- Bronx Seedless finally hits the shops.
- The Irish Iron Age Diet.
- Choosing the right legume. But where’s the tool?
- The answer to better coffee is Ethiopia.
- Pacific Global Breadfruit Summit honours Diane Ragone. In other news, there’s a breadfruit summit.
Brainfood: Ryegrass genome, Pest distributions, German oregano, Pápalos distribution, Chinese pea, Dutch cattle, Animal biobanking, Legumes everywhere, Crop diversification in China, Asian fermentation
- An ultra-high density genetic linkage map of perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne) using genotyping by sequencing (GBS) based on a reference shotgun genome assembly. Zzzzzzz.
- Future Risks of Pest Species under Changing Climatic Conditions. We’re doomed.
- Antioxidant capacity variation in the oregano (Origanum vulgare L.) collection of the German National Genebank. It’s huge. Fantastic. The best variation you’ve ever seen, I guarantee it.
- The distribution of cultivated species of Porophyllum (Asteraceae) and their wild relatives under climate change. New one on me.
- Biodiversity analysis in the digital era. Using the Atlas of Living Australia as an example.
- Large-scale evaluation of pea (Pisum sativum L.) germplasm for cold tolerance in the field during winter in Qingdao. 214 out of 3672, mainly coming from, wait for it, the winter production regions.
- Conservation priorities for the different lines of Dutch Red and White Friesian cattle change when relationships with other breeds are taken into account. 5 out of 7 genetic lines don’t need to be conserved.
- Domesticated Animal Biobanking: Land of Opportunity. “…journals should apply the same standard to samples and associated data, as they currently apply to molecular data, in terms of storage in formalized repositories prior to publication.”
- Neglecting legumes has compromised human health and sustainable food production. Includes nice summary of genebank holdings, using Genesys as a source of information.
- Crop Diversity and Land Simplification Effects on Pest Damage in Northern China. Diversity to the rescue. But…
- Ethnic Fermented Foods and Alcoholic Beverages of Japan. Just one chapter in a whole book on fermentation in Asia.
Brainfood: Myrciaria value chains, Finger millet WTP, Italian olive choice, Resilience, Rural livelihoods, Ganja conservation strategy, Sorghum erosion
- Building value chains for indigenous fruits: lessons from camu-camu in Peru. It’s the local markets, stupid.
- Assessing the potential for niche market development to contribute to farmers’ livelihoods and agrobiodiversity conservation: Insights from the finger millet case study in Nepal. What they said.
- Agro-biodiversity of Mediterranean crops: farmers’ preferences in support of a conservation programme for olive landraces. See above.
- Is resilience a useful concept in the context of food security and nutrition programmes? Some conceptual and practical considerations. Yes, because it integrates a lot of stuff. But it’s difficult to measure.
- The Changing Nature of Agricultural Livelihoods along a Peri-urban to Rural Gradient in Eastern Madagascar. Rural people farm less if they can. Wonder what that means for crop diversity.
- A Belated Green Revolution for Cannabis: Virtual Genetic Resources to Fast-track Cultivar Development. Oh my.
- On-farm diversity of sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] and risks of varietal erosion in four regions of Burkina Faso. 73% of lost varieties were found.
Brainfood: China cereal yield, US soybean breeding, Breadfruit genomics, Field app, Urban ag, Rose breeding, Strawberry cryo, Global biodiversity loss, Oceania bananas, Vegetable breeding, Badass Chinese sheep
- Patterns of Cereal Yield Growth across China from 1980 to 2010 and Their Implications for Food Production and Food Security. There has been yield stagnation over about 50% of total area of rice and maize, 15% of wheat.
- Genomic signatures of North American soybean improvement inform diversity enrichment strategies and clarify the impact of hybridization. 579 soybean varieties released 1940-2009 fall into 3 maturity groups, the overall diversity of which is not too different from the diversity of the ancestor landraces.
- Low-Coverage, Whole-Genome Sequencing of Artocarpus camansi (Moraceae) for Phylogenetic Marker Development and Gene Discovery. There’s been a whole genome duplication in Artocarpus.
- ColectoR, a Digital Field Notebook for Voucher Specimen Collection for Smartphones. So many of these things around.
- Potential ecosystem services of urban agriculture: a review. Important at local scale, not so much at global scale.
- Nineteenth century French rose (Rosa sp.) germplasm shows a shift over time from a European to an Asian genetic background. Ah, the lure of the exotic; 19 genetic groups, not corresponding to horticultural groups.
- Cryopreservation of in vitro shoot tips of strawberry by the vitrification method — establishment of a duplicate collection of Fragaria germplasm. The German national collection, including wild relatives, is a bit safer.
- Has land use pushed terrestrial biodiversity beyond the planetary boundary? A global assessment. Looks like it. Cross-reference with crop wild relatives?
- Traditional Banana Diversity in Oceania: An Endangered Heritage. Out of New Guinea…
- The contribution of international vegetable breeding to private seed companies in India. Vegetable breeding by AVRDC still has a role as R&D shifts to the private sector, but it’s different to what it was.
- Whole-genome sequencing of native sheep provides insights into rapid adaptations to extreme environments. Genomes of 77 Chinese breeds from extreme environments reveal genes likely to be useful in extreme environments.
Nibbles: Post-Roman Britain, World grapes, Ghana food security, Sheep stomachs, Alpaca trouble, CIMMYT genebank
- Anglo-Saxons may not have dropped spelt as quickly as we thought.
- The history of South Africa’s Kristaldruif grape. And where to find it.
- It was colonization that messed up Ghana’s food security. Boris take note.
- The brotherhood of manouls. They can keep it.
- Alpaca farmers out in the cold.
- CIMMYT annual report highlights the genebank.