Nibbles – Page 42 – Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog

Nibbles: Millets, Biblioteca, Simpson

Eat millets!
Community seed library in Italy is “an investment in memory and the future.” Also, Forza Azzurri!
Peanut legend gets a prize.

July 6, 2021July 6, 2021

Nibbles: Olive plague, Soil biodiversity, Bamboo & rattan

Xylella has an insta. Check out also XF-actors.
How did I miss the Global Soil Biodiversity Initiative website? Even has the biodiversity soil atlas on there. They’re on Twitter too, of course, as is their director, Dr Monica Farfan.
Latest Bambu & Rattan Update from INBAR. Check out in particular Prof. Terry Sunderland on African rattan.

June 30, 2021July 1, 2021

Nibbles: Dog domestication, Rice heirlooms, Jungle cities

Dogs as Swiss army knives.
Heritage rice in Bengal and Assam.
The low-density, agrarian approach to ancient urbanism in the humid tropics.
An example of the above from Tikal.

June 25, 2021June 25, 2021

Nibbles: Early ag, Iberian aurochs, MusaNet, Disney tomatoes

How people used cereals before agriculture in the Fertile Crescent (roughly speaking).
Fast forward two thousand years and meet Elba, the shepherdess of Courel. And some aurochs.
Nine thousand years later, MusaNet revamps its website…
…and coconut revamps its conservation strategy.
And finally, here are some post-agricultural tomatoes.

June 23, 2021June 23, 2021

Nibbles: Harvest time, Wheat evaluation, Olive diversity, Maize museum, MAKEathon, Community seed banks

Why bulls and cereals go together.
Finding out which old wheats go together with good bread.
How in situ and ex situ conservation can come together for olives in Catalonia.
60 maize landraces come together in a cool display.
Coming together for African yam bean, starting on 7 July.
How national genebanks and community seed banks can come together.

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