Nibbles

Nibbles: Using genebanks, Fonio collecting, Bean breeding, Caribbean PGR networking, Cotton breeding, Conflict prevention, Beer foam characterization, Soil microbes, 7ITS

IRRI DG on the Kasalath story and its wider implications.
French collect fonio. Glad someone is.
CIAT bean breeder complains about having too much diversity to play with.
Caribbean needs a regional genebank, catalogue of germplasm. What, still?
Improving cotton in Texas one (or two) chromosomes at the time.
Managing livestock-predator conflicts. The name of the game is prevention.
Candidate gene for improved beer foam identified. I knew all that genomics stuff would come in useful eventually.
Diverse root biome helps plants survive drought.
Gear up for the 7th International Triticeae Symposium, or 7ITS as it is widely, if unfortunately, known.

BBC pounces on CCAFS report previously trumpeted by Bioversity. Bottom line: adaptation may mean changing crops. Bottom bottom line: Will they have enough diversity?
PGR Secure newsletter is out.
GCARD2 rumbles on.
The ankole cow is threatened. What, still?
Tracking ash dieback. And since we’re talking gadgets…
Old cacao trees being replaced in Nigeria. No word on what’s happening to the diversity they represent. Maybe it’s ex situ already? Maybe it’s not significant? I dunno, I would just like to be told.
Slow Food documents African foods. Thankfully no ugali.
Aussies put together cool bean collection.

World Bank goes inside ICRISAT seed bank and finds in vitro plantlets.
“Did mongrel grains serendipitously meld together and sprout from the sewage dumps of sedentary fishing tribes (a current theory), or was the domestication of wheat grasses, pomegranates, and fig trees a willful act of genius?” Scientific American excerpts a bit of purple prose from from Frederick Kaufman’s “Bet the Farm: How Food Stopped Being Food.”
And a book on how (some) food (i.e. weeds) started being food.
ICRISAT legume breeder bags award.
One of the more interesting symposium titles I’ve come across: International Symposium on Fruit Culture and its Traditional Knowledge along Silk Road Countries.
Plant Cuttings.
And plant seeds. Of the open-pollinated sort.
Donald Danforth Plant Science Center establishes Institute for International Crop Improvement (IICI). CGIAR unavailable for comment.
CABI gets to grips with ash dieback.
Perennial grains in practice.
Recovered rare strawberries as art: Marshall Duchamp.
Intrepid journo discovers secrets of Neanderthal cuisine.
Crimson clover cover crop protects aubergines as well as insecticide against Colorado beetles.

So apparently field genebanks are “monotonous orchards packed with tropical trees spanning as far as the eye can see.”
Any ash genebanks, I wonder, field or otherwise?
EUCARPIA pre-breeding pre-meeting.
FAO moans about progress in conserving livestock.
The Green Revolution deconstructed.
Good news for procrastinators: the deadline for Vavilov-Frankel Fellowship applications has been extended to 18 November. Ignore the date of 11 November.
Saving the endangered Canadienne cow. In other news, there’s a Canadienne cow.
Friends of the Earth doesn’t think much of “sustainable intensification“.

Breeder of blight-resistant potatoes stands up for gardeners who grow blight-susceptible potatoes.
Hungry for better ag statistics? FAO hears you.
“Biofortification is an obstacle to food justice”. Just an opinion, obviously.
And not necessarily one shared by the USDA: Breeding better fruits and veggies, including vitamin-A enriched potatoes.
Women, gardens, community health … we’ve heard this all before. So why is it still news?
Diana Buja shares tips on how to catch flying ants, and other goodies, the better to savour their deliciousness.
A beginner’s guide to everything called pepper.
A new test for cow’s milk in mozzarella di bufala, can also separate the sheep from the goats. Can I get a pocket version?
The transition to agriculture in North America.