Nibbles

Nibbles: BGCI database, Lathyrus, IRRI CWR photos, Sweet potato manuals, Rosemary lore, Pig farmer success story, Fancy restaurant, Vavilov’s Principle, Forests, Sorghum, Millet, Kenya and climate change

GardenSearch just got way more complicated.
Today’s silver bullet is an Australian grasspea variety. Actually the first Australian grasspea variety.
Our friend Nik goes to town on IRRI’s wild relatives.
How to breed sweet potatoes. The saga continues.
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme.
ILRI uses the particular to make points about the general. Clever.
Californian fine-foraging. I wonder if any of the diners will also read the following piece and be inspired to do their foraging further afield.
Angelenos learn about Vavilov’s Principle.
A forester argues for forests in the Rio+20 process. Mandy Rice-Davies applies.
Tanzanian Regional Commissioner urges farmers to sow sorghum and millet. If necessary, they can learn from …
Farmers in Tamil Nadu, who helped scientists learn lots more about local millets, and got a publication into the bargain.
Who’s doing what in Kenya in climate change adaptation and mitigation. Genebank scrapes in, though not by name, under KARI.

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?