Nibbles

Nibbles: Crop map, Breeding, CePaCT, African coconut, Cacao & vanilla, Malaysian fruits, Basmati, Rice saving, Grapevine diversity, Wild foods, Cornell hemp genebank, Potato breeding course, Chinese aquaculture, Chinese trees, Plant identification, Menu language, Shepherding, US forests, Global fires, Red Listing, MERL, Pea gin

Nice vintage map of global crop distribution, starring wheat.
CIMMYT DG on the glories of plant breeding, starring wheat (p. 6).
Australia supports Pacific genebank. No wheat in sight.
Saving coconut. No, not in the Pacific.
The history of chocolate and vanilla. The crops, not the ice cream.
Speaking of ice cream: maybe someone should try making some out of these tasty endangered fruits before it’s too late.
Speaking of tasty: basmati.
Speaking of rice: this guy has 1420 varieties.
Hey, it’s not about the taste: it’s the ethics too, stupid. But, being wine, it’s also about the taste.
Speaking of ethics: what good is forest conservation if it stops people accessing wild foods.
At least one senator gets it.
You’ve got a few weeks to register for a potato breeding course. Using CWR, no less.
Amazing pics of Chinese aquaculture.
Chinese efforts to save ancient trees. No connection with above at all. And no pics.
Google will identify your plants. Of course it will.
Speaking at Google: a linguist (Dan Jurafsky) on menus.
Next generation shepherding in South Africa. No sign of Google, though. For now.
Interactive atlas of US forests. There goes the afternoon. Imagine if if ever got mashed up with the global fire atlas.
Automated Red List assessments. Wow.
The MERL has an exhibition on the history of farming. One of my favourite museums, one of my favourite topics. My cup runneth over.
Gin made from peas. Sometimes I hate farming.

Diane Ragone is Distinguished Economic Botanist for 2020.
Climate change is reducing consumable calories by about 1% a year for the top 10 crops globally.
East Africa to get a livestock genebank. Will they use this “universal tool“?
Meanwhile, transhumance is hanging on in Spain.
Another community seed bank in India.
And the international coconut genebank will survive.
Roots, tubers and banana to increase in importance, but will need investment.
Indigenous tribes to be involved in fight against sudden oak death in California.

The link between language and biodiversity loss.
Cacao genebank does more than conserve cacao diversity.
Singapore gets into seed-banking. Not cacao, though.
Sachs proposes big coffee fund to ensure sustainably. No word on genebanks, though.
If you want to increase the cultivation of an insect-pollinated crop, you should diversify your agriculture.
Sustainable not necessarily equal to organic.

The Half-Earth Map is better than none.
Repurposing rice fields in the off season to help out California’s Chinook salmon.
Photogenic melons.
A famous community seed bank is in trouble.
While elsewhere in India, a new genebank takes off.