Nibbles

Nibbles: Underutilized foods, Overutilised food components, Potato microplants, Maize archaeology, More potatoes, Ag innovation

Crops for the Future has news of a symposium to promote underutilized food resources in May.
Or you could go to a report on fibre, an overused resource. I love how they blame the Limeys for all that’s wrong with nutrition.
Potato Professionals hear the good news about in situ conservation using disease-free microplants.
The archaeology of maize among the Mississippians.
The archaeology of Mike Jackson among the Andean roots and tubers.
Thomson Reuters Foundation has a big package on agricultural innovation. And many more topics you can trust.

Seven forest myths exposed. And more on the work debunking one of them. Yeah I know we already Nibbled it, get over it.
And you know what, here’s another one we already Nibbled, on collecting seeds in Central Asia. But I just read it again in the hardcopy version and it’s really cool and I like seeing people I know in funny shorts. Incidentally, the dead tree version has a link to Vaviblog that is unaccountably missing online.
Will no one buy me this fabulous banana book? (Not if you keep being rude to your reader. Ed.)
Second installment of that we-farm-because-we-like-beer thing. I’m not sure about the theory, but I like the way this guy writes. Yes, it’s a little look at me, look at me. But sometimes you need that.
Tales of the cucumber. Does anyone remember if we blogged about this paper?
More to myrrh than meets the eye. And more than most folk need to know.
Oxford boffins say a pox on both your houses: “environmentally friendly” farms better than conventional and organic.
National Geographic tackles the dog. Amazingly, all the photos are of, ahem, dogs.
What’s with all this stuff about cacao lately? Has someone sequenced another variety or something?

IFPRI and ILRI put out new free tool on documenting gender and assets data for programme evaluations. Apparently, crop diversity not considered much of an asset.
The pendulum swings on slash-and-burn? One can hope.
Different goats sound different. Well there’s a thing.
Denver Botanic Gardens explains how to share herbarium information. CWRs, take note.
The ITPGRFA gets itself some RSS feeds.
And WorldFish a podcast.
Farming for booze? Start of a series at Scientific American blogs. Can you say “contentious”?

Policy wonks start to worry about the next US Farm Bill and its effects on poor farmers elsewhere.
Poles start to worry about their endangered chicks.
The Youth in Agriculture gives agricultural biodiversity some love on St Valentine’s Day.
“Can jowar ever replace rice?” Question expecting the answer no? (Jowar is sorghum.)
Can anyone actually decipher what H.G. Wells wrote to FAO Director Lubin?
A Memorial Service will be held for Erna Bennett, in English, at 12.30 hrs. on Friday, 9th March at Santa Balbina Church, Viale Guido Baccelli, Rome. It’s near FAO. And no, there’s no link.
Ants help crop wild relative (among other things).
Plastids move between crop and wild relative.
Cambridge boffins look into crystal ball and see fully sequenced, N-fixing perennial cereals growing under sterile conditions. In deep ocean vents.

World Bank runs competition to develop climate change app. CCAFS surrenders.
ICRISAT launches Center of Excellence on Climate Change Research for Plant Protection. CCAFS surrenders.
Britain’s National Fruit Collection gets grafted.
COGENT looks for validation.
Everybody loves timelapse.
A seed catalogue round-up.
“True grits“. Worthy, of course, but basically I love the title.
Not sure why news of a website for the Biofortification Conference held in November 2010 just popped up, but it did.
Know any good, young, committed, practical, gung-ho, field-tempered, agricultural Norman Borlaug clones? The World Food Prize wants to hear from you.
The Millennium Seed Bank has a blog. Welcome, seed-dudes!