- The future of food is different plants. Can live with that.
- Like wapato?
- As long as coffee is still in the mix.
- That mean we won’t need forages? Surely not.
- Maybe we can also grow the same plants, but better.
Seed sector consolidation and innovation deconstructed
Long story short, I don’t think there is sufficient evidence so far to support the claim that increasing concentration in seed markets reduces innovation. I’m not saying it is impossible; just that the evidence so far does not show it…
Well, that’s a turn up for the books. Koen Deconinck’s OECD study explaining why the recent Civil Eats story making that claim may be wrong is just out, but that quote comes from a Twitter thread which starts with this
Our @OECDagriculture study on concentration in seed markets contradicts several of the points made in this @CivilEats article. I'd like to pick on one argument in particular – that mergers lead to less innovation. This has not been shown. 1/ https://t.co/jwb7j584AV
— Koen Deconinck (@DeconinckKoen) January 14, 2019
and that you can see conveniently unspooled here.
Nibbles: Magic beans et al., Avocado etymology, Honey please, Pig maps, Banana pics, Commons, Diet footprint, Sparing/sharing, Old caviar, Old whiskey, Potato wild relatives, Cassava breeding, Apple double, Ancient potatoes, Ancient grapes, African cooking, Native American craft beer, Agricultural heritage site, Aboriginal biodiversity, Svalbard 10th, Alpaca calendar.
- Telegraph op-ed on agricultural biodiversity. Yeah, you read that right.
- No, avocado does not come from the Aztec’s word for testicles. It’s the other way around.
- Why honey is a keeper.
- Mapping the hell out of pigs.
- Photo database to help tell bananas apart.
- Deconstructing the Tragedy of the Commons.
- The C footprint of your diet.
- “We can spare 50 percent and share the rest.”
- Cave man caviar.
- Whiskey with that?
- Potato wild relatives and food security.
- Cassava and food security. No word on its wild relatives.
- Wales finds a new apple.
- Maybe someone will take a cool picture of it.
- Potatoes were always for the masses. Ok, but not sure anyone ever thought otherwise, though.
- Grapes, on the other hand…
- The cuisines of Africa get their shot.
- Some of those will go well with craft beer.
- Agricultural heritage list gets saffron and argan. Bet they go together well.
- Maybe wild kiang tea will get there too someday.
- Or the Aboriginal Australians. Not really agriculturalists, but still.
- Is this alpaca exploitation? Maybe you can take the promotion of agricultural biodiversity too far.
- Will the Svalbard Global Seed Vault qualify one day? Ten years on, still going strong. And return to top.
Brainfood: Stressful crops, Quinoa, Ganja genome, Medicinal vetch, CWR in PAs, CWR in Zambian farms, African viral chickens, Naked barley, Farmer trials, Cotton genomes, Tuscan toms, Land sharing, Nigerian goats, Walnut diversity, Bean breeders, Sweet rice
- Developing naturally stress-resistant crops for a sustainable agriculture. Can’t help thinking there will be a trade-off.
- Quinoa Abiotic Stress Responses: A Review. Case in point?
- A physical and genetic map of Cannabis sativa identifies extensive rearrangement at the 2 THC/CBD acid synthase locus. At last, the prospect of better weed.
- In vitro anthelmintic effect of Vicia pannonica var. purpurascens on trichostrongylosis in sheep. From Turkish folk medicine to the big time?
- Should plant breeders be denied of genetic resources from protected areas? Not if you put it that way. Maybe they should be valued? There’s a way to do that…
- Estimating in situ conservation costs of Zambian crop wild relatives under alternative conservation goals. Put it out to tender.
- The genetic diversity of local african chickens: A potential for selection of chickens resistant to viral infections. No word on their monetary value, though.
- Agro-morphological diversity of Nepalese naked barley landraces. Lots of diversity, little used as yet by breeders.
- Generating Farm-Validated Variety Recommendations for Climate Adaptation. One word: tricot.
- Reference genome sequences of two cultivated allotetraploid cottons, Gossypium hirsutum and Gossypium barbadense. 13 QTLs for better fibre quality.
- Ancient Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) Varieties of Tuscany Have High Contents of Bioactive Compounds. Better than commercial varieties, apparently.
- Biodiversity and yield under different land-use types in orchard/vineyard landscapes: A meta-analysis. Land sharing works.
- Small Ruminants as a Source of Financial Security Among Women in Rural Southwest Nigeria. Better with education, extension and cooperation.
- Analysis of genetic diversity and structure in a worldwide walnut (Juglans regia L.) germplasm using SSR markers. W Europe/N America vs E Europe/Asia.
- David Bond and Jean Picard: Two pivotal breeders of faba bean in the 20th century. Bond and Picard?
- Status and factors influencing on-farm conservation of Kam Sweet Rice (Oryza sativa L.) genetic resources in southeast Guizhou Province, China. In the end of women and the old.
Brainfood: Glaucous wheat, Iranian barley, Pigeonpea breeding, Automated peas, Bavarian crop diversity, Bean micronutrients, Wheat & CC, Introgression, Crossover, Decriminalizing landraces, Rationalizing Spain, Polish wheat
- Genetic Control of Glaucousness in Wheat Plants. Ok, good to know. Now what?
- Potential of Iranian wild barley (Hordeum vulgare ssp. spontaneum) in breeding for drought tolerance. Potential, potential, potential. Enough with the potential.
- Pigeonpea improvement: An amalgam of breeding and genomic research. “…very few genomic inputs…currently employed at ICRISAT.” Well, why not?
- Automated phenotyping for early vigour of field pea seedlings in controlled environment by colour imaging technology. How much money will be saved?
- Crop diversity and stability of revenue on farms in Central Europe: An analysis of big data from a comprehensive agricultural census in Bavaria. High prices for a few crops working against the effect of diversity on income stability.
- Screening common bean (P. vulgaris L.) germplasm for Fe and Zn biofortication. Almost there with the candidate genes. Almost. Compare and contrast with wheat.
- Climate change impact and adaptation for wheat protein. We’ll need better adapted varieties, but even they will not keep pace with grain quality demands.
- The extent of adaptive wild introgression in crops. Wild relatives are more than just crop ancestors.
- Unleashing meiotic crossovers in crops. It’s all in the RECQ4 gene.
- Decentralization and liberalization of seeds and plant genetic resources regulations in Europe: a Danish case study. If you want to grow and trade landraces, Denmark is your place.
- Plant genebanks: present situation and proposals for their improvement. The case of the Spanish Network. If you want to have a well-running national genebank system, on the other hand…
- Triticum polonicum L. as potential source material for the biofortification of wheat with essential micronutrients. Low strontium too.