Networking

Nibbles: Plant data, Wild relatives, Citizen science, Danish pig breed, Fruit names, Genebanks big and small, Taxonomy, Seaweed, Weather data, IPR training, Caribbean & Pacific, Potato research at Birmingham, Taro training in PNG, BioAreas

Latest Plant Press has interesting stuff on botanical data of various forms. Always worth a skim.
CSA pamphlet on the importance of crop wild relatives. Why does this feel like a bandwagon? And how long to the backlash?
And talking of bandwagons, here’s the latest from the one on citizen botany. Does indigenous tree knowledge count as citizen science? How about indigenous weed knowledge?
And how about using your pet pig to reinvigorate a breed?
Interesting take on fruit variety names. Can we crowdsource an answer?
Everything about the opening of that new Mexican mega-genebank. Including the speeches. Nice-looking building, I must say. And from IRRI an example of a genebank from the other end of the scale in the Philippines. And similar, but different, from ~~Canada~~ Colorado.
Biodiversity bigshots beg for naming blitz. Better hurry. And don’t forget the soil.
Sargasso Sea coming ashore in Ghana is bad news for fisherfolk. Can they not eat it? Is it bad to ask that?
How to find your way around weather data.
Swedes to provide IPR training for PGR types.
Island nations from opposite sides of the world brought together by agrobiodiversity. Full disclosure: I’ve worked with both regional PGR networks and want to again.
Brits who worked on spuds.
And Wontoks who worked on taro.
Privatizing conservation.

Unlike spring, we’re late to The Guardian’s citizen science map of “weird nature”. Please Sir, can we have one for agriculture?
Apples in French Indochina; more histoire des pommes française, or something.
Scaling up food supplies — in ancient Egypt.
“Conserving biodiversity could benefit the world’s poor,” it says here.
South Asian boffins launch regional vegetable research network. Only 5 crops, but open-pollinated varieties will be included in the trials.
“Ending malnutrition is a matter of political will. If India wanted to address childhood malnutrition in any serious way, it could.” Marion Nestle lays it on the line.
Diversity in drylands linked to greater resilience. A press release, and a news report.

Calestous Juma gives new FAO head some advice: find a role, build on what farmers do and know, engage civil society, help governments prioritize, and slash bureaucracy.
Religion and conservation: friends of enemies?
Eastern Africa Agricultural Productivity Project seems to be mainly about setting up regional centres of excellence in dairy, cassava, rice and wheat. Maybe ASARECA should ask for some advice from Prof. Juma?
Land use map of the UK. Let the mash-upping begin.
Training in sustainable conservation agriculture in India and Mexico. But how really sustainable is the whole thing if based on modern varieties? Oh, and Brazil too.
Saving the Amazon for $33 a month.Or maybe just a buck?
Local cooking a long way from home, Part I; from Colombia to Washington DC.
Local cooking a long way from home, Part II; from everywhere to New York’s Lower East Side.
Don’t worry, exploding watermelons are perfectly safe, and legal.
FAO updates its webpage on “Implementing the Global Plan of Action for Animal Genetic Resources” and documents the fact by providing a time stamp. Jeremy chuffed.