Neglected species

November 2, 2013

Nibbles: Book, Sorghum, Plant breeding, Quinoa, Herbal medicines, Compensation, New varieties, Beers

Here’s a bunch of better-late-than-never links, some of which will be good this time next year.

A new book on Plant Genetic Resources and Climate Change.
I expect it covers sorghum, which NPR calls the “camel of crops”.
Wonder whether they’ll cover sorghum at the Tucson Plant Breeding Institute course in January 2014. h/t Crops for the Future.
Last week’s International Congress on Quinoa. Pretty sure our invitation got lost in the mail.
As was our invitation to Kew’s one-day symposium on herbal medicines and food supplements.
Annals of Botany explains how compensation may underly the benefits of genetic diversity – in Arabidopsis. (And thanks for the shout-out.)
ICRISAT struts its stuff in Nigeria with new varieties of groundnut and millet. As ever, we ask: who’s looking after the old varieties?
Diverse beers for Halloween – one to cut out and keep.

October 30, 2013October 30, 2013

Nibbles: Archaeocuisine, Ag-fab, Onion shortage, Healthy sorghum, Organic soybeans, Tropaeolum, Fish in rice

The Silk Road Gourmet talks about Reconstructing Cuisines And Recipes From The Ancient World.
Colin Tudge splutters about The Founding Fables of Industrialised Agriculture.
India’s ongoing onion crisis still a vale of tears.
But India’s jowar (sorghum) still offers superficial health benefits.
You know how all the US soybeans are being exported to China? Think again.
How the nasturtium got its spur; not a just-so-story.
California discovers the productive miracle of fish in rice paddies.

October 30, 2013

David Lynch cooks quinoa

David Lynch

I borrowed the image from the same place that brought this — David Lynch cooks quinoa — to the world’s attention. No really. But where’s the high-quality version? And the missing minutes? C’mon. And in Part II, what sounds like Inca Cola, but isn’t. In the dark!

Seriously, this has to be seen.

October 28, 2013October 2, 2013

Brainfood: Italian almonds, Bamboo in Europe, Ethiopian barley, Cryo bird balls, Finnish cattle products, Adaptation strategies, Soil microbes, RSA droughty SP, Livestock integration

Genetic diversity and relationships among Italian and foreign almond germplasm as revealed by microsatellite markers. I hate it when abstracts of paywalled papers don’t really tell you anything of any use.
Bamboo as a Crop in Western Europe – a SWOT Analysis. Yeah that’s not going to happen.
Phenotypic Diversity for Qualitative Characters of Barley (Hordeum vulgare (L.[/efn_note] Landrace Collections from Southern Ethiopia. Need to focus conservation on Dawro, Sheka, Gamgofa and Keffa and across altitudes. I can’t believe we didn’t already know that but, unlike with the Italian almonds, at least this bit of potentially useful information is in the abstract. And the paper is free.
Cryoconservation of avian gonads in Canada. And why not.
Consumers as Conservers—Could Consumers’ Interest in a Specialty Product Help to Preserve Endangered Finncattle? Yes, if the consumers are green male carnivores. But then I could probably have told you that.
What Influences Farmers’ Choice of Indigenous Adaptation Strategies for Agrobiodiversity Loss in Northern Ghana? Well, if I read this right, it is whether they have a radio, off-farm income and access to extension. But the math is complicated.
Does agricultural crop diversity enhance soil microbial biomass and organic matter dynamics? A meta-analysis. They mean rotations, and the answer is yes.
Evaluation of selected sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas) accessions for drought tolerance. Gotta love it when a genebank gets some use and a student gets a degree.
Integrated crop–livestock systems: Strategies to achieve synergy between agricultural production and environmental quality. Livestock are the key to ecologically sustainable intensification. But then they would say that, wouldn’t they.

October 25, 2013

Nibbles: Oca, Tasmanian Potatoes, Pasture diversity, Training for NUS, Kales

There are still people who think oca is a kind of potato. After all we’ve done for them.
And speaking of New Zealand Yams, here’s an old article about Tasmanian boutique potatoes.
Pasture diversity for animal welfare and profit
Young scientist in sub-Saharan Africa? Get trained on aspects of neglected and underutilized species.
So you thought kale was an ancient veggie? Think again. NYT features kale innovators.