- Object Analysis of the Giant Pumpkin. Just in time for Halloween, obviously.
- The Need to Save Seeds is a Bad Sign. Because it means you’re not using great seed that’s worth paying for. Listen, we just link to this stuff, OK?
Nibbles: Frogs, Spuds, Apples, Cucumbers, Tosh?
- Take that, you cheese-eating surrender monkeys. England boasts oldest eaten anuran legs.
- Ban potatoes NOW! You know it makes sense.
- As American as industrially harvested, intellectually protected apples.
- Step aside Golden Rice; the Golden Cucumber is just over the horizon. That and much more from deep re-sequencing.
- Also just over the horizon, hordes of new, public domain banana varieties, although they don’t actually own the domain the video points to. Oops. h/t Bifurcated Carrots.
Nibbles: Straw, Straw man, Synthetic straw man, Burning straw man, Banana diversity, Perennial grains, Right to Food, Fibrous meatballs, Fermentation, Colombian music
- There’s a straw shortage? Well, of course there is.
- And this week’s prize for most straw-clutching headline goes to “Mathematical study of photosynthesis clears the path to developing new super-crops”.
- On the other hand, why bother mimicking C4 when you could just reinvent photosynthesis?
- Speaking of C4, maybe less US maize will be turned into fuel next year.
- The “portal” to the diversity of bananas gets an update. But don’t go looking for plantains.
- Perennial grains still under discussion.
- The Right To Food and Nutrition Watch – a name to sow confusion – has made its 2013 articles available.
- Nutrition, these days, means adequate fibre, so of course the natural way to do that is to add citrus fibre to meatballs. Smacks forehead.
- Science Friday does fermentation, with nutritional benefits.
- And a little something for the weekend: Colombian artists sing in solidarity with farmers. Waiting for a review from Our Man in Cali.
Nibbles: Food sovereignty, Calories, Fortilizers, Barley, Climate changed coconuts, Global hunger index, Halloween food, World Food Day
- Native tribes in the US want more food sovereignty.
- People underreport the calories they consume shock. Research sponsored by Coke not a shock.
- For nutritionally fortified food, fortify the fertilizers first.
- German scientists working round to clock to decipher barley DNA and save Oktoberfest from climate-induced drought.
- Climate change, however, is a double-edged sword for coconuts in Guyana.
- 2013 Global Hunger Index says world hunger remains “serious”.
- Is all that scary enough to put you off your food?
- Relax, it’s World Food Day, everything’s gonna be alright.
Nibbles: Fungi, Pumpkin, Genebank training, Pastures, Red rice, Yam strategy, AusBank, School meals, Seedy weirdness
- We missed the first UK fungus day yesterday.
- And the new world record pumpkin. Love that wide-angle lens, BTW.
- And a training course on plant genetic resources and genebank management.
- But not plant biodiversity to regenerate more productive pastures.
- Nor efforts to conserve navara red rice.
- Kudos to Ghana, the first country with a national yam strategy.
- And to Australia, for muddying the linguistic waters with something called a PlantBank.
- Local farmers supply the food for school meals in Africa.
- By far the strangest thing I’ve seen since a seed exploded a spliff some while ago.