Nibbles – Page 476 – Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog

August 13, 2007

Ancient Irish beer recreated

Archaeologists interpret fulacht fiadh, brew ancient Irish beer, then go for curry.

August 13, 2007August 13, 2007

Heirloom tomatoes

American growers urged to try heirloom tomatoes.

Fish prevents malaria

Tilapia is good for you in more ways than one.

Synthetic wheat

Reconstructing bread wheat introduces novel genetic diversity.

A new book to wait for

I can’t wait to read Darwinian Agriculture, to be published in 2009.

1. Swapping maize for indigenous crops won’t fix African food systems designed around markets and policies that still favour a narrow range of crops.
2. Cassava is both a food security fallback and a commercial crop in Uganda, but disease, climate change and declining diversity make its conservation an increasingly urgent form of insurance. But what about the markets and policies?
3. When livestock and crops fail, Ugandan pastoralists draw on wild plants for food, underlining how much food-system resilience still sits outside the formal agricultural system, with its markets and policies.
4. The Morton Arboretum is using living collections and genetic research to help the threatened butternut tree cope with changing conditions.
5. Webinar discusses global approaches to seed provenancing and transfer zones, useful for anyone who wants to move native plants without moving the wrong genes. Butternut very interested.
6. San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance’s Frozen Zoo preserves genetic material of plant and animal species that may disappear, from DNA to cells to organisms. Butternut volunteers.
7. New Indian facility combines ex situ fish conservation with community aquaculture. Good model for much of the above?
Published on October 6, 2026