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October 18, 2011October 18, 2011

Nibbles: Chickens, Millet adoption, Specialty crops, World Food Day, Migrating forests, Vietnamese pheasants, Yews, High prices, Genebank tour, Climate change conference.

Why did the Chinese chicken cross the road? To get a new date. For domestication, that is.
The Indian Farmer is actually three, millet-wise.
USDA wades into specialty crops. Wonder if one of them is baobab, and a factsheet is involved. Or “small scale grains” for that matter.
“Life in the countryside is hard.” But fear not, FAO is on it.
Forests are not migrating. Species are actually undergoing range contraction at both ends. Well that’s weird.
The first pheasant extinction? Say it ain’t so.
I like pictures of old trees. So sue me.
Jess stops traffic.
Tour a cocoa genebank. Could this catch on?
International Conference on Climate Change and Food Security (ICCCFS). Not hot air.

October 18, 2011October 18, 2011

The pomegranate in Armenia

The pomegranate is everywhere in Armenia. And I don’t mean just in the markets. A famous film is named after the fruit. Tea and wine are made from it. And its image features on everything from church walls to tourist souvenirs. I suppose it goes back to pre-Christian mythology, in which it was a symbol of fertility and abundance — something to do with the belief that each fruit contained exactly 365 seeds, perhaps. Anyway, here’s a compendium of pomegranate iconography from my recent trip. Couldn’t get much information on diversity, I’m afraid, how much there is of it and to what extent it is endangered. Something for the next time.