Nibbles

Nibbles: Meta-organic, Wild ginseng, Ancient Australia, Insect nutrition, King Corn, Early nutrition, Funny olives, CWR control, Damn dams

The latest meta-analysis of organic agriculture says it can feed the world.
The latest update on saving the wild ginseng adds pretty much nothing to previous updates.
The latest look at Aboriginal land burning says it did no damage.
The latest study of insects as feed says they’re good for you. Still no word on whether they’re good.
Not sure whether I’ve ever seen a study linking biotech corn for biofuels with the abandonment of rotation, but it makes sense. And more.
The latest investigation of early childhood nutrition still says it’s important.
The latest Italian food scam involves painting olives.
The latest pean to crop wild relatives says it’s still about control, man.
The latest report on dams again says you have to be careful.

No, I don’t think the history of potatoes is at an end, but I know what they mean.
The history of rubber in pics.
The history of the wheat dwarfing gene.
Svalbard makes history.
Sicily goes back into its history for its daily bread.
Another foothold in history for Gary Nabhan.
History, shmistory, we need to look forward. Biohacking is the future of food. Say twelve year olds.

No new salinity tolerance in cereals? You need to look at the right thing.
No new crops? Focus on plants’ sex lives.
No hope for drylands? Look to biodiversity.
No new agricultural land? No problem.
No data on neglected Himalayan crops? Got you covered.
No way you’re drinking coffee from civet droppings? Chemistry to the rescue.
No place for the offspring of F1 hybrids in your agriculture? Go apomictic.
No new fruits left to try? Hang in there.
No diversity in your Aragonese homegarden? There’s a genebank for that.
No impact for your agricultural research. Try clusters.
No agroecological patterning to your crop’s genetic diversity? It’s the culture, stupid.

Peru to give value to its biodiversity.
Germany already has, 500 years ago.
Cavendish bananas have a lot of value, but that won’t save them.
The UK’s vegetables genebank is very valuable.
But you can always add more value to genebank collections if you evaluate them, like IRRI’s going to do in an expensive new building.
I’m not sure what the value of Gold Rush-era heritage trees might be, but I think it’s really cool that someone’s looking for them.
The value of genetic engineering for drought tolerance is just around the corner.