- “Priortizing restoration across agricultural landscapes.” Nothing to do with agriculture, though.
- “Gene banks to rescue local crops.” Nothing to do with genebanks, though.
- “‘Psychedelic’ maize may help increase crop and biofuel yields.” Nothing to do with LSD, though.
- Scotland gets a national genebank. Well, not really, but anyway.
- Malawi schoolchildren sing about food diversity. No, really.
- Homo erectus ate fish as part of a pretty diverse diet. Had to wait about 2 million years for chips.
- Report for 10-Year Strategy for Reduction of Vitamin & Mineral Deficiencies. “…activities to enhance dietary diversification are an attractive option for improving micronutrient status, but these have proved difficult to evaluate.” Ouch.
- “Integrating Genetic Resource Conservation and Sustainable Development into Strategies to Increase the Robustness of Seed Systems.” You’ll need to pay to find out how, though. I’ll try to get a pdf, some of the authors are friends.
- The role of Punjab Agricultural University in the Green Revolution. And in genetic erosion?
- Enough arable land to feed world, says new French study. But not here, say Indians.
- Reviving the elm in Britain one sapling at a time. How long till the next disaster, though, with such a narrow genetic base?
Nibbles: Eggplant history, Weaver heirlooms, Emu farming, India’s cropland, Togo maize storage
- Where does the eggplant come from? Where is it going?
- William Woys Weaver and his heirloom seed collection.
- Orissa farmers try emus. In desperation, presumably.
- India runs out of cropland.
- Tweaking Togo’s traditional grain storage structures.
Nibbles: Haiti, India, Maize, Research
- Monsanto’s seeds in Haiti. “Let the farmers decide,” says Anastasia
- Indian stamps celebrate biodiversity. No pictures, so we can’t comment.
- Is maize becoming more tolerant to heat and drought? Maybe not.
- Olivier de Schutter says investment in agriculture is destroying the world’s peasantry. Responsibly.
Nibbles: Wheat, Mississippi, Blogs, Greenwash, Livestock
- CIMMYT live blogs the wheat meet in St Pete. Riiiiiiight.
- Got the no veg blues? More ag on the airwaves. h/t Agricultural Law
- Guardian collects science blogs, almost no botany. h/t Anastasia.
- Coke-fuelled excitement at Green Week.
- Lights! Camera! ILRI! Films on livestock goods and bads.
Agrobiodiversity and food on the airwaves
Our follower and occasional contributor André kindly alerted us to what he calls a European Union mega-conference on biodiversity, going on all this week in Brussels. There may be some agricultural biodiversity in there somewhere. The whole thing is being streamed. And next week Michael Pollan is at the RSA, and you can listen to a feed of that too. I know which one I’ll be following.