- Big Oil vs Big Corn. The Economist says End the ethanol tax.
- Grow edamame, young farmer.
- Agri experts call for a comprehensive food policy in Pakistan. Not gonna happen. There or anywhere else.
- But is this where it would start?
- Utterly confused by second-hand sources, I’m sending you straight to the horse’s mouth for information on Plant genetic resources and seeds: Community resilience in the face of change, a three week course in November 2013.
- Yeah, but will they teach you about Terralingua’s Vitality Index of Traditional Environmental Knowledge?
- CIMMYT doubles its haploids centrally now, at least in Africa.
- He coulda been a contender, but instead he breeds pigeons. Which is just as good, in my estimation.
- Photo essay on Sudan’s gum arabic industry.
- ILRI spell out the pros and cons of livestock. Always good to have the data.
- Who needs a national seed bank when you can have local ones like this one in Spain?
- Remember that draft SADC seed law RAFI didn’t like yesterday? Well, they’re not alone.
- Remember that Syngenta tomato that won that award yesterday? Well, now try these.
Nibbles: Property rights, Dryland crops, New tomato, CGIAR genebanks, Quinoa in US, Wasps and figs, Ancient New World agriculture, Allium CWR, SADC seed law, ESA, Coconut pollination
- Why tenure matters. And why it doesn’t.
- Book on alternative crops for dry areas. Not that alternative, settle down. And anyway, how do they do in mixtures?
- And the award for Best New Variety of the Year goes to…
- CGIAR Consortium hires private sector biotech expert to oversee genebanks et al.
- US set to grow more quinoa. Shame on you, taking the bread out of the mouths of Andean peasants!
- Save our figs!
- Malanga and cassava important on Mayan menu. And maize maybe not so much on Pueblan one as thought.
- New onion wild relative spotted in Central Asia.
- GRAIN objects to new one-size-fits-all SADC seed law.
- Ecological Society of America discovers agriculture.
- Indian institute trains first female coconut pollinators.
Brainfood: Farming systems, Connectivity, Neolithic China, Paleolithic China, Wheat genomes, Litter domestication, Arabian relatives, Pepper composition, GMOs vs agrobiodiversity
- Using biodiversity to link agricultural productivity with environmental quality: Results from three field experiments in Iowa. Diversify any way you can. Even in Iowa.
- Improving conservation planning for semi-natural grasslands: Integrating connectivity into agri-environment schemes. Connect any way you can. Even in Europe.
- Early millet use in northern China. Very early. Starch grains push broomcorn millet use in China back 1,000 years, and foxtail millet 2,000.
- Paleolithic human exploitation of plant foods during the last glacial maximum in North China. And ten thousand years before millets, there were wild grasses, roots, tubers and gourds.
- Draft genome of the wheat A-genome progenitor Triticum urartu. Can be used to find agronomically important genes. But settle down, it’s only one of the 3 wheat genomes, after all.
- Aegilops tauschii draft genome sequence reveals a gene repertoire for wheat adaptation. Not so fast, here comes the D genome too…
- Side-effects of plant domestication: ecosystem impacts of changes in litter quality. Domestication led to higher quality, more easily decomposed litter.
- Crop wild relatives from the Arabian Peninsula. 400 of them.
- Compositional Characterization of Native Peruvian Chili Peppers (Capsicum spp.). There’s much variation, but not that much.
- Feeding the world: genetically modified crops versus agricultural biodiversity. Guess which one is drinking the other’s milkshake. And a similar blast from the past.
Nibbles: Cucurbits, Climate change cuisine, Passover pulses, Quinoa grant, Sago network
- The botanist in the kitchen takes on the diversity of squashes. And pumpkins. And some gourds. So we don’t have to.
- Aren’t you glad we’re here to tell you that “Potato Beans” are Apios americana? Why do we even link to this stuff?
- Split peas split Jewish communities. Because it allows us to have fun.
- Like this: USDA grant condemns Bolivian peasants to eternal poverty but better nutrition.
- I see your allegedly neglected crop and raise you a really neglected one.
Nibbles: Fruit, Sheep, Cashews, Sugar
- Fruit and veg make people happier shock.
- Grazing sheep on fallow makes soils better (but not as good as ploughing).
- Zambian cashew nut farmers make plans for the future.
- US sugar support policies make no sense whatsoever.