Category: Nibbles

Little bits of link goodness not worth a whole post

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Nibbles: CGIAR impacts, Innovative varieties, Sweet potato in PNG, Mexican food viz, Mango diversity, Lactase persistence, Tree planting, Indigenous sea gardens

  1. Average returns on agricultural R&D investment is 100%, says CGIAR.
  2. I wonder how many from this list of the most innovative plant varieties of 2020 can trace back to some CGIAR product. Or genebank.
  3. Which sweet potato varieties do consumers actually like in PNG?
  4. Cool visualizations of the relationships between Mexican crops and foods.
  5. One village, 100 mangoes. Visualize that.
  6. Don’t blame high food prices on war. Entirely, anyway.
  7. Lactase persistence is not due to the benefits of drinking milk. Entirely, anyway.
  8. A whole bunch of tools to help select trees to plant in Europe. The entirely correct URL for the climate matching tool is this one though.
  9. Why worry about any of that when you can have sea gardens, though?
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Nibbles: Organic ag, Local ag, Pigeonpea, African cereals, Vanilla genebank, Ag R&D, Ziziphus

  1. Blaming organic agriculture for Sri Lanka’s woes is a little…simplistic.
  2. Deriding food localism as luddite is a little…simplistic. I wonder if there will be a rural re-exodus in Sri Lanka.
  3. Pigeonpea is back on the menu in Malawi. Organically produced, no doubt.
  4. Will it be closely followed by sorghum and millet in Zimbabwe?
  5. Brazil puts together a vanilla collection. Because you can only go so far on sorghum and pigeonpea.
  6. Meanwhile, “…China Has Become the World’s Largest Funder of Agricultural R&D,” displacing the US. Including local and organic ag, pigeonpea and sorghum? I wonder…
  7. Looks like jujube might be an example of US-China collaboration on ag research. Maybe.
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Nibbles: Algal genebank, Baking, Distilling, Ft Collins genebank, Community genebanks, Trinidad genebank, Agriculture & climate change, Nigerian coconuts, Organic agriculture

  1. Saving an algal germplasm collection in the US.
  2. Saving ancient grains via baking in Israel and distilling in Minnesota.
  3. Saving seeds (and more) in a famous genebank in Ft Collins, Colorado.
  4. Saving seeds in community genebanks in Nepal.
  5. Saving seeds for the community in Trinidad & Tobago.
  6. Saving agriculture from climate change in Hainan. Someone tell India.
  7. Saving the Nigerian coconut sector.
  8. Saving organic agriculture from politicians.
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Nibbles: Pacific genebank, IPBES report, New mangoes, British apples, Greek landraces, Fonio, Space seeds, Macadamia cryo

  1. New Zealand supports SPC regional crops and trees genebank in a big way.
  2. Some of those trees are wild species that contribute to food security, and more must be done to conserve them.
  3. Some trees are crops of course, like mangoes, and scientists are doing their bit for them in the Philippines.
  4. Wait, isn’t it too early for the usual BBC saving-the-apple story? Usually comes in the autumn.
  5. Who needs genebanks when you can inscribe landraces in a National Inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage.
  6. Maybe try it with fonio next?
  7. Or just send seeds into space?
  8. Maybe including macadamia, or is space not cold enough for them?
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Nibbles: Animal genebanks, Wild pigeon, Uganda genebank, Biodiversity value, W African cooking, Indigenous cafes, Climate crisis & food, Reforestation

  1. FAO webinar series on animal genebanks.
  2. Quick put this wild pigeon in a genebank before it’s too late. No, really.
  3. Yeah but how much is a wild pigeon worth?
  4. Maybe if you could cook it, it might be worth more? No, really, I’m serious.
  5. Would be terrible to have a wild pigeon shortage.
  6. In fact, we need to be able to re-pigeon.