Vegetables

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?

The future of rice science. It says here.
Is Holistic Management the SRI of livestock?
Another online botanical database to contend with. Eventually.
NASA maps poleward vegetation shift. I suspect the Progressive Cattleman will be onto that in a flash. See what I did there?
More fancy aerial science, this time at the service of phenotyping. And more of the same.
Ghana’s agricultural research system deconstructed. Would have been nice to mention the genebank.
African food, in Africa and America. And in audio.
Propagating tropical trees for fun and profit.
The epigenetics of maternal nutrition, courtesy of USDA.
Liberians showered in seeds.
Kim, are you listening? This one’s for you.
IPK reaches out to India.

Things are slim today, mostly only tangentially related to agricultural biodiversity. But we hate to disappoint…

The ever-influential Lancet has published a series on non-communicable diseases (many of which are associated with dietary diversity). Marion Nestle has the details.
The USDA’s conservation program is fighting a losing battle against high corn prices, and everybody suffers (except corn farmers).
Sell wheat? Prices are high, but forecasts are good.
Vegscape! If you need a “state-of-the-art, satellite-based U.S. crop condition vegetation assessment and monitoring service”.
Now this really is agrobiodiverse: A high definition film on seed saving that needs your support.
This one too: women and bambara groundnut.

Geographic patterns in epigenomic variation. Yeah, but in Arabidopsis.
A global strategy for conservation. Yeah, but for cacao.
That “Diversifying Food and Diets — Using Agricultural Biodiversity to Improve Nutrition and Health” book? You’ll be able to get chapters and case studies from a dedicated website nine months after publication.
Not to be outdone, the Ethiopian Institute of Agriculture Research lets you download “Defining Moments in the Ethiopian Seed System.”
New Agriculturist fillets out some contributions to a recent Economist conference on malnutrition.
The Brassica research community gets together in the UK. Not many people hurt.

That old perennial perennial grains featured in a new online magazine.
@gr0b10d1v3r$1ty: Password to a More Secure Agriculture. See what Fabrice did there?
Five games that will revolutionise your understanding of agricultural economics. No, really. We particularly like Bohnanza.
The botanist in the kitchen looks at leeks; be ready for St David’s Day 2014.
Most Ancient Romans Ate Like Animals. Prize for most obnoxious headline about NUS?
Looking forward to BBC R4 on insectivory next week.
Bangladesh encouraging agricultural diversification.
A plague of locusts, just in time for Passover.
Daily Kos does a big number on women in agriculture. Worth a bookmark.
And Kew does a number on castor oil seeds. Breaking Bad fans will want to read it.
We haven’t linked to a genome study for ages, so let’s hear it for bamboo.
One of a whole lot of presentations from the recent Bio-innovate conference in Ethiopia, courtesy of ILRI.