- The Global Fossil Record. Visualized. Not agricultural, but couldn’t resist it.
- Malnutrition? It’s the culture, stupid.
- Check out the world’s largest chickpea drought trial.
- Overfishing the Amazon.
- Ah, so that’s how wheat did it!
- Food aid can support sustainable livelihoods too.
- Soon, most crop production will go to feed China’s pigs. And you’ll be able to follow that on FAOStat’s interactive thingie on agricultural tradeflows.
- But it can’t possibly be good for sustainable diets, can it?
- New book on fermentation. Never enough of those.
Totally terere
The launching of FAO’s Traditional Crop of the Month with amaranth, just announced on Twitter, reminds me that I was going to post a couple of photos showing how much the crop is being used nowadays in Kenya. These show that terere leaves are used — along with other stuff — to fortify maize meal, which is used to make ugali, the main staple food around here for many people. I took the pix in a supermarket in Lavington, an upscale residential area, and they represent two different brands of unga. Just look under ingredients.
Brainfood: Azeri grapes, Biodiversity & ecoservices, Ivorian melons, Omani chickens, Insecticides & pollinators, Czech wild wheat, African yams, Livestock breeding, Natural selection, Bean proteins
- Biodiversity and breeding of grapes: a study in Azerbaijan. Long history, 2 main wild types, 600 cultivated varieties, 100 of them threatened.
- Linkages between biodiversity attributes and ecosystem services: A systematic review. Mainly, but not exclusively, positive. Always complicated.
- Genetic relationships among accessions of African indigenous melons (Cucumis melo L. ssp. agrestis) using AFLP markers. Vegetable and soup thickener types separate genetically.
- From India to Africa across Arabia: An mtDNA assessment of the origins and dispersal of chicken around the Indian Ocean Rim. Arabian chickens come from India, Somali chickens from SE Asia.
- A restatement of the natural science evidence base concerning neonicotinoid insecticides and insect pollinators.. Here’s the data. Make up your own mind.
- Aegilops conservation and collection evaluation in the Czech Republic. 1 species in situ, 21 ex situ.
- Next-generation sequencing based genotyping, cytometry and phenotyping for understanding diversity and evolution of guinea yams. Both wild and cultivated species form distinct groups, except for Dioscorea rotundata, which is a mishmash of stuff.
- Issues and concerns in smallholder livestock genetic improvement programs in Africa. Got to select for multiple uses under less-than-ideal conditions. Not easy.
- Exploring natural selection to guide breeding for agriculture. Survival in the wild is not the same as performance in a cultivated field, but understanding the basis of adaptation can still help in breeding.
- Evaluating Two-Dimensional Electrophoresis Profiles of the Protein Phaseolin as Markers of Genetic Differentiation and Seed Protein Quality in Common Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.). Back to the future. Who needs DNA when you have proteins.
Nibbles: Restoring forests, Sampling strategies, Breadfruit history, Wheat & CC, Pacific fisheries, Sustainable food experts, CG talkfest, Irish & potatoes, Diet costs, ITPGRFA projects, Poaching & medicine, Coca alternatives, Ethiopian agroforestry, Mutation breeding, Gaza greens
- Genetic considerations in ecosystem restoration using native tree species. No excuse for getting it wrong now.
- “Careful tailoring of seed collections to specific species and situations critical to preserving plant diversity.” No excuse for getting it wrong now.
- Breadfruit makes The Paris Review.
- Got any ideas on protecting wheat from heat and drought?
- Where will Pacific Islanders get their protein from if all the fish go?
- International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems set up. Rejoice. Maybe they’ll be invited to the CGIAR’s Development Dialogues.
- The Irish know a thing or two about sustainable food systems.
- Yeah but how much does a decent diet cost anyway?
- An overview of the Seed Treaty’s projects on climate change adaptation.
- Poaching in Kenya driven by demand for dodgy traditional medicine? And finding an alternative for Peru’s traditional medicine of choice.
- What has agroforestry ever done for us?
- You say conventional I say mutation.
- The leafy greens of Gaza.
Nibbles: Sorghum research, Alternative millet, IRRI genebank genomics, Cattle genomes, CIAT genebank, Rainforest genebank, Saving seeds, Millet in India, Varied diets, Cheese rind microbes, Fermentation, Artisanal hooch, Truffle oil, Coconut water, Fancy carrots, Edible insects, Farming tuna, Saving cetaceans, Fancy tomato database
- What must be done about sorghum in Africa, by someone who should know because they worked at ICRISAT, which has a sorghum genebank.
- ICRISAT also has pearl millet genebanks — in India and Africa. So when did pearl millet become “alternative” in India? Well, at least it’s not on this list of “indigenous foods.”
- 3000 rice genomes (from the IRRI genebank), and 1000 bull genomes. Brave new world.
- The CIAT genebank makes the news, and not a genome in sight.
- An in situ forest genebank deep in the heart of Sabah.
- And you can bet they’re all saving seeds the right way. But there’s always a webinar if not. Or this.
- Micronutrients? It’s the food system, stupid. Yes, indeedy. And there’s even a webinar about it.
- The fascinating microbial system of cheese rinds.
- Sauerkraut has a pretty fascinating microbial system too, I bet.
- Artisanal whiskey is a thing? Isn’t it, basically, moonshine?
- Truffle oil is a scam. Damn.
- Coconut water tries not to seem a scam.
- Heifer Farm shows off its weird carrots. Yeah, they’re more than just about livestock at Heifer.
- Though that doesn’t include insects, I don’t think. Yes, insects.
- Or bluefin tuna. Or the vaquita. But enough of that.
- Plenty of weird tomatoes on this great wiki I came across.