Nibbles – Page 81 – Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog

January 29, 2019February 5, 2019

Nibbles: A2S2019, ICRISAT seeds, High protein rice, American grapes, Religion & diet, Australian NUS

Access to Seeds comes out with 2019 edition. Not much change, alas. LATER: Ok, I stand corrected. And spanked.
Maybe this ICRISAT online seed tool will help with that access.
How many people will have access to this high protein rice?
Indigenous American grape species: more than just rootstocks.
The religion of diets.
Bush tucker is a religion for some.

January 29, 2019January 29, 2019

Nibbles: Heirlooms double, Seed huntress, Sequencing, ABS

Oldie but goldie on heirlooms.
And an update.
Someone who’s doing something about collecting heirlooms and suchlike.
What you can do once you have the stuff.
And the rules we all have to follow.

January 24, 2019January 24, 2019

Nibbles: Cherokee genebank, Community genebanks, Fruit genebank, CGIAR genebanks, CWR pre-breeding, Ethiopian sacred groves, UK animal ark

Cherokee Nation seedbank goes online.
Does that mean it is a biodiversity eden?
New Grewia genebank in India. No word on community involvement.
Meanwhile, at the CGIAR genebanks…
Pre-breeding using CWR, some even from genebanks: finger millet, eggplant.
Yeah, yeah, it’s not just about genebanks.
Or maybe it is.

January 21, 2019

Nibbles: Trade wars, Native American seeds & diets, Diversifying staples, Cheese animation, Eggplant breeding

Susan Bragdon and others on what Trump’s agricultural trade war with China really means.
Meanwhile, in Tucson…
What we need is Smart Foods.
The cheese history video we’ve all been waiting for.
Wild eggplants at WorldVeg.

January 17, 2019January 17, 2019

Nibbles: New crops, Coffee threats, Ancient Sagittaria, Forage breeding, Chinese bananas

The future of food is different plants. Can live with that.
Like wapato?
As long as coffee is still in the mix.
That mean we won’t need forages? Surely not.
Maybe we can also grow the same plants, but better.

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