- Nice Twitter thread on Asian yams (and incidentally sweet potato and taro).
- Surveying and collecting coconuts in PNG. What will they do with those nuts?
- Belarus genebank gets a high-level visit. Can’t help wondering if the Ukraine genebank being in the news is behind this somehow.
- Jordan to get a(nother) genebank. Apparently.
- Tepary beans to get their 15 minutes of fame.
- Medieval Italian wine was biodynamic.
Nibbles: Pacific genebank, IPBES report, New mangoes, British apples, Greek landraces, Fonio, Space seeds, Macadamia cryo
- New Zealand supports SPC regional crops and trees genebank in a big way.
- Some of those trees are wild species that contribute to food security, and more must be done to conserve them.
- Some trees are crops of course, like mangoes, and scientists are doing their bit for them in the Philippines.
- Wait, isn’t it too early for the usual BBC saving-the-apple story? Usually comes in the autumn.
- Who needs genebanks when you can inscribe landraces in a National Inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage.
- Maybe try it with fonio next?
- Or just send seeds into space?
- Maybe including macadamia, or is space not cold enough for them?
Brainfood: Bonds, Agrobiodiversity, Subsidies, Orphan crops, Extension, Biodiversity tourism, Green farming
- Impact investing in biodiversity conservation with bonds: An analysis of financial and environmental risk. Need to show ’em the money, and that ain’t easy.
- The benefits and trade-offs of agricultural diversity for food security in low- and middle-income countries: A review of existing knowledge and evidence. Agrobiodiversity is positively connected with food security in two thirds of cases. Here comes the money…
- Repurposing agricultural support: Creating food systems incentives to address climate change. Less money for subsidies and trade barriers, more money for R&D.
- Orphan Crops: A Best Fit for Dietary Enrichment and Diversification in Highly Deteriorated Marginal Environments. More money for R&D you say? Document the evidence that orphan crops are good for you, link it to policy and communicate it to consumers.
- Extension services can promote pasture restoration: Evidence from Brazil’s low carbon agriculture plan. If only there were more money for extension too, eh?
- Linking livelihood and biodiversity conservation in protected areas: Community based tourism development perspective from developing country. People around protected areas don’t see much money from tourists, but that’s better than nothing.
- From boutique to mainstream: Upscaling wildlife-friendly farming through consumer premiums. Consumers are willing to fork over extra money for greener food.
Nibbles: Gulf garden, Lettuce evaluation, Jordanian olive, Kenyan seeds, Hybrid animals, FAOSTAT news
- Qatari botanic garden is providing training in food security, and more. Good for them.
- The European Evaluation Network’s lettuce boffins have themselves a meeting. Pretty amazing this made it to FreshPlaza, and with that headline.
- The Jordan Times pretty much mangles what is a perfectly nice, though inevitably nuanced, story about the genetic depth of Jordan’s olives.
- In Kenya’s seed system, whatever is not forbidden in proposed new legislation…may not be enough.
- Conservation through hybridization.
- FAOSTAT now has a bit that gives you access to national agricultural census data. Which sounds quite important but give us a few days to check it.
Nibbles: Access to seeds indeces, Rare plants genebank, Maize and climate change, Bogota market
- So there’s an African Seed Access Index whose relationship with the Access to Seeds Index is unclear.
- The Pacific Northwest has a genebank called the Miller Seed Vault whose relationship with the National Laboratory for Genetic Resources Preservation in Fort Collins, Colorado is quite clear.
- The relationship between climate change and changes in crop distributions is becoming clearer, and more worrying.
- What is the relationship between huge markets such as Samper Mendoza in Bogota and plant conservation?