Nibbles – Page 392 – Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog

November 27, 2008November 27, 2008

Nibbles: Sustainable agriculture, Zizania

Llamas protect livestock from predators. And so much more about making agriculture wilder.
Distant wild relative of rice runs amok in New Zealand.

November 26, 2008November 26, 2008

Nibbles: Info-fest, Medicinals, Wiliwili, Fish, Salinity

10,000,000 pages of biodiversity: among them 84 articles on agriculture.
The road to scientific expertise for Maryam Imbumi began with a stomach ache.
It’s wasp versus wasp to save native wiliwili.
Domesticating big fish in the Amazon. Really big.
Indian institute churning out salt-tolerant varieties.

November 25, 2008November 25, 2008

Nibbles: Earthworms, Statistics, Bison, Urban, Cork

Boffins find lots of cryptic genetic diversity in earthworms.
China produces half the world’s vegetables?
Know your bison.
Flouting Zimbabwe’s laws on urban agriculture to stay alive.
Cork certification.

November 24, 2008November 24, 2008

Nibbles: Cotton, Market, Genebank, Bees

When Cotton was King.
America’s longest-operating outdoor market.
Australia builds a genebank for native plants. Some crop wild relatives may be involved, I guess.
Undergraduate review of colony collapse disorder. Resist the temptation to mark. Or don’t.

November 22, 2008November 22, 2008

Nibbles: Bees, Potency

Bees win big conservation debate.
Changes in active ingredient content over time.

1. Ancient farmers didn’t have to wait for the genetic diversity that made domestication possible. They selected from variation already present in wild plants, including the ancestors of rice and maize. Domestication was as much about spotting (or happening upon) useful differences as creating new ones.
2. English colonists in America called Indigenous dogs “wolves,” revealing as much about colonial perceptions as about the animals themselves. This history of Indigenous dogs shows how unfamiliar animals were classified through peculiarly European ideas about wildness.
3. Austria is bringing forgotten apple varieties back to life. Saving old varieties in genebanks is one thing: getting people to grow, sell and eat them is another, but it can be done. Or at least tried.
4. Jordan’s olive-oil heritage centres on traditional varieties such as Nabali and ancient Rumi trees, but most production is consumed locally, leaving exports limited and making provenance, cultivar and harvest date important indicators for buyers. Compare and contrast with Austrian apples.
5. Small island developing states have distinctive food cultures and ingredients, but face particular challenges in building sustainable and resilient food systems. FAO’s A Taste of SIDS explores the connections between island food, biodiversity and culinary heritage. Nice to see diversity within crops considered, though a few local variety names would have been nice.
Published on October 21, 2026