- There’s a millet festival in Chennai on 20 July. Any of our readers planning to go?
- “…the first ever, non-profit “eBay” of seed…” And you can contribute, if you like. With money, that is. I wonder if there will be a festival at some point.
- Fonio gets the Mail treatment (but no festival). Will it ever recover? Maybe this will help. For the record, it may have been the The Guardian that started this fonio frenzy. Anyway, here are the collections, if you think you’d like to contribute to the revolution. Like by organizing a festival. But why stop at fonio…
- Sometimes, however, exotic is better: like mango in Kenya. There’s plenty of mango festivals (and a new genebank too) in India, but not in Kenya, as far as I know.
- BBC radio programme on the history of barbed wire. Fascinating.
- Not to be outdone, DW on potato agrobiodiversity, including the CIP genebank. Wow, in Spanish too. Ah, but do any of them have high levels of B-9 vitamin? No? I know someone who can change that.
- More to Peruvian cuisine than potatoes, though. I feel a festival coming on.
- Food aid vs agriculture in Haiti. Nothing to celebrate there.
- Someone mention hard choices? Shea harvesting in Ghana presents a conundrum too.
- What can I tell you about Prosopis? Some are good, others not so much.
- I guess the same could be said for Solanums.
- Around the world in 20 food photos. No festivals? Well, I think Ramadan qualifies.
- “I have told you that NACGRAB would have been in a mess without the support of WAAPP.” Head of Nigerian genebank tells the world like it is.
- Coconut genebank managers tell each other like it is.
- Rice genebank makes an impression, visitor tells the world.
- I suppose we should have at least one Big Data thing, right? Make that two. But that’s all you get.
- Ok, then, one last one: diseases, genomics and, of course, football.
Nibbles: Tree drought tolerance, Whisky history, Barley drought tolerance, Old veggies, Old potatoes, Llamas vs goats, Sustainable ag, Chinese herbaria
- Drought tolerance? It’s the carbs.
- Whisky 101.
- Coincidental mashup of the above. Barley used in whisky production provides clue to drought tolerance.
- Pre-hispanic veggies.
- Pre-hispanic carbs.
- Pre-hispanic livestock.
- Sustainable agriculture deconstructed.
- GBIF scores Chinese specimens.
Nibbles: Dryland agroforestry, Parmigiano DOC, Killer tomatoes, Purslane salad, Breadfruit $, Community seedbanks, Kiribati under water, Landscapes
- At the risk of annoying Dave Wood again, here’s something on agroforestry in Africa.
- A podcast on what it takes to make parmigiano reggiano.
- Speaking of Italian agricultural products, it’s not all sweetness and light.
- But can you put purslane on pizza?
- Funding breadfruit.
- Community seed banks take off in India.
- Kiribati will need some too. But in Fiji.
- The Landscapes for People, Food and Nature Initiative is on Slideshare. Not much comfort for Kiribati, I suspect.
Nibbles: Global Nutrition Report, Neanderthal veggies, Azolla genome, Evergreen Garrity, Breadfruit tease, Apios & other perennials, Guelph U genebank, Camel trouble, ICRISAT transitions, American beer
- Crowdsourcing the Global Nutrition Report.
- Which will not cover the Neanderthals.
- Azolla genome project meets crowdfunding target, gets love from BGI.
- Would that contribute to Evergreen Agriculture?
- I bet breadfruit would, but New Scientist has put an article about that interesting tree behind a paywall. But, see this teaser…
- Some people think the potato bean will.
- Another genebank in Canada. Not crops, though, I suspect.
- Saving the camel in Rajasthan.
- ICRISAT gets a new DG.
- Podcast on the history of American beer. Perfect note on which to wish you all a good rest of the weekend.
Nibbles: WHS, Cultural identity, Agrobiodiversity monitoring, Mango genebank, Coconut genebank
- New UNESCO World Heritage Sites, including some vaguely agricultural ones.
- Why more of those would make sense.
- Though monitoring would be a challenge.
- Could put it all in genebanks, like these mangoes in India.
- But that’s hard too, just ask this coconut genebank curator in PNG.