- “…for many for many smallholder farmers little has changed over the decades in terms of the methods and tools they use.” Geoff Tansey would seem to agree. Nobody has told ACIAR, though.
- Cherfas favourite spread bog butter among oldest food finds.
- Why it is silly to say that GMOs are always bad.
- The Star Trek tricorder-type DNA widget comes a step closer.
- Which will make it easier to do things like working out the evolution of palms. Before it’s too late. Because of all that nasty agriculture. Anyway, read about it on page 3 of Kew Scientist, along with lots of other stuff.
- Like the taxonomy of herbal medicine, for instance, which coincidentally also comes up in a newspaper article from Australia today. Maybe some of the plants involved will go into the Kimberly Ark, whatever that is.
- Passion fruit is the next big thing in Costa Rica.
- Colombian peasant organizations go to market. Including, I bet, with passion fruits.
- Even in the struggle between man and steer, the issue is uncertain.
- Is it time for Plant Cuttings again? Thank goodness.
- I think I’ll read it with some Danish wine at my elbow. Or maybe Vietnamese coffee.
Nibbles: Vigna radiata, Brit foods, Botany power, Niche models, Early ag, Fortification, Chicago plants, De-extinction, Kew aroids, Fish farming fail
- WorldVeg fights for the right of Pakistanis to grow mungbean.
- Philosopher thinks the English should fight for einkorn. Oh, and stilton.
- Botanist fights for botany.
- You gotta fight those species distribution models into submission. They don’t come quietly.
- Early farmers made love, not war. Or at least made cultic phallic symbols.
- Indians avoid Golden Rice fight by fortifying their own.
- Chicago fights to save its plants.
- You can’t fight extinction. I mean, once it’s happened.
- Aroids putting up a good fight with showier plants at Kew.
- Aquaculture in a fight for its life as disease looms.
Nibbles: Phenomics, Genomes, Indian cucurbits, Argania, Food in history, Sourghum & drought, USDA genebanks, Queenly pear, CIMMYT genebank, Malawi cowpea, Nutrition strategy
- Phenomics is the new genomics.
- No, wait. Peanuts to get a genome. A rice relative’s got one already.
- All the Cucurbitaceae of India, in one handy checklist.
- The paradox of argan oil.
- Couple of things on the history of food. And one on the ethics of food.
- Big push for drought-resistant sorghum. Wait, I thought it was drought-resistant already.
- Ft Collins gets yet another media write-up.
- Telegraph says Queen gets rare pear. Letter writer to Times begs to differ on the whole rarity thing. It sounds like, damn thing being (mostly) behind a paywall.
- If you’re on Facebook, why not like this photo of the CIMMYT maize genebank?
- Canada to help Malawi diversify. Into cowpeas.
- Big report on big nutrition meeting. Big deal?
Nibbles: Quinoazzzzz, Haiti seed bank, Guatemala seed bank, Seed systems, Hybrid wheat, OFSP, Fish characterization, Vanilla
- This quinoa thing is getting tedious.
- Clinton brings a seed bank to Haiti, “which will support efforts to increase agricultural production.” Will be interesting to see how exactly it does that.
- Whereas this seed bank in Guatemala “is empowering the local community to preserve and grow the seeds.” So there you go.
- Of course, those seed banks are going to need seed systems. And vice versa.
- And the next milestone in the continuing disempowering of the farmer is…
- Orange-fleshed sweet potatoes go aquatic. Where they’ll find fish that need to be compared.
- A Tongan vanilla tour.
Brainfood: Understanding conservation, Melon diversity, Brassica viruses, Livestock domestication, Parks and conservation, Intensification, Wild apple, Conservation planning, Pepper diversity, Silene diversity, Connectivity in restoration, Paying for conservation, Dog evolution, Pasture productivity
- Four barriers to the global understanding of biodiversity conservation: wealth, language, geographical location and security. Probably not a bad list for agricultural biodiversity either.
- SNP genotyping in melons: genetic variation, population structure, and linkage disequilibrium. Two main population, 5 sub-populations, no surprises. Oh hum.
- Turnip Mosaic Potyvirus Probably First Spread to Eurasian Brassica Crops from Wild Orchids about 1000 Years Ago. Which corresponds to the expansion of agriculture in Europe as a result of a warming phase.
- The Prey Pathway: A Regional History of Cattle (Bos taurus) and Pig (Sus scrofa) Domestication in the Northern Jordan Valley, Israel. Domestication in 8th millennium, preceded by overhunting. And all figured out without recourse to DNA.
- The Effects of Isolation and Natural Park Coverage for Landrace In situ Conservation: An Approach from the Montseny Mountains (NE Spain). Do farmers in parks conserve landraces because they are isolated, or because they are in parks? Both, it seems.
- Global food demand and the sustainable intensification of agriculture. Doubling in food demand from 2005 to 2050 predicted. Current trends of intensification in rich countries and expansion in not-so-rich bad, moderate intensification everywhere good.
- Postglacial recolonization history of the European crabapple (Malus sylvestris Mill.), a wild contributor to the domesticated apple. Differentiation in 3 separate glacial refugia, then expansion and admixture at boundaries.
- Testing Surrogacy Assumptions: Can Threatened and Endangered Plants Be Grouped by Biological Similarity and Abundances? No.
- Characterization of Capsicum annuum Genetic Diversity and Population Structure Based on Parallel Polymorphism Discovery with a 30K Unigene Pepper GeneChip. The hot ones are more diverse.
- Agronomical use as baby leaf salad of Silene vulgaris based on morphological, biochemical and molecular traits. Some populations are nicer than others.
- Patterns of contemporary gene flow suggest low functional connectivity of grasslands in a fragmented agricultural landscape. When restoring a species at a site, it is better if the new population is near a large existing population.
- Using choice experiments to understand public demand for the conservation of nature: A case study in a protected area of Chile. Visitors willing to pay $2-9 per visit, depending on the ecosystem service provided, which didn’t alas include CWRs.
- Y chromosome analysis of dingoes and Southeast Asian village dogs suggests a Neolithic continental expansion from Southeast Asia followed by multiple Austronesian dispersals. Dogs arose independently in SE Asia and displaced older lineages to the N and W.
- More Stable Productivity of Semi Natural Grasslands than Sown Pastures in a Seasonally Dry Climate. Over the course of a year that is, presumably due to species diversity. And the odd tree helps towards the end of the dry season. Which is why ICRAF is all over it.