- In Mato Grosso, deforestation rates fell as agricultural production rose. I know.
- “Imagine Ontario without … a maple leaf.” It’s easy, if you try.
- Got a case study in Community Based Adaptation (to climate change)? A book author wants to hear from you. h/t CAPRi.
- And here are some case studies on local foods and nutrition, from Lebanon.
- BBC reports on an Indian study: Plants at risk from seed dispersal threats. No mention of seed systems, formal or informal, that support agricultural plants.
- First woman to circumnavigate the world was a botanizing French herbalist.
- Veteran Israeli botanist interviewed, mentions crops wild relatives without actually calling them that.
Brainfood: Climate change in Europe, Slow cheese in Portugal, Grapevine diversity in Spain, Noni in India, Farmers and pastoralists in Jordan, Stevia everywhere, Almond genes flow, Peanuts, Disease control
- Representing two centuries of past and future climate for assessing risks to biodiversity in Europe. Temperature up 3-6°C throughout Europe by end of century, rainfall down in south, up in north. Sounds lovely.
- Gourmandizing Poverty Food: The Serpa Cheese Slow Food Presidium. Trying to bring back a lost Portuguese cheese is romantic and elitist. Wish they’d just say what they really mean.
- Genetic diversity of wild grapevine populations in Spain and their genetic relationships with cultivated grapevines. If there’s a genetic contribution of wild grapevines to cultivated in Spain, it’s not great.
- Revisiting the origin of the domestication of noni (Morinda citrifolia L.). Let’s just say Pacific islanders won’t be pleased.
- The desert and the sown: Nomad–farmer interactions in the Wadi Faynan, southern Jordan. Changes from sedentarism to pastoralism are mainly due to chance.
- Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni, source of a high-potency natural sweetener: A comprehensive review on the biochemical, nutritional and functional aspects. Not just sweetness, folic acid, vitamin C and all of the indispensable amino acids except tryptophan too.
- Gene flow among wild and domesticated almond species: insights from chloroplast and nuclear markers. The main insight being that it happens a lot, in both directions.
- Agricultural Technology, Crop Income, and Poverty Alleviation in Uganda. New peanut varieties increase incomes and reduce poverty, but aren’t enough on their own.
- Plant diversity improves protection against soil-borne pathogens by fostering antagonistic bacterial communities. It sure does, at least in a long-term grassland.
Nibbles: Sunflower breeding, Indian cows, New varieties and income, Climate change and extinction, Honeybee threat, Figs, Apple history, DIY Luffa, IRRI DDG blog
- The Russian sunflowers are coming! The Russian sunflowers are coming!
- Holy cow! Can’t do better than The Hindu’s headline. And more.
- CIMMYT says groundnut varieties good for income. ICRISAT unavailable for comment.
- But are they climate-proof?
- Because it could be worse than we thought for many species. And more. And what it means for in situ.
- The latest on what’s killing bees.
- The fig, in all its recondite glory.
- Apples of France, Part Deux.
- All you ever wanted to know about growing your own luffa.
- IRRI DDG tries his hand at growing a rice crop. And blogs about it to boot. A nice idea, which should be widely emulated in the CG.
Nibbles: Chilli diversity, Frankincense, Rice genomes, Rice domestication, Agro-ecology
- Why do chillies differ in their heat? Ed Yong explains all, and links to the peer-reviewed paper.
- Frankincense “doomed”. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Take a number. And a merry Christmas to you too, publicity hounds.
- IRRI to sequence 8.3% of its rice diversity. I’ll alert the media. No, wait …
- Speaking of which … Diversification of rice and diversification of languages; great long blog post explains how they illuminate one another.
- Agro-ecology is the answer, says UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food. What was the question?
Nibbles: Wild rice, Food forests, Domestication
- It isn’t rice, but it is wild. And threatened, by disease, dams and climate change. h/t Sustainable Nutrition.
- Food forests. All you can eat blog post, with video goodness.
- Archaeology International goes more-or-less open access. Read all about The Early Rice Project, among other treats.