Nibbles

Nibbles: Vavilov conference, Rice rituals, Tomatoes, Agave

The Tatar Information Agency announces a conference to celebrate NI Vavilov’s 125th birthday, neglects to include date: 25 November 2012?
Rice and ritual expresses the “intangible cultural heritage of agriculture and food”.
Canadian scores four new old tomatoes from their genebank.
The agave fight goes on.

I’ve long thought that getting rid of the Aswan High Dam would be the best way Egypt could improve its food security.
New video from Biofortified, how to pollinate carrots and beets.
Hey Lawyers; time to study the commons! Including genetic resources? h/t capri.
Today’s gene banks will save the world story is about cashews.
Today’s rich world saving heritage varieties story is from Quebec.
Today’s old stories given new legs story is about paying farmers for ecosystem services.
Wired magazine discovers pastured poultry. Can the rest of the world be far behind?
Proposal for a conference session on prehistoric globalisation of food. I’d be there if I could.
And more from the Archaeobotanist, another journal special issue on Near Eastern domestication.
CCAFS highlights (and links to) ICRAF report on climate change options for Southeast Asian Farmers
Danforth Center depicts evolution of plant science, devaluing the word inforgraphic [sic] beyond repair.
Viking beer. Sköl, or something.

Higher maize yields? Plant cover crops between the rows.
Barley tempeh! My kind of food exploration.
Danny Hunter impresses Irish Times with need to conserve biodiversity.
UK devotes millions to research for “bigger yields of better quality fruits and vegetables”.
Germans embrace high-tech urban agriculture — cautiously.
Put farmers’ markets near medical centres for added benefits. What happens when everyone’s so healthy they don’t need the doctor?

Yale University magazine drinks the fast-track breeding KoolAid panacea.
Compare and contrast. Repeat. Endlessly.
Grafting tomatoes is hot for lots of reasons; but how does it protect against leaf-borne diseases? And not just tomatoes, actually.
Getting the lowdown on that “food sovereignty” farrago.
And today’s DNA sequencing will solve world hunger and cure bunions story.
Genomics also good for “health, agriculture, livestock, fisheries and biodiversity” in Philippines. Have we forgotten anything?
Well yeah, you forgot your handy molecular toolkit.
Meanwhile, back in the real world, the choice is between forests and yaks.
More hard choices: evotourism destinations. But check it out, there be agricultural biodiversity too!
And another one: to go to the International Sandalwood Symposium, or not to go?

The annual Wageningen agrobiodiversity conservation course is in India this year. Hannes says it’s really good.
AVRDC’s veggie seed kits are a hit in Orissa.
CIMMYT swimming in data. Waving, not drowning.
IRRI not doing badly either. But “quantitative train loci” is a new one on me.
Australia thinking about introducing elephants. Yeah because that sort of thing has been such a success in the past.
Well, actually, with sheep, I suppose it has, in a way. And the genetics says breeders have a lot of diversity to play with still.
Your mama is a llama.
The Island of Dogs has crop wild relatives. No, not the one in London.
Cuba goes for new urban crops. And not for the first time, Shirley. But what about the old ones?
Quick, duck! This piece has been rather a hit for me over on Facebook.
VII International Symposium on Artichoke, Cardoon and Their Wild Relatives: The (Very Expensive) Book.
Food sovereignty “started in New England”. Huh? And proponents “want to eat and sell the food they grow free from interference from state and federal regulators”. Huh?