Nibbles

Nibbles: Gender myths, Cabbage myth, Deforestation, Urban ag, School gardens, Avocado disease, Tourism & conservation, African trees, European biofuels

Hoary zombie gender myths bite the dust. Wish the same could be said of agrobiodiversity myths…
The first cabbage, according to the ancient Greeks. A myth we can all get behind.
WWF maps deforestation hotspots. Like the whole of Sumatra.
Profits not the (only) point of urban farming.
Maintaining food culture by gardening in a Native American community. See what I mean?
After citrus greening, now comes laurel wilt. Poor Florida.
Biodiversity conservation through tourism in Latin America. Including agrobiodiversity?
The trees and shrubs of mopane woodlands, illustrated.
European biofuels hit the buffers.

Sexing up genebanks.
Inventive wheat drought phenotyping. Want more?
The Irish try out other Andean crops. Because the first one worked out so well.
Peruvian cocoa goes up-market. Others might not get the chance.
Latest batch of IDRC food security projects: African veggies, chickpeas, lentils… Meanwhile, back home in Canada…
Some major coffee producers are probably in trouble. Will the International Multi-location Variety Trials help at all?
Crop genomic data boffins say crop genomic data should be free. DivSeek unavailable for comment.
The latest from Rodale on why organic is better. Well, it certainly affects microbial diversity.
Smithsonian helps to preserve the Great American Garden through citizen science.
Blimey, it takes 15 years to release a cranberry cultivar. That’s nothing, Kenyan canning bean breeders say.
Expo Milano 2015 is coming, and Bioversity will be there in force.
The olive is under threat. Always something.
If you don’t want to eat insects, you can always feed them to your livestock.
There’s a campaign to save small cider producers in the UK. which we can all get behind, I’m sure.
Make your own garum. If you must.
Asian countries to launch regional PGR network. What, again?
An ode to figs.
Gotta love ~~weed~~ weeds.
FAO gives pastoralists a voice. Or a website, rather.

Is “heritage” just “heirloom” for “birds and animals”? I for one don’t think so. These apples are heritage, for example.
Saving the Sea Island Red Pea. Which is a heritage cowpea, I think.
43 different types of heritage lettuce illustrated.
Eat those heirloom pigs or lose them.
Taste and nutrition go hand in hand.
Soils are part of traditional agricultural heirloom systems.
Heirloom shmeirloom, those food systems need some work if they are to deliver nutrition.
The case for meat, heirloom or otherwise. And a whole series of posts on how to best feed all those cows.
A herbal tea against malaria.
The 10th SIRGEALC is on the horizon.
A lot of people going to that will probably need these resources on implementing both the International Treaty and the Nagoya Protocol at the same time.

Grazing is good for grassland.
Saving British food. And that of Ghana too, why not?
Amaranth the next superfood? Maybe, but I vote we ban that silly term.
The case for fortification: diverse diets are just too hard.
And the latest fruit that’s in trouble is…the avocado.
Wanna “[s]pend your summer in lovely Kew Gardens interacting with the public and opening people’s eyes and noses to the delightful world of spices”?
Photographing the soul of coffee.
Atlas of Living Australia adds nifty phylogenetic thingie.
World Bank says “agriculture has a unique and critical role in improving nutritional status” so it must be true.
Protecting forests from the air.

Where should we collect sweet potato wild relatives?
Cheese made from toe bacteria. Because we can.
The sainted M.S. Swaminathan on millets.
FAO brings together dietary guidelines from around the world.
An infographic on kale origins.
Diversity down, productivity down. At least in Alaska.
Cotton’s got a genome.
McDonalds commits to ending deforestation in its supply chain.
IUCN report says commercial agriculture and forestry could could actually be good for biodiversity. Hope McDonalds read it.