- Agriculture in Vietnam: rice down, coffee up. I wonder if the two may be related?
- Interactive online atlas of sacred lands.
- The Allium takes a pot shot at the gene jockeys.
- “It’s all about convincing people to take the first bite.” Oh, and the second.
- But will insects feature in this professional short course on nutrition from IDS?
- SE Asian rainforest as managed as the Amazon?
- Prof. Sen’s poverty lecture at LSE.
Nibbles: Freekeh, Teff, African Chef, Inga agroforestry, Apple erosion
- Freekeh is the new quinoa. What, the next environmental and social catastrophe for the Bolivian altiplano?
- Oh no, sorry, it’s teff that’s the new quinoa.
- Only a matter of time until African Chef gets hold of it then.
- And no doubt Inga edulis is not far behind.
- Let’s hope it doesn’t go the way of the McIntosh.
Joining up the dots
Four blog posts from the CGIAR today. Related, as you’ll see, but not connected. Leaving us to join up the dots. Because that’s what we do. You’re welcome, CGIAR.
- From ICRAF, to kick things off, a piece summarizing the editorial accompanying the special edition of the journal Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability. The message is that the interaction between people and trees, in forests or agroforestry, is complicated and its study requires systemic approaches.
- Funnily enough, over at CIFOR there’s an example of just such a study, looking at the relationship between forest cover and children’s nutrition. Which encountered just the sort of problem alluded to above: “We were unable to figure out from our data whether people living near forests are collecting more nutritious foods from the forest, if they are cultivating them on farms and in agro-forests, or a combination.” Awkward.
- And so we come to the Landscapes for People, Food and Nature Initiative’s post on the use of mapping to look at ecosystem services. Including presumably the sort of ecosystem services the previous two pieces looked at.
- Funny though how it doesn’t mention CIAT’s work on using GIS to look at the level of forest protection actually enjoyed by Colombian forests in that country’s protected are system.
LATER: Ok, ok, the third one is not really from the CGIAR. Read the comment for more.
Nibbles: ICRISAT award, CGIAR funding, Chinese medicine, Gut bacteria, Bee research, Sri Lankan law, Wolf Prize, Field Guides, Tapa exhibition, GFFA2014
- Today in dodgy journalism, part 1: ICRISAT gets a new mandate crop? What was the picture editor thinking. And smoking.
- Today in dodgy journalism, part 2: Two typos in the obsolete name of the CGIAR.
- Dissecting Chinese traditional medicine. Or would that be puncturing?
- Hunter gatherers have special gut bacteria.
- Bees: “That’s the beauty of the research. Because we’re still short on info, everything’s worth knowing about.”
- Maple syrup tasting. Nice gig if you can get it.
- Activist objects to proposed new seed law in Sri Lanka.
- UC Davis wheat geneticist Jorge Dubcovsky wins 2014 Wolf Prize in Agriculture. Congrats.
- Sandy Knapp on what she does all day.
- The future of field guides. Yes, they have one.
- Tapa cloth, in Cologne of all places. Don’t think there were any from Palau, though.
- Abschlusskommuniqué of the Global Forum on Food and Agriculture 2014 supports conservation and use of agricultural biodiversity. Phew.
Nibbles: Agroecology, Genomics meet, African botany meet, Gardens, ISHS, Market chains, KFC in Africa, Wine terroir, Vanilla research, Dye mushrooms, French agrobiodiversity research, Indian genebank, Policy newsletter, Eels, Neolithic grain
- USDA should think about agroecology more. Or at all?
- The latest from PAGXXII. Lots on domestication, genebanks, crop improvement, all that cool stuff.
- There’s also AETFAT going on, and it’s just as cool. Maybe more so. Though less socially networked, I guess.
- How public gardens should build up living plant collections. You’d have thought they’d know.
- An update on plant genetic resources from ISHS. Lots happening…
- How to support agrobiodiversity through sustainable sourcing.
- KFC must have read that slideshare above.
- Breaking down the terroir. And not for the first time.
- Does vanilla have terroirs? I bet it does. Should ask the world’s expert.
- Dye mushrooms? Are you kidding me?
- ARCAD, DIADE: No matter how you spell it, lots of French interest (and money) in crop and livestock genetics.
- Likewise in India, it looks like from this piece on NBPGR.
- The Bioversity Policy Unit is apparently still alive and kicking.
- European eels a conservation success story?
- Let the ancient DNA sequencing begin!