Networking

Nibbles: GMO promises promises, African livestock outside & in, Vegetables galore, Farmer videos from US & Sri Lanka, Fermentation beery & otherwise, Yam people & traits, Botanic garden diversity, ECPGR, CWR in US & Benin, Herbarium data, Baobab info, Olean info, Pix, Indian cooking

Nature “celebrates” 30 years of GMOs.
African pastoralists know how not to destroy their livelihoods shock.
African urban dwellers keep livestock shock.
Vegetables can be perennial too. Oh yes indeedy. Not bitter gourd though, alas. Nor cucumber. And in other news, there’s a Bitter Melon Council. And also a campaign to promote zucchini in Iowa.
Climate change reaches farmers in the Pacific NW. Can their Sri Lankan colleagues be far behind?
Always good to have a beer story. Well, maybe not.
Speaking of fermentation, this WSJ piece looks interesting, from the two sentences of it I can read. No, wait. Oh crap, try this.
A hummus dip goes really nicely with beer. Is this the quinoa story again?
A yam conference for the ages. Will they discuss the new trait ontology?
Botanic gardens reach out. Genebanks next? Maybe not.
You mean like the European ones, perhaps?
That US CWR paper from the horse’s mouth. And a similar thing from Benin. But where does all that data come from?
Baobab notes to go with all those factsheets.
The Saharan olive needs a factsheet too. IRD obliges.
Cool set of agriculture photos.
A couple of different views of Indian food. Thanks to Cara de Silva and Diana Buja.

The botanist in the kitchen takes on the diversity of squashes. And pumpkins. And some gourds. So we don’t have to.
Aren’t you glad we’re here to tell you that “Potato Beans” are Apios americana? Why do we even link to this stuff?
Split peas split Jewish communities. Because it allows us to have fun.
Like this: USDA grant condemns Bolivian peasants to eternal poverty but better nutrition.
I see your allegedly neglected crop and raise you a really neglected one.

Today’s genomic breakthrough involves kernel number in maize.
Neolithic people overhunted, then thought better of it.
Was guinea fowl ever domesticated, I wonder?
How to figure out if you’ve looked hard enough. For plants, that is. And some discussion.
Gin is in trouble. But help is at hand.
A workshop on chocolate and vanilla. My kinda event. And chocolate does need help. Gin, chocolate. Pretty soon life wont be worth living.
Simran Sethi’s Twitter chat after TEDxManhattan was storified, but it’s gone now of course. Try this instead.
Final say on that IPBES-1 gabfest.
And the first say on that “Global Consultation on agricultural biodiversity for sustainable food security” thing.

Another website archiving phylogenetic trees? What are the odds? Well, they are different animals.
Did we ever link to The Plant Press? If not, we should have.
The quinoa controversy rumbles on. We’ve got that covered too. And since you’re at it, why not help revise the descriptors?
Bad news for Africa: plant viruses. Ah but there are varieties for that problem, no? No? Well, you can always highlight the little blighters as research priorities.
Good news for Africa: local vegetables.
Sort of good news for Africa, I guess: livestock in slums.
New website keeps an eye on Protected Area Downgrading, Downsizing, and Degazettement. Interactively, natch. Well, actually, not so much. Can’t export, or import. Maybe the mash-up will fix that. Anyway, most protected areas are in the wrong place, aren’t they?
Conserving Chinese rice, one variety at the time.
Latest installment of The Economist’s Feeding the World thing is happening right now, and you can follow it on Twitter using #feedingtheworld. Or maybe you’d like to re-imagine agriculture with the CGIAR instead?
Apply for the latest installment of Wageningen’s PGR course.

The latest genomic whiz-bangery.
CIFOR’s Congo slideshow makes The Guardian. About as far from genomic whiz-bangery as you can get.
Speaking of which… Very long talk by David Tilman. Almost certainly worth watching in its entirety. Eventually. It all depends on trade-offs. See what I did there?
Agriculture stops expanding. Is it all that genomic whiz-bangery?
U. of Delaware gets big Lima bean grant. Yes, Delaware. They got whiz-bangery in Delaware too.
Meanwhile, Texan cotton breeder gets award. For a certain amount of whiz-bangery.
Translocation and restoration: cool, but a last resort, whiz-bangery says.
Support for the seed sector in S. Sudan. Any landraces? No whiz-bangery in sight.
And likewise for the yam bean in Africa.
Wonder whether that’ll be on the agenda at the First Food Security Futures Conference in April. Probably not.
Nor, probably, will anyone be thinking too hard about agro-ecology; but you could be, with this handy-dandy introduction to holistic management.
SEAVEG; no, not nori etc, but veg in SE Asia.
Different animals need different kinds of fodder, ILRI shows how.
Wishing success to the Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative launched at the University of Arkansas today.