- More evidence of India’s fascination with little-known indigenous
cattle breeds. - Forbes reviews Borlaug bio.
- FAO Forestry has a nifty new mobile app. No idea why.
- VI International Symposium on Brassicas and XVIII Crucifer Genetics Workshop looking for sponsors. Any ideas?
- Prof Pat Heslop-Harrison is today’s “Face of Plant Cell Biology“.
- Of course it is a daft idea to claim rights over the word “agave”. But will anyone listen?
- Blimey! A penguin is like a lime juice.
Nibbles: Ancient grains, Cassava beer, Yeast
- Wall Street Journal clambers aboard the ancient grains bandwagon.
- Cassava beer!
- Yeasts have a genebank too!
Nibbles: FIGS, Wassailing, Rice breeding, Mobile apps, GI, Coffee, Art, Symposium
- Probably way more than you ever need to know about FIGS. In one handy PowerPoint.
- The British love affair with the apple comes to a head. And goes over the top.
- 100 years of the Paddy Breeding Station. No, nothing to do with the Irish.
- Another damn app competition.
- Geographical Indications in Brazilian law deconstructed.
- Not too late for a cappuccino. But make mine a civet cat shit one.
- More rewriting of Amazon pre-history.
- Marianne North, botanical artist, in the Amazon and elsewhere, remembered.
- Starting now FAO Symposium: applying information on food and nutrition security to better decision making. There’s even a hashtag — #isfsi2012 — but nobody seems to be using it.
Brainfood: Climate change in Europe, Slow cheese in Portugal, Grapevine diversity in Spain, Noni in India, Farmers and pastoralists in Jordan, Stevia everywhere, Almond genes flow, Peanuts, Disease control
- Representing two centuries of past and future climate for assessing risks to biodiversity in Europe. Temperature up 3-6°C throughout Europe by end of century, rainfall down in south, up in north. Sounds lovely.
- Gourmandizing Poverty Food: The Serpa Cheese Slow Food Presidium. Trying to bring back a lost Portuguese cheese is romantic and elitist. Wish they’d just say what they really mean.
- Genetic diversity of wild grapevine populations in Spain and their genetic relationships with cultivated grapevines. If there’s a genetic contribution of wild grapevines to cultivated in Spain, it’s not great.
- Revisiting the origin of the domestication of noni (Morinda citrifolia L.). Let’s just say Pacific islanders won’t be pleased.
- The desert and the sown: Nomad–farmer interactions in the Wadi Faynan, southern Jordan. Changes from sedentarism to pastoralism are mainly due to chance.
- Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni, source of a high-potency natural sweetener: A comprehensive review on the biochemical, nutritional and functional aspects. Not just sweetness, folic acid, vitamin C and all of the indispensable amino acids except tryptophan too.
- Gene flow among wild and domesticated almond species: insights from chloroplast and nuclear markers. The main insight being that it happens a lot, in both directions.
- Agricultural Technology, Crop Income, and Poverty Alleviation in Uganda. New peanut varieties increase incomes and reduce poverty, but aren’t enough on their own.
- Plant diversity improves protection against soil-borne pathogens by fostering antagonistic bacterial communities. It sure does, at least in a long-term grassland.
Parmigiano Reggiano on the wheel
I’m not sure how widely known it is that the two recent earthquakes in northern Italy, apart from the tragic loss of life, destruction of homes and damage to historical buildings, are also likely to have a significant effect on livelihoods, and not least because of the impact on the production of the iconic cheese of the region, Parmigiano Reggiano. From the Facebook fan page of the consortium of producers, I see that 24 firms are affected, for a total of 300,000 40kg wheels damaged, or 10% of production. The advice of the Consorzio del Parmigiano Reggiano for those who would like to help is to keep buying the stuff. No need to ask me twice.