Microbes

Brainfood: Wild rice database, E Asian wheat diversity, Microbial terroir, Sesame breeding, Agrobiodiversity fairs, AnGR conservation, Rye diversity

The land sparing vs sharing debate encapsulated in a controversy over San Francisco oyster farming.
Bitter is good.
BBC’s Farming Today on saffron in England, among other things.
Want sustainable development? Invest in agriculture.
Growing weed: here comes the science.
“When you chew on a Camembert rind, you’re eating a solid mat of mold.” And probably GM to boot.
Why do I sound so totally unprepared?
Breeding better blueberries.

Luther Burbank “…was willing to cross just about anything that had leaves…”
No, rice did not originate in northern Australia. Not in the sense those words are usually used.
Aussies to embrace cannabis. But not in the sense those words are usually used.
Australian exporters nuts for more than just macadamia. Ah, interdependence…
Meanwhile, Ethiopian teff exporters licking their lips in anticipation.
Kew is bigger than the sum of its parts.
Cherokee Nation genebanker gets award.
Yes, BBC, vegetables exist, let’s move on.
Maize Lethal Necrosis on its last legs? Well, “progress is being made” at any rate.
The Economist’s daily chart is on declining fish stocks. Why have they gone all warm and fuzzy lately? Something in the zeitgeist?
Inuit are genetically adapted to their fishy diet.
Damn it, I lost! Probably fixed.
Africa sets up a new institution for food security. Which is not the same as hunger, we are told. But is it malnutrition.
ICIPE scales up and out. More impact than any “new institution” is going to achieve.
World Congress on Root & Tuber Crops has a new website.
It’s the smallholders, stupid. Like the ones growing tea in Kenya, frinstance.
The EU to discuss agroecology. Yesterday, alas.
IRRI and Plant Treaty to share an IT-savvy genebank manager.
How kiwifruit became kiwifruit.
Microbes have collections too.

So, how well did that Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa project do, anyway? Meeting to be held to find out. In the meantime, here’s the infographic.
My friend Bob Reid gets an award for his contribution to forage genetic resources conservation and use.
Finally doing something about arabica’s lack of diversity.
Digitizing herbarium collections? There’s a workflow for that.
Remember the good old days of nutritions veggies? “[A]ny real declines [in nutrient content] are generally most easily explained by changes in cultivated varieties.”
“…what if hybrids were farmed as carefully & conscientiously as the finest vinifera grapes in a historical vineyard?”
Wild foods from dry forests are good for you. Wet forest not totally useless either though.
Bats, earthworms, enough of this biodiversity, we get it already.
Bittman puts his money where his mouth is.