Tourism

Nibbles: Ireland, Plumpy’nut, Saola, Food heritage protection, Millet, Wild veggies, Brassica, UNMDGs, Ukraine

Celebrating the Irish Seed Savers Association celebrations. We had wanted to be there…
CAS-IP on how to “break” the Plumpy’nut patent.
Cattle wild relative seen for first time in 10 years. Well, by scientists anyway.
“Initiatives that merely codify cultural products without taking the social-organizational context into account risk becoming little more than ‘museums of production.'” Ouch.
Millet domestication pushed back in time.
Antioxidant properties of traditional wild Iberian leafy greens. Yes, I know, this medicalizes nutrition, but I thought it was interesting that these wild species are still used.
“…a trait of the diploid species, which apparently looks undesirable, might in fact be highly valuable for the improvement of amphidiploids…”
“Food? We don’t need no stinkin’ food,” say UN negotiators.
UK ambassador’s observations on agriculture in Ukraine. Love the contrast between 100 ha fields of sunflowers and the table groaning under home-grown fruit and vegetables.
In other news, the UK’s ambassador to Ukraine has a blog. And so do a number of others. Sorely tempted to subscribe to their RSS.

IITA set to expand its ability to provide the world with yam diversity.
“Agricultural biodiversity is essential for farmers as it places them in a better position to manage climate change.” Wait, what?
An exotic melon is found in Birmingham, UK. But can you make juice from its seeds?
James dissects the latest genome announcement: cacao. Ignore the press release, just read this.
Biotropica has a special issue on biodiversity. Even some agrobiodiversity.
The history of food consumption in the 20th century. Scary reading.
New Internationalist magazine has a special issue on seed saving! But only a couple of articles available online, alas.
Wonderful photos of the rice harvest from Flickr.
Mongolian cashmere can only get more expensive.
Australians have more to cope with than a back-stabbing prime minister, it seems. Their eucalypts are in trouble. Something to do with fire, maybe.

CIFOR has a blog!
Nice series of videos on eating weeds.
Video on Peru’s “Andean rodeo.” You heard me.
Africa needs drought-tolerant maize. Ok, fair enough, but here’s my question. Shouldn’t they have done this study before doing all that breeding? Oh, who knows, maybe they did.
“Biofortification will thus remain relevant to poor rural populations in the years to come, as their incomes will still be far too low to afford a more diversified diet.” What? Who says a diversified diet need be expensive?
Russia faces looming buckwheat crisis. At least the genetic resources are safe in the Vavilov Institute. Unless of course somebody decides to, I don’t know, build luxury villas there, or something.

Nepal’s malnutrition rate apparently the highest in world. But the Micronutrient Initiative is on it. But what about homegardens, I hear you ask. And rice biofortification?
The advice I’ve been waiting for all my life: better nutrition through alcohol.
The plight of Kenyan tea workers.
Harlem church helps Ethiopian coffee farmers.
Botanic gardens drop flowers, do food. About time too. And botanical art too.
Jeremy’s farro photos.
“Iconic” catfish in trouble due to Mekong dam. Everything is an icon these days. Something to do with post-modernism, I guess.
Seedbomb something today. You’ll feel better.
WTF is it with garlic in China?
EMBRAPA reaches out to Africa.
KARI scientists push Opuntia for livestock. Ok, but surely there are enough native desert plants in Kenya to be going on with? Well, maybe not.
Zimbabwe market turns to sun-dried vegetables. Wish I knew what umfushwa was, though.
The Rice-Ducks Integrated Farming System sounds like great fun.
Why the salmon thrives in Oregon: “Tribal people have practiced a natural, sustained-yield conservation since time immemorial and are taught to plan seven generations ahead.”

Book on history of plant breeding reviewed.
Rust never sleeps.
Ask not what next generation sequencing can do for you.
Long-term datasets in biodiversity research. Nothing about genetic diversity though. Bummer.
And genetic diversity is important, is it? Yep, it increases productivity, at least in Arabidopsis.
No evidence of adaptive evolution in plants. What? Surely some mistake? I’m serious. And don’t call me Shirley.
The latest from Worldwatch on African leafy veggies. Again, some links would have been nice.
And Worldwatch also interviews Gary Nabhan on Vavilov.
You can browse Tropicos specimens in Google Earth.
Using pepper to protect stored rice.
More evidence of the goodness of shade coffee.
The diversity of Bosnian apples.
Mammal plus bird species richness explains 72% of country-to-country variation in the number of human pathogens. Diversity begets diversity. But which way does the causality go?
Phytophthora infestans in Estonia: “…higher proportion of metalaxyl resistant isolates from large conventional farms than from small conventional farms or from organic farms.” Metalaxyl is a fungicide.