Nibbles

Nibbles: Commons, Tom Wagner, CGIAR, Domestication presentation, Sophisticated urbanites, Vavilov’s potatoes in the news, Perennial crops, African drought, Aegean lathyrism, Heirlooms

The vocabulary of the commons.
An interview with Tom Wagner, a great tomato and potato breeder.
The CGIAR Consortium has a newsletter, with bits in it about what they’re doing on agrobiodiversity, genebanks (such as this one), all that stuff. But I guess news of this big Africa-wide food security project came in too late. Oh, here’s another one, on ICRISAT’s new chickpea.
Pat Heslop-Harrison on domestication. I am reliably informed he once extracted DNA from a fruit smoothie using nothing but household utensils and cleaning chemicals. Pat, is there a video?
Urban ag in the Philippines. For some reason, there’s been a ton of this sort of urban food stuff on the tubes lately. Like this for instance. And this (compare current orchards in London with historical ones). I may just have to blog about it. Oh dear, I just have.
The Glasgow Herald heralds the importance of Vavilov’s potatoes.
Long post with lots of different bits of info on lots of perennial crops.
Monitoring drought in Africa via pretty maps. And more pretty maps in search of a use.
Ancient Aegean lathyrism? Dirk alerted.
A keeper of seeds does his stuff near Pittsburgh.

GRAIN found and shared a 1986 Canadian documentary that includes interviews with Erna Bennett.
“Critical minds and ‘vegetal life’.” Plants and philosophy. Wacky, yes. But perhaps of interest.
Are you near Port Townsend, WA? Go hear a lecture on “Farming with Nature: Agroecology for the Olympic Peninsula” on Monday at 7.30.
While the EU potentially gives diversity a break, the US judge rejects organic suit against Monsanto.
Open sesame (yeah, I know). Oxfam documents how best to use sesame to lift Ethiopians out of poverty.
Nominate someone who has “made outstanding contributions for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity at global, regional or local levels” for the Midori Prize. We’re available.
The Atlantic and NPR do the Svalbard thing. Gotta hand it to the Trust.

In case you were worrying about the impact of the unrest in Syria on the genebank, fear not: The Global Crop diversity Trust has your back.
AoB Blog investigates manioc and marriage. Cassava!
Andy Jarvis climbs mountain to explain impact of climate change on agriculture to Scientific American.

Everything you need to know about sunflowers, as it happens. They’re not cassava.
New York Botanical Gardens has a climate change garden. Coupla apples mentioned, no other food, not even cassava.
Cassava, “the Rambo of food crops,” will save the world. Did Rambo use silver bullets?
The Center for Global Development thinks Bill Gates is the cassava of agriculture. No, wait …
JStor Plant Biology rounds up his favourite historical food papers. Cassava absent

NERICA shmerica.
Did you know that the Society for Advancement of Breeding Research in Asia and Oceania (SABRAO) 12th Congress from 13-16 January 2012 in Chiang Mai, Thailand. No, neither did I.
Whither wild wheat?
Koraput and its agrobiodiversity, including aus rice, makes it on the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System (GIAHS).
GBIF has many duplicates. I’m shocked. Shocked, I tell you.
Amazonia was densely populated. No it wasn’t. Yes it was. No it wasn’t.