- Metabarcoding of poop reveals secret of large herbivore diversity in African savannahs.
- Unique Omani banana fights pests.
- Truffle dogs: “Il cane, le corna non te le mette mai…”
- Traditional taro cultivation protects Hawaiian reef.
- Organic farming pays.
- Climate change favouring offspring of interspecies hybridization. Also in crops? Like brassicas maybe?
- Domestication of silk worm probed molecularly. Is that even a word?
- Video explains Baranaja. Spoiler alert: it’s the diversity, stupid.
- And along the same lines: rare seeds go home.
- Brazil wants to be among the top 5 fish producers in the world. What could possibly go wrong.
- Extracts from Jules Pretty’s book on what we can all learn from more nature-loving societies.
- The key to Inga conservation. Is keys.
- Community-based forest management in the Yucatan: “Future generations have the right to know them.” And not just the trees, bees too.
- Since we’re in Mexico: a visit to the genebank.
- The women of beer. None of them using cassava, though, alas.
- “El mercado tiene sus normas y los científicos no las conocemos”.
- Agro-commodity traders can be good for you. Somebody mention the market?
Nibbles: Iron millet, Potato problems, Potato award, Chocolate, Cider, Nerica for Ebola, African vegetables, Collections in peril, Frida Kahlo, Diverse grasslands, Svalbard, Watermelon heirloom, Sugar, Food security, Engineered heroin, Collecting seeds, Foraging, Early modern maize, Plant protection, Guernsey seaweed
- Biofortified pearl millet has an effect!
- Bayer says the potato is a diva. But then they would, wouldn’t they.
- Potato exhibit wins award. Did someone say diva?
- Do we really need to be told that fermentation is a good thing?
- See what I mean? I’ll drink to that!
- Nerica for Ebola-hit areas. But why only?
- Cooking up some veggies in Cameroon. With some Nerica rice, no doubt.
- French national collection of carnivorous plants up for sale. Sorely tempted.
- Frida’s garden. I bet there’s some carnivorous plants in there.
- Diverse grasslands are stable grasslands.
- No, actually, The Guardian, not an overpriced deep freeze.
- The sweetest melon in the South.
- Taking the sugar out of our diets. But not watermelons, surely.
- Interview with the US Ambassador to the Rome-based UN agencies, focusing on food security.
- Home-brewed heroin: what could possibly go wrong?
- The Global Seed Conservation Challenge: but will it be done the right way?
- Rummaging around Europe’s forests.
- Is that Shakespeare or Drake holding an early introduction of maize to England?
- Using plants to protect plants.
- Vraic Day! h/t @twaihaku
Nibbles: Maps, Carrot museum, Soybean breeding, Spinach cure, Threshing machines, Ag from space, Sustainably Irish, Truffles trifle
- Gorgeous old-timey map of medicinal plants in the US.
- But maps don’t have to be full of stuff like that to be useful. And beautiful.
- Have we linked to the Carrot Museum yet?
- Perennial wild soybean from Australia good for something after all.
- Sick citrus plants told to eat their spinach.
- Thresh with style.
- Agricultural expansion in Latin America slows down.
- Irish eyes smiling on sustainability.
- Global history of truffles book review.
Nibbles: Youthful ideas, IK, Variety testing, GMO philosophy, Organic GMOs, Oline disease, Cacao doctors, US wheat, Cary Fowler, Bison renaissance, UCDavis, Andean grains, Alaskan ag, Lettuce latex, Collecting strategies, Pulses racing, Huitlacoche, Ecoagriculture, Bowel movement
- Australian yoofs make suggestions for a better agriculture. Not as bad as you might think.
- Emulate, don’t imitate, desert dwellers.
- Webinar on variety trialing.
- A philosopher tackles GMO labelling. Not many people hurt.
- Meanwhile, Pamela Ronald is trying to find a middle way.
- This Italian olive disease thing is getting worrying.
- Indonesians have their own problems with cacao, but at least they seem to be fixing them.
- And the US is gonna have trouble with wheat. The solution: plant maize? No, wait…
- The European bison is back!
- A decade of Plant Sciences at UCDavis.
- Call for more breeding of Andean grains. By an Andean grain breeder.
- “It might not be the Fertile Crescent when it comes to corn and potatoes, but south-central Alaska just might be the cradle of the coming Rhodiola renaissance.”
- Rubbery lettuce? Shhh, or everybody will want some.
- Can’t collect seed at random throughtout a population? Collect more!
- Yeah, yeah, it’s the International Year of Pulses, we get it.
- The Mexican truffle?
- Ecofarming pays. In Kenya. In 2014.
- Sometimes crop wild relatives are a real pain in the ass.
Brainfood: Tomato diversity, Tomato characterization, Sweetpotato diversity, Olive characterization, Bamboo as fodder, Chinese liquor, Agroecological livestock, Oasis agrobiodiversity, Pearl millet diversity double
- Genomic variation in tomato, from wild ancestors to contemporary breeding accessions. A first domestication in South America, a second step in Mesoamerica, occasional hybridization in the wild, differentiation through human selection. Some Ecuadorian and Peruvian diversity still unexplored for breeding.
- Characterization of a collection of local varieties of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) using conventional descriptors and the high-throughput phenomics tool Tomato Analyzer. Instant gratification comes to tomato characterization.
- Molecular diversity and genetic structure of 380 sweetpotato accessions as revealed by SSR markers. Also a two-step domestication history? What are the odds?
- Association of SSR markers with contents of fatty acids in olive oil and genetic diversity analysis of an olive core collection. Let the molecular-assisted breeding begin.
- Genetic Evaluation of Nutritional and Fodder Quality of Different Bamboo Species. Remarkably, some species are ok.
- Genetic Diversity Among the Microorganisms in Daqu Used for Beidacang Liquor as Revealed by RAPD Analyses. Well that’s a new one on me, but it’s good to have the data.
- Farm animal genetic and genomic resources from an agroecological perspective. If you’re going to really be ecological in your management of livestock genetic resources, you need to factor in ecosystem services, and figure out how genomic tools are going to help you. Well, that pretty much goes for crops too, surely.
- The labor of agrodiversity in a Moroccan oasis. Not all agrobiodiversity is that old.
- Identification of pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.) germplasm with unique popping quality in the national genebank collections of India. Amazing what you can find in genebanks.
- Iniadi pearl millet germplasm as a valuable genetic resource for high grain iron. See what I mean?