- “Every heirloom plant seed grown for food has a story…”
- The history of alcohol.
- The history of a particular alcohol-producing plant.
- U. of Minnesota students travel to crop cradle.
- They could just have gone to Washington State University.
- Brazil is back in the cacao game.
- Deconstructing durian’s smell is easier than you thought.
- The CIAT genebank in Scientific (Latin)American.
Nibbles: Agroforestry info, Coffee genome, Citrus family tree, Physalis fossil, Conservation economics, Wild Vicia, African rice history, USDA PGR strategy, Fisheries, Evidence base
- Agroforestry Species Switchboard gets upgrade.
- Arabica sequenzzzzzzz…
- “But what is the point of collecting and preserving this genetic diversity as seed, if it should remain in perpetuity in a seed bank?”
- Citrus untangled.
- 52 million year old tomatillo fossil already had Inflated Calyx Syndrome.
- Faba bean wild relative found, kinda sorta.
- It’s the economics, stupid.
- African rice in the New World. Mash up with peanuts?
- National Program 301: Plant Genetic Resources, Genomics, and Genetic Improvement. Action Plan 2018-2022.
- Communities that catch more diverse fish species are more resilient shock.
- Database of what works in conservation. Not of crop and livestock diversity, though, alas.
Nibbles: Bread, Barley, Superfoods, Algae
- Another three-way effort by bakers, farmers and gene banks to raise superior breads, this time in Australia.
- Meanwhile, on the Canary Islands, grains have barely changed in almost a thousand years.
- Here we go again: “Hipsters’ insatiable appetite for superfoods is starving India’s ancient indigenous people“. I guess they didn’t get the memo.
- “Species diversity reduces chances of crop failure” — even when the species are algae.
Nibbles: Catching up edition
- And we’re back.
- India wants to set up a fish genebank. Because climate change, which is scrambling up climates everywhere. And fish are important, so don’t scoff.
- Nepal’s community seed banks in the news. Also Brazil’s. And New Zealand’s, since we’re at it.
- Don’t forget India’s. And not just the community sort, either.
- Our friends at Kew on the wonders of genebanks.
- Someone mention genebanks? Latest photos from Ft Collins.
- You can make your own. Genebank, that is.
- Podcast on a really long-term seed viability experiment.
- It’s not just about the genebanks, though. Or all that biotechnology for that matter. Indeed not, as iPES-Food reminds us.
- Italian monks help rebuild earthquake-hit town. With beer.
- French monks are at it too. Beer, that is.
- Go ahead, have that piece of cheese with that monk-brewed beer.
- Or with a nice IPA for that matter.
- Or a banana beer.
- Sure, take all the romance out of beer, why don’t you.
- The Mesoamerican, entomological roots of the colour scarlet.
- Don’t keep people out if you want to protect forests. I can’t understand why this still needs to be said.
- The story of the quest for super-sweet corn. And a celebration of the life of a giant of corn (as in maize) research.
- And for the “ultimate” avocado.
- How about ultimate dope?
- The traditional, end-of-year, save-the-apple and the-end-of-frankincense stories. Actually there were two on apples. And it’s not all bad news for frankincense.
- Saving the Tamworth pig in Australia. And the camel in Rajasthan.
- Cool map of French traditional foods.
- For your next Saturnalia feast.
- The Met has a “corne field.”
- Earliest evidence of potatoes from the central Andes. What, not Canada?
- Neolithic hunter-gatherers of the Libyan Sahara liked their veggies. Which we all should. But not at these prices. Ah, wait, though, is the melon a vegetable, or a fruit?
- Some crops come, some go.
- Which seems a good place to bring this first, gigantic Nibble of 2017 to a close. Did you miss us? I know you did. But did we miss anything over the holidays? Let us know.
Nibbles: Reindeer, Olives, Seeds
- Donner and Blitzen — reindeer domestication
- Crop wild relative to the rescue, eventually, maybe. Wild olives uninfected by Xylella.
- Open source seeds, a roundup.