- Sunberry. Taste-free! Toxin-loaded?
- CGIAR needs to do more “crop genetic improvement” for greater impact. Yeah, right.
- Heavy hitters to brief US Congress on Climate Change and Agriculture, June 16.
- Management more important than agricultural biodiversity in delivering ecosystem services? Say it isn’t so!
- Sorghum beer a big hit with England soccer fans.
- Turkeys domesticated for their feathers? This I gotta see.
- (Irish) public understanding of biodiversity.
Nibbles: Niu kafa, Rice origins, Monsanto seed donation, Soils, Red junglefowl
- More on Roland’s quest for the biggest coconut in the world.
- Rice cultivation in Lower Yangtze dates back to 6th millennium, and took a millennium to establish itself.
- Yet more on Haiti’s “hybrid hate.”
- Soil scientist says soils are important.
- “ARKive is creating the ultimate multimedia guide to the world’s endangered species”: including a wild relative or two.
Nibbles: Hemp, Wheat, Wheat, Conservation, Liberia, Carnival, Climate change, Satoyama, Leafy greens
- The National Cannabis Collection in Hungary. Undated. Popped up. What can I tell you?
- CIMMYT’s wheat atlas. Still in beta. What can I tell you?
- And here’s a primer on spring vs winter wheat.
- Director of European Crop Protection Association equates biodiversity with wildlife. Well, he would, wouldn’t he?
- Liberian President Sirleaf: “Agricultural growth is more effective in reducing poverty than any effort in any other sector.” h/t NtP.
- New edition of Scientia pro Publica blog carnival.
- Our friend Ehsan’s Seeds for Needs project launches in Papua New Guinea, beating climate change to the punch.
- The Satoyama Initiative has a website. And RSS feed.
- “…traditional food crops … are an important source of community resilience in Zimbabwe—including resilience to climate change and economic turbulence.”
Nibbles: Sugarcane breeding, Caterpillar mushroom, Saharan honeybees, Vodka taste, Cotton genetic resources, African savannah ag, Organic videos
- Fiji looking for better sugarcane. Not a moment too soon, with the EU subsidies going and all.
- Collecting the very valuable caterpillar mushroom in China’s protected areas. Illegal, but whachagonnado?
- The honeybees of the Saharan oases are isolated. Well, actually, not all of them, which I guess qualifies as a surprise.
- Can you tell different vodka brands apart? Here’s why. Maybe. Sounds a bit flaky to me.
- A global review of cotton genetic resources.
- Ploughing up the African savannah is gonna solve all our problems, apparently.
- Organic Seed Alliance launches a youtube channel. Oh goody, there’s how to breed organic carrots!
Nibbles: Agricultural landscapes, Seed banks, Maize genetics, Food diversity, Ancient food, Micronutrients status report, Seed systems, Punjab Agricultural University, Arable land, Dutch elm disease
- “Priortizing restoration across agricultural landscapes.” Nothing to do with agriculture, though.
- “Gene banks to rescue local crops.” Nothing to do with genebanks, though.
- “‘Psychedelic’ maize may help increase crop and biofuel yields.” Nothing to do with LSD, though.
- Scotland gets a national genebank. Well, not really, but anyway.
- Malawi schoolchildren sing about food diversity. No, really.
- Homo erectus ate fish as part of a pretty diverse diet. Had to wait about 2 million years for chips.
- Report for 10-Year Strategy for Reduction of Vitamin & Mineral Deficiencies. “…activities to enhance dietary diversification are an attractive option for improving micronutrient status, but these have proved difficult to evaluate.” Ouch.
- “Integrating Genetic Resource Conservation and Sustainable Development into Strategies to Increase the Robustness of Seed Systems.” You’ll need to pay to find out how, though. I’ll try to get a pdf, some of the authors are friends.
- The role of Punjab Agricultural University in the Green Revolution. And in genetic erosion?
- Enough arable land to feed world, says new French study. But not here, say Indians.
- Reviving the elm in Britain one sapling at a time. How long till the next disaster, though, with such a narrow genetic base?