Nibbles

Nibbles: Wild tomatoes, Wild Allium, Early burials, Organic carrots

“By fitting gold wires to the back of individual whitefly and measuring the electro-chemical signals as they fed on the plant sap, the team found the insects spent more time ‘roaming’ and less time feeding on the wild varieties than those which settled on the commercial plants.”
New Iraqi plants includes onion wild relative.
Early farmers couldn’t stop fiddling with the bones of their dead.
“That message has come through clearly. Flavor is a priority because if people don’t want to eat carrots, they’re not going to buy them.”

Species flying poleward.
FAO unveils pulse infographic. No word on whether any are harvestable by machine.
Potato farmer adds value the old-fashioned way.
Talking of old, here’s a really old horse.
And the oldest evidence of fermentation for food preservation. But you’ll need a strong stomach.
KitKat is certified crap.
How (and Why) Farmers Maintain Crop Diversity: The Book. Some reviews.
And here’s a specific example from India.
And here, courtesy of Bioversity’s Ann Tutwiler, is why farmers need some help sometimes.
Oh and here’s another one. People visit ICRISAT genebank in Niger, see stuff they like.

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.