall.
If you’re on Facebook, why not like this photo of the CIMMYT maize genebank?
Canada to help Malawi diversify. Into cowpeas.
Big report on big nutrition meeting. Big deal?

This quinoa thing is getting tedious.
Clinton brings a seed bank to Haiti, “which will support efforts to increase agricultural production.” Will be interesting to see how exactly it does that.
Whereas this seed bank in Guatemala “is empowering the local community to preserve and grow the seeds.” So there you go.
Of course, those seed banks are going to need seed systems. And vice versa.
And the next milestone in the continuing disempowering of the farmer is…
Orange-fleshed sweet potatoes go aquatic. Where they’ll find fish that need to be compared.
A Tongan vanilla tour.

Things are slim today, mostly only tangentially related to agricultural biodiversity. But we hate to disappoint…

The ever-influential Lancet has published a series on non-communicable diseases (many of which are associated with dietary diversity). Marion Nestle has the details.
The USDA’s conservation program is fighting a losing battle against high corn prices, and everybody suffers (except corn farmers).
Sell wheat? Prices are high, but forecasts are good.
Vegscape! If you need a “state-of-the-art, satellite-based U.S. crop condition vegetation assessment and monitoring service”.
Now this really is agrobiodiverse: A high definition film on seed saving that needs your support.
This one too: women and bambara groundnut.

Geographic patterns in epigenomic variation. Yeah, but in Arabidopsis.
A global strategy for conservation. Yeah, but for cacao.
That “Diversifying Food and Diets — Using Agricultural Biodiversity to Improve Nutrition and Health” book? You’ll be able to get chapters and case studies from a dedicated website nine months after publication.
Not to be outdone, the Ethiopian Institute of Agriculture Research lets you download “Defining Moments in the Ethiopian Seed System.”
New Agriculturist fillets out some contributions to a recent Economist conference on malnutrition.
The Brassica research community gets together in the UK. Not many people hurt.