Nibbles

Nibbles: GMO debate, IPCC report, SPC ag strategy, Teff, Biofortification conference, Urban protected areas, Costa Rican ecosystems

Our Nature Comment genebank paper used to both denigrate and promote GMOs. Must be doing something right.
Same thing likely to happen with Fifth Assessment Report?
SPC’s Land Resources Division new strategic plan. Good to see an important role for the Centre for Pacific Crops and Trees.
The future of teff. Two sides to every story. But does it feature in your breakfast?
Biofortification conference off the ground.
Urban protected areas: I wonder how many crop wild relatives are involved.
Costa Rican ecosystems in trouble: I wonder how many crop wild relatives are involved.

Another one of those fun photoessays on diets around the world. Don’t look too globalized to me.
Sometimes it’s not such a bad idea for a food to quietly slip away. Take kimchi. Please. The upside of globalization?
Indian street food is totally immune to globalization, far as I can tell.
Speaking of globalization, the rise in meat consumption in China is having an effect all over. But the answers are out there… Though some are cooler than others.
Want to document globalization? You’ll need this incredible resource on the history of the trade in commodities.
If we all ever eat more seaweed, Zanzibar will make a killing.
Kew in trouble? One of the great engines of globalization of plant commodities, of course. Surely too big to fail.
The health effects of diet globalization, you ask? Biofortification conference gearing up in Kigali. Will they listen to alternatives? Any of our readers going, and willing to tell us?
Is kale making a comeback? Great picture of leaf variation. Among other things.
I think all these drones could be used to map all those minor, neglected crops, don’t you?

UAE date palms to get FAO recognition. So they’ll be ok then. Phew!
Unlike African agriculture, according to the IPCC.
Or Israel’s wild plants. Though what they intend to do about that is hidden behind a paywall. Can anyone tell me the answer?
The Australians know what to do. Build a new genebank…
…and grown ginarmous brassicas.
Pat Heslop-Harrison for his part thinks we should collect more wild Panicum. And who are we to argue with him?
Hey, worst comes to worst, we can always build our own beer yeast.

Fiji commissions tissue culture lab to get clean planting materials out to farmers.
World Economic Plants: A Standard Reference finally out. But farmers probably knew all about them already.
Speaking of USDA, here’s what they do to conserve garlic.
Big conference in the UK on Breeding Plants for the Future. Seems like there’s one of these every week these days.
Like at CIMMYT, for example, in remembrance of Dr Norman Borlaug.
“Our germplasm – our genetic base here – is the best in the world. We dominate genetics in the industry.” I’d like to meet a seed industry guy who didn’t say that.
Meanwhile, in Arizona: “We’re not trying to go back in time, but capturing an authentic time.” I’d like to meet this guy. And put him together with the guy above.

Tequila plant is possible sweetener for diabetics. Talk about a waste of raw material.
Would you Adam and Eve it? Women do not own 2% of the land. What next for the killer factcheck?
In related news, teacup pigs are a fraud.
Quinoa to feed the world, in Spanish.
The rice warrior! Isn’t that overegging the pudding just a smidgen?
Learn about plant genetic resources and seeds at Wageningen University.
African Agriculture Technology Foundation “to avail adequate quality seeds at the right time and affordable price”. You might think some of the folks at the AATF should avail themselves of Wageningen’s course.
Tough, flavoursome and bug resistant. Not Richard Markham, but a tomato bred specially for the Solomon Islands he’s talking about.
Kew’s new global kitchen cookbook narrowly avoids being crushed by bandwagon trundling by.
Cover crops are even more valuable than previously thought shock.
Indigenous sheep breeds even more valuable than previously thought shock.