Nibbles

Nibbles: FAO newsletters, Spanish fowl, Jamaican cattle, Food composition database

EU counts the ways it loves agricultural biodiversity. 17!
OFEC anyone? Tom (& the FT) thinks food is the new energy.
The Scientist Gardener explains maize hybrids and hybrid vigour. My question: what if the effort had gone into mass selection instead?
A 15 minute video on the Ethiopian Coffee story; thanks CAS-IP.

All hail the garden of agrobiodiversity that is the Southern Caucasus, says FAO.
Paywalled Nature paper links biodiversity with disease spread — even in agriculture. Get it here.
Roman pig yields the secrets of tasty pork — in about another 2000 years.
Nepal’s genebank goes from strength to strength.
Rare Breeds Survival Trust gets lifetime achievement award. Good to gnaw.
“It’s high time the ancestral knowledge possessed by small farmers and indigenous people was appreciated at its true value.” Climate change edition.

Just in time. Agriculture and Rural Development Day 2010 now has RSS.
“It wasn’t debilitated in any way.” World’s oldest beer and wine drunk.
Zambian farmers buy seeds, fertilisers and herbicides by mobile phone. What could possibly go wrong?
Red bees! A little too much biodiversity to blame? h/t Tasting Cultures

Possibly interesting article on Nagoya ABS Protocol, but I’ll never know.
Pomegranate juice fraud?
Fort Collins genebank in the (local) news.
Sudan to become self-sufficient in wheat. Sorghum also involved.
James of the Giant Corn gives idiot pontificator a well-deserved drubbing.
Brachiaria forage not a “magic bullet” shock.
Chile moans about lack of benefit sharing, but fails to do anything about it.
DG of Bioversity beats agricultural biodiversity for nutrition and health drum shock.
Carol Deppe has a web site. (she’s the Backyard Vegetable Breeder person.)