Nibbles

Nibbles: Heirloom conference, Saving plants, Aquaculture benefits, Ancient Egyptian botany, Coffee blogs, ITPGRFA, GIAH

National Heirloom Exposition coming up. Any of our readers going? Oh come on, one of our readers must be going!
Kew head honcho calls for a botanical New Deal.
WorldFish head honcho calls for an aquacultural New Deal.
A papyrus of recent botanical literature on ancient Egypt.
Coffee blogs to follow. Oh gosh, am I blushing?
Participants “gain more knowledge” at policy workshop. Of the ITPGRFA, that would be.
A couple of Chinese agricultural systems gain recognition as Globally Important Agricultural Heritage.

Honeybees create a buzz in Nepal.
Gene for silly equine walks.
Men and Women Farming Together Can Eradicate Hunger. Headline says it all, really.
We’re not the only ones wondering what’s going on at the 2nd global conference on agriculture, food security and climate change, which started yesterday.

A film about community gardens in the city of Washington DC.
“Ricos en agrobiodiversidad, pero pobres en nutrición.” Huancavelica, in Peru, has plenty of agricultural biodiversity and plenty of malnutrition. Go figure.
Good nutrition is more important than reduced calories for longevity, in rhesus monkeys at least.
Conservation magazine reports that return on investment is the best guide to economically-efficient conservation. We ask … well, you know what we ask, right?

Today’s new superfruit. This one doesn’t surprise me.
Tomorrow’s super-spaghetti. This one really baffles me.
Today’s new source of bioenergy: bananas. Shocking.
50 ways to love your tomatoes. Turn ‘em to jam, Pam.
One reason to hate tomatoes, for good bad muslims.
Trendy micro greens are more nutritious. Get ‘em young, chum.
“If they are so good, why are they not spreading on their own?” Crops for the Future gives NUS the third degree.
Robert Fortune, pioneer biopirate.
Forget oil, water and phosphorus. Peak coffee is as scary as it gets.
How to save urban agriculture: by the numbers.

If you’re interested in the history, traditions and cuisine of Kerala, this is the website for you.
How about some whizz-bang technology to improve neglected and orphan crops?
A blogger Tedtalks about participatory plant breeding in Wageningen.
And get this: There’s big money in quasi-public sector plant breeding.
“In the Coella and Combeima watersheds (Tolima, Colombia) the narrative of managing the commons is taking … a participatory shape.”
The Scientist Gardener explores engineered drought-resistant maize and meets with Darwinian approval.