- Compare and contrast the banana and the Big Mac. Dan Koeppel takes it to the masses.
- Lamenting the loss of “amber waves of grain”. Ingrate.
- Cameroon’s agriculture vulnerable to climate change. I’ll alert the media.
- Look what I got you for National Pollinator Week next week; a World Checklist of Bees. Neat-o.
- Celebrate food and farmers in Eden.
- “The core of the strategy is a short-term provision of improved seeds suited to the local environment and fertilizers like Di-Ammonium Phosphate (DAP) and urea accompanied by advice on how to use them.” Sounds familiar…
- Meanwhile, in non-Millennium Villages: “While his maize cobs were smaller than others, the seed was of a much higher quality; the fibre of his cotton was also much longer.”
- Japanese yam fields in peril. Yams as in Dioscorea or sweet potato or what? So annoying.
- Neolithic myths?
- California apricot grower explores Central Asia, comes up trumps. Jeremy comments: CandyCots? I think I want to be sick.
Nibbles: No-dig, Joe, Gritty Veg, Insect food, Forests, Finger millet, Bees
- No-dig, (almost) no-water surplus veggies in Lala land. Via.
- Smell the coffee and wake up.
- Yet more urban agriculture reviving neighbourhood culture.
- Giant grasshopper is good for you.
- And speaking of Google Earth (see below): you can use it to track disappearing forests as well as disappearing gourds.
- “Our mother who grinds ragi at home is far more superior to our father who rules this country.” Finger millet makes a comeback in India.
- Aussie report urges honey bee protection. Good on ya, mate.
Fire threatens wild gourd…or maybe not
I’m ashamed to say that all Seminole names look alike to me. I know it’s a failing, and I’m trying to correct it. But, in the meantime, I could not help but be somewhat alarmed when I saw that a brush fire had destroyed a chunk of Okaloacoochee State Forest in Florida. That’s because I vaguely remembered a wild Cucurbita, endemic to Florida, with a very similar specific epithet. Well, it turned out to be an object lesson in the perils, and occasional advantages, of ignorance.
The wild cucurbit is actually Cucurbita okeechobeensis. And that’s the perils part, as “okeechobee” is actually not much like “okaloacoochee.” Pretty embarassing to confuse the two. But gbiffing Cucurbita okeechobeensis, and comparing its distribution with the location of Okaloacoochee State Forest, reveals the advantages part. For it turns out that Okeechobee gourd could well be found in or around the ravaged state forest (blue dots). It’s possible, anyway.
So a little learning can be a useful thing.
Now, I have no idea whether that brush fire actually destroyed, or even threatened, populations of this particular crop wild relative. Maybe someone will tell me. But the point I would like to make is that it would be nice to have a system whereby the locations of threats like fires, floods, new roads etc. could be automatically compared to a dataset of the distribution of crop wild relatives. Globally.
I don’t think technology is a problem. I did the whole thing in Google Earth. The bottleneck is a comprehensive global dataset of the locations (actual or predicted) of populations of crop wild relatives. Hopefully that’s what the CWR Portal will become in time.
Nibbles: Bananas, Cassava, Coconuts, Potato, Training, Wild poultry, EU regulations, Saving seeds
- No rice? Eat bananas!
- “Whatever the cultivation and consumption of cassava mean to us as Jamaicans, it cannot be just a source of comic relief.”
- Climate change good for coconuts. Well that’s a relief.
- Spud slide show.
- Gubernator helps Chile with its genetic resources. Sarah Connor unavailable for comment.
- Galliformes conservation in SE Asia. No, nothing to do with the French.
- “…the white part of the leek must represent at least one-third of the total length or half the sheathed part.” Yeah, that makes sense.
- “You really see that it’s the poor and persecuted who have been the seed savers.”
Nibbles: Restoration, Dates, Plant health, IRRI, Infrastructure, Agri-tourism, Food sovereignty
- Goats and seeds help southern Lebanon recover from war. But which breeds, what varieties?
- Dated desert date decides to drop dormancy.
- “Mobile clinics for sick plants.” Nice idea.
- China honours IRRI. Rice idea.
- World Bank economist says increased investment in agricultural research not enough, also need decent roads. Oh, and extension services. Media alerted.
- Crete’s Culinary Sanctuaries.
- “Towards Food Sovereignty” multimedia book etc. published by IIED.