- Agricultural wilding: rewilding for agricultural landscapes through an increase in wild productive systems. But would it be sparing or sharing?
- Disentangling Domestication from Food Production Systems in the Neotropics. “Wild” is a contested concept in the Neotropics anyway.
- Evidence for Multiple Teosinte Hybrid Zones in Central Mexico. Maize systems are already pretty wild in Mexico.
- Maize intercropping in the milpa system. Diversity, extent and importance for nutritional security in the Western Highlands of Guatemala. And they’re doing pretty well, thank you very much.
- Extensive introgression among North American wild grapes (Vitis) fuels biotic and abiotic adaptation. Plenty of wilding in American grapevines too.
- Conservation status assessment of banana crop wild relatives using species distribution modelling. There’s a danger of banana de-wilding.
- A route to de novo domestication of wild allotetraploid rice. The upside of dewilding.
- Landrace added value and accessibility in Europe: what a collection of case studies tells us. Landraces can maybe help with that rewilding of agriculture in Europe, as they are mostly adapted to marginal, low-input systems.
- The Analysis of Italian Plant Agrobiodiversity Databases Reveals That Hilly and Sub-Mountain Areas Are Hotspots of Herbaceous Landraces. Like I said, landraces can help.
- Locally Adapted and Organically Grown Landrace and Ancient Spring Cereals—A Unique Source of Minerals in the Human Diet. Plus they’re good for you.
- Not my cup of coffee: Farmers’ preferences for coffee variety traits – Lessons for crop breeding in the age of climate change. Which is not to say landraces don’t need improvement every now and then.
- The potential for income improvement and biodiversity conservation via specialty coffee in Ethiopia. But in the end, it’s about the value added.
- From anger to action: Differential impacts of eco-anxiety, eco-depression, and eco-anger on climate action and wellbeing. Does any of the above make you angry? Good!
Nibbles: Costich, GHUs, Locusts, Brachiaria, Fruits & veggies, Ag data, Agroecology
- Dr Costich’s Odyssey.
- CGIAR Germplasm Health Units: Between the Scylla of spreading pests and diseases and the Charybdis of getting stuff out to genebank users too slowly.
- Turning insects into food
- Feeding cattle under the Congolese sun.
- Plenty of intoxicating fruits out there besides lotus.
- Weaving a web of data for food security.
- Europe heeds the siren song of agroecology.
Nibbles: Bangladeshi gardens, Rambo root, Invasive hybrids, Pomologia, CWR, Genebanks, Deforestation, Agroecology, Post-2020, Intergenerational justice
- Floating gardens are a solution.
- Cassava is a solution.
- Eco-fusion is a solution.
- Art is a solution.
- Crop wild relatives are a solution.
- Genebanks are a solution.
- Understanding the effect of agricultural commodities on forests is a solution.
- My agroecology is a solution, but not your agroecology.
- 2021 will be a solution.
- Long-term thinking is the solution.
Nibbles: Biofortification, Sweetpotato, Rare breeds podcast, Zooming goats, Farmers market, Three Sisters, Amazon, Grapevine resistance, Zostera
- Pretty much the last thing biofortified crops do is empower farmers to be food system change agents. But they’re still a pretty good idea.
- Same for the sweet potato in the Caribbean. On both counts.
- Jeremy’s latest on saving rare livestock breeds. Now, that would change the food system a bit.
- But would those rare breeds work on Zoom?
- Maybe this farmers market in Nairobi could stir things up a bit.
- Learning from Native American farming practices is always a good idea.
- Rethinking the Amazon development model could do with some of that too.
- Grapevine wild relatives are pretty empowering too.
- And, for at least one chef, so is eelgrass.
Nibbles: Seed edition
- Seed stories.
- Heterogenous seeds book chapter.
- Heritage seeds in Britain book.
- Seed app. For tricot trials.
- Seed Treaty ratified in Nigeria.