Nibbles – Page 500 – Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog

June 5, 2007June 5, 2007

Orange cauliflower gene

The gene for orange cauliflowers promotes storage, not manufacture, of carotenes. A new approach to enhancing nutrition?

June 4, 2007June 4, 2007

Guinea pigs

As well as feeding Andean peoples for centuries, guinea pigs have helped win twenty-three Nobel Prizes.

Bioinformatics projects database

Interested in information on biodiversity information projects?

June 1, 2007June 1, 2007

Sustainable tea

Unilever, which buys 12% of the world’s tea production, wants it all certified sustainable by 2015.

Agave paper

There’s a paper out on the diversity of Agave in Mexico, the source of tequila.

1. Haga Hideo’s 1950s photos of Fukushima farming rituals are now being used to revive them: ex situ conservation, but for culture.
2. Long before photography, or “pre‑breeding” was a buzzword, Belgian pomologist Jean‑Baptiste Van Mons was running massive pear selection trials and gifting us Beurré Bosc and Doyenné Boussock.
3. As Southern Africa’s miombo shrinks, scientists are cloning wild trees so the fruit — and food security — outlive the forest. Now for the pre-breeding.
4. Greenpeace Africa’s Seed Project makes the case for indigenous seeds as a route to farmer independence. And you can help.
5. And oh so coincidentally, a network of community seed banks in Kenya is rescuing indigenous seeds so the diversity is still around when opportunity (or crisis) knocks.
6. Also in Kenya, the national genebank’s collectors are racing to secure opportunity crops.
7. Nepal’s indigenous crops and landraces are at the same time more needed than ever, and under threat. So, much like in Kenya.
8. The Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT says women are at the center of sustainable food systems; the fine print adds: “as they have always been.”
Published on September 30, 2026