- Vandana Shiva on Indian farmer suicides.
- Make mine a tejate.
Nibbles: James McWilliams, Flowering plant origins, Moon plant, Satellites
- “Should we be working to create local foodsheds in areas that have to import water in order to be fertile?” Dude, you had me at foodsheds.
- Endosperm “made human civilization possible.”
- First plant on moon a brassica?
- Eye in sky finds missing sweet potatoes.
- Can you think of a better way to use a rooftop than to grow rice on it and then to brew sake? Didn’t think so.
Nibbles: Sheep, Yams, Satellites, Payment for ecosystem services, Museum
- Domesticated sheep spread in two waves.
- How IITA helps yam farmers in West Africa.
- “…it is vital that we develop some sort of early warning system that will enable us to take timely action if we see part of the landscape suffering and signs of the loss of species richness.”
- First issue of newsletter on Agricultural Payments for Ecosystem Services online at Ecoagriculture Partners.
- Visit Cairo’s Agricultural Museum. If you think you can take it.
Nibbles: Aurochs, Medicinal plant, New species, Orchards, Imprecations
- Nazi cattle invade Britain. Are they the ones that have been sequenced? I think we should be told.
- ICIPE helps Kenyan farmers domesticate hangover cure plant.
- New, useless acacia found. No word on who lost it in first place.
- Yet another plea to save the effing British orchard.
- Hunter-Gatherer-Sculptor. “I got your imprecations right here,” says Jeremy.
- Razib rounds up horses.
Nibbes: Nettles, Rivers, Rare species, Library, Afghanistan protected area, Nordic-Baltic-Russian collaboration, Photos, Disease
- George Orwell scythes nettles, then seeks uses.
- World’s rivers in trouble. Also other wetlands the world over. CWRs to be affected, along with everything else?
- Let’s not get too hung up about rarity.
- UNESCO launches World Digital Library. Gotta be some agrobiodiversity in there somewhere, surely. Yes indeedy.
- Afghanistan’s first national park has some livestock wild relatives!
- Circum-Baltic collaboration on genetic resources conservation.
- Mongabay.com publishes lots of cool pictures of biodiversity to celebrate Earth Day yesterday. So does The Big Picture, even some vaguely farming ones. And Adam Forbes has just loaded a bunch of photos too. Luigi comments: Why didn’t we do the same for agrobiodiversity?
- Tuberculosis and domestication. Not.