Nibbles – Page 463 – Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog

September 26, 2007

A writer on Agave

Waxing poetic about maguey.

September 26, 2007September 26, 2007

Disrespecting the bison

Majestically roaming Plains, bison eat corn.

September 25, 2007September 25, 2007

Counterfeit moutai

Fake Chinese liquor seized. Jeremy’s comment: “It wasn’t me.”

September 24, 2007September 24, 2007

Children learn about agricultural biodiversity

Way to go Medomak High! A school biodiversity programme based on agriculture.

September 24, 2007September 24, 2007

NTFP and poverty

Collecting wild foods an “efficient method of subsistence.”

- China is building its germplasm collection at the National Frigid Zone Crop and Soybean Germplasm Resources Mid-term Bank in Harbin. Cool.
- Driscoll’s helped build China’s blueberry industry, then discovered that knowledge, infrastructure and genetics have a habit of escaping. Not so cool.
- Meanwhile, the Philippines wants its rice collection to hit 21,000 varieties by the end of the year. IRRI unavailable for comment.
- Italy is establishing a major global olive genebank. Unclear where it fits in with other major global olive genebanks, but some redundancy is good.
- FAO showcases Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems, where crops, landscapes and traditional knowledge have survived together. Like olives in Italy, I guess.
- The mangelwurzel is making a comeback, because apparently forgotten root vegetables just need better publicity, and not a fancy GIAHS.
- Ohio growers are trying to save the pawpaw just as Americans are discovering it, partly because of better publicity.
- BeanGPT is bringing AI to breeding and farming beans. Maybe it can help the mangelwurzel and pawpaw too?
Published on September 23, 2026