- Lawrence Haddad on how to start transforming the food system.
- Here’s an idea: CIMMYT genebank recognized for restoring agricultural diversity in Guatemala.
- And another. Cash transfers are better than more conventional interventions for malnutrition, but they have to be real money.
- But, of course, they don’t always work. That’s one of many development myths listed in this fun Twitter thread.
- We also need metrics, sure, but the right ones, and we may already have them.
- The first ecologist remembered. That would be Humboldt.
- Terrible visualizations of the changing geography of American agriculture.
- But where are heirloom grown? Rice, say?
- And where are all the pomegranate farmers?
- I’m sure there are plenty of grape maps of France somewhere. But what’s with all these varieties? And are there more than in pomegranate?
- IUCN launches a new Red List website.
- Laos launches a sort of Red List website on traditional foods. Here it is. No word on linkages with Ark of Taste.
- Belgian lambic beer threatened by climate change. Now it’s personal.
- In Italy, the landscape needs people to keep it safe.
- Even olive landscapes, which maybe need to be more promiscuous.
- Early agricultural migrations fuelled by cheese.
- Early eggplant migrations fuelled by elephants.
- Microbes to the rescue.
Nibbles: Farm subsidies, Pressing and naming plants, Cowpea primer, California crop maps, Caribbean mangoes, ABS meeting, Banana mapping, Sarada Krishnan, Indian millets, Apple varieties, Early modern bees
- Fun Twitter thread on zombie tropes about farm subsidies in the US. Should have been a blog post, though.
- Kew boffins on how to make an herbarium specimen. More complicated than you might think. And why it’s important. While I’m at it, this is how you use herbarium specimens etc. to name plants.
- IITA genebank manager interviewed about cowpea.
- Everything you ever wanted to know about the history of cartography. Not very relevant here, I know, but a monumental achievement that I wanted to celebrate. And here’s a wonderful example of cutting-edge online cartography that will no doubt feature in a future edition.
- The banana mapping project is progressing nicely.
- Damn, I missed the St Lucia mango festival. Next year?
- Africa discusses ABS.
- Dr Sarada Krishnan of Denver Botanic Garden profiled. She worked on the global coffee conservation strategy. Among many other things.
- Millets to the rescue in Gujarat.
- Red Delicious bumped from top apple spot.
- Amateurs have spread information about beekeeping since 16th century.
Nibbles: Apple diversity, Nutrition, Cali crops, Sourdough 101, Orphans, Nomenclature, Wheat genome, CWR Week, Replanting
- The decline and fall of Golden Delicious.
- Jess Fanzo on the nutritional triple threat.
- Stunning map of California’s farms.
- A sourdough library. Have you listened to Jeremy’s podcast on the subject?
- Remembering forgotten crops.
- How to name plants.
- Tricky genome outwitted.
- Crop Science Society of America is celebrating Crop Wild Relative Week September 22-29.
- Chinese rural trees in cities.
Nibbles: Lad spuds, Assisi olives, Amazing maize art, Wild tea, Peruvian alpaca, TR4, Seed banks, Space Seed Force, Embrapa sweetpotato, ITPGRFA
- The hidden treasure of Colombian potatoes. In a lad mag, no less.
- Umbrian olive terraces get UN status, no less.
- Maize furniture, no less.
- New wild tea species found. In protected areas, no less.
- Saving the dreadlocked Suri alpaca of Peru through spinning.
- Saving the banana through lots of things.
- Seed banks for restoration, but also so much more.
- Even in space. No less.
- But don’t forget to safety duplicate .
- Seed Treaty scores important first, explained. I hope.
Nibbles: Carrot breeding, BIEN, Protected areas databases, Brazilian genebanks, Endangered coconut genebank, DSI, ABS, Climate pix, Botanical pix double, Potatoes galore, Pandanus language, Archaeological double, Palestinian seed saving
- Putting the polyacetylene back into carrots.
- The Botanical Information and Ecology Network gets an upgrade. Any CWRs among its 18,844,855 more observations?
- And any is protected areas? This will tell how well they’re managed. Mash up with this spatial database on indigenous lands?
- Otherwise, there are genebanks, though not enough in Brazil, apparently.
- And not always safe.
- What to do with Digital Sequence Information? Would be nice to be clear on what it is.
- ABS broken down by ISF. And the CGIAR. Not DSI though.
- Need climate visuals? Well, who doesn’t.
- The Columbian Exchange has visuals also.
- And the Royal Horticultural Society too.
- Speaking of Columbian Exchange: frites. And Vavilov, chefs, etc.
- Speaking about nuts in PNG. Comment by Jim Croft, who would know: “Except the species illustrated is the widespread oceanic strand species, Pandanus tectorius, not the endemic highland crop ‘karuka’, Pandanus julianettii.”
- 5000-year-old brewery in Egypt.
- 14,000-year-old bread.
- Fast forward 14,000 years.