- Tea to get quality standards, geographic indications. Luigi’s mother-in-law unavailable for comment, but would probably say everybody already knows her tea is high quality and where it comes from.
- And speaking of Africa and commodities…
- Pygmy hog saved from extinction. Pocket pigs deny involvement.
- Big write-up of Ryton Organic Garden. Jeremy bound to comment.
- Perigord black truffle under threat from Chinese invader. Stock up now.
Nibbles: Camels, kvas, fruits, watermelon, bees, soil microbes
- Camels make a comeback in Rajasthan.
- Globalization comes to Russian kvas production.
- Mangosteen finally allowed into US. NY Times video about exotic fruits. Via.
- While the rest of the world frets about high food prices, US declares National Watermelon Month.
- USDA tries to keep abreast of honeybee Colony Collapse Disorder.
- Teaching about soil microbial agrobiodiversity.
Nibbles: Angola, Peas, Water, Root & tubers, Pollination, Coffee & chocolate, Worms
- Angola gets US$49.5 million to improve agricultural productivity, no mention of biodiversity.
- Yellow sugarsnap peas: an update.
- Guinness wells in Ghana, sorghum farmers not grateful enough.
- Trinidad goes back to its roots.
- More trouble for pollination.
- The Economist on adding value to coffee and cacao.
- “The earth without ____ would soon become cold, hard-bound and void of fermentation, and consequently sterile.” Fill in the blank.
Plants and health
Yes, yet another thematic trifecta. I swear I don’t go out looking for these, they just pop up every once in a while. CABI’s excellent blog had a piece today about CABI’s own fungal genetic resources collection and its value as a source of useful compounds. It includes Fleming’s original penicillin-producing strain so it does have form in that regard. Then Seeds Aside has a post on variation among olive varieties in a gene for an allergenic protein found on the pollen grain. And finally, over at the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, a thumbnail sketch of the redoubtable Phebe Lankester, who wrote extensively on both botany and health — and occasionally on the link between the two — in the latter part of the 19th century. ((Ann B. Shteir. (2004) “Lankester, Phebe (1825–1900).” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press. [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/58526, accessed 10 April 2008].))
Nibbles: Tangled Bank
- If you’re here from Tangled Bank 102, welcome. Go vote, please. If you’re here anyway, go read Tangled Bank.
- Bleeding canker threatens British horse chestnuts.
- Meanwhile, in the Netherlands, fertilizers threaten the Drumstick Truffleclub.
- Michael Pollan welcomes higher food prices. And more on his new book on “nutritionism”: eat food (not individual nutrients); mostly plant-derived; in reasonable amounts.
- Breadfruit balls anyone? Try charging more for that delicacy, Michael!
- Or, indeed, this. Or any of these for that matter.
- The weird food stuff just keeps on coming. Now there’s buzz about camel cheese. And a Peanut Lolita to help it down?
- Horizon scanning spots 25 novel threats to biodiversity in UK. Agrobiodiversity apparently totally safe. Phew.