The FreshPlaza newsletter is a veritable treasure trove of information on fruit & veg around the world. Yesterday’s issue was particularly rich in agrobiodiversity articles. Among other things, it pointed to pieces about how the British are losing their cherry varieties, and about how a Washington State farmer found a new one. There was also an appreciation from Pakistan of the local fruit known as “jamun“, which is probably Syzygium cumini.
Nibbles: Camel, Maya forestry, Ancient barley, Cattle diversity, Poisons, Agroforestry Congress, Lactase persistence
- Wild camel genetically distinct from the domesticated kind. Well I never.
- Maya tapped into their “sacred groves” to build temples, which did not end well.
- Boffins extract DNA from ancient barley in Upper Egypt, find it was 2-rowed, but derived from a 6-rowed ancestor. No word on whether it was used to make beer, but my guess is yes.
- Large Y chromosome microsatellite study of Eurasian cattle does “not support the recent hypothesis on the origin of Y1 from the local European hybridization of cattle with male aurochsen.” This could run and run.
- I like this idea: a garden of poisons.
- Agroforestry’s coming-of-age party coming up. You going? Let us know.
- Multiple explanations for lactase persistence.
Nibbles: Turmeric, Tillage, AGRA, Research
- The wonders of turmeric.
- The wonders of reduced tillage (in arid Ethiopia).
- The wonders of massive influence. AGRA’s President speaks.
- The wonders of the internet. Who needs well-documented seed collections?
Nibbles: Pigs, Spices, Climate change in Britain
- Great photos of swimming pigs.
- Great photos of Indian spice market.
- British agriculture to go Mediterranean.
Nibbles: Chilli, Extension, Africa, Genebank, Potatoes, War, Angora
- Cool new use for hot peppers: fungicides, for agriculture and human health.
- Community Knowledge Workers transformed into “Mobile Banana Disease Monitors”.
- Grain “call[s] on African peasants to resist and protect their agriculture, as they have always done”.
- Near Corvallis, Ore, USA? Wanna tour the genebank? Wanna write it up for us?
- New World Catalogue of Potato Varieties. A pedant asks: “Any Old World varieties in there?”
- Germany is said to be demanding entire Rumanian wheat crop, also part of what is left over from 1938 crop. Orwell’s approaching war.
- Saving the Angora goat in the US.