- Sometimes all it takes is a goat.
- Or a camel.
- I wonder how either would figure into a metric for a sustainable diet. Wonder if these people will be interested in those metrics.
- Cassava figures in lots of different ways.
- No word on whether carbon dioxide will affect its nutrient content the way it does with other crops.
- Who cares, it’s yield we’re after. Well, that’s in trouble too in some parts of Africa.
- That’s the only way those African seed start-ups are going to survive.
- Yeah, but disease resistance is important, Shirley. PlantVillage gets a blog.
- And weeds? Don’t forget the weeds. Although of course some of them you can eat. Put that in your metrics.
- Meanwhile, France starts to re-wild. Would love to see some wild relatives in the Bois du Boulogne. Livestock wild relatives, not your crazy cousin on his gap year.
- And now we can figure out what climate change might do to them. I guess this thing might work for European animals. Says here it works for Australian trees.
- Speaking of France, garlic is quintessentially French, isn’t it? Well, maybe, but it’s also very Korean, in its black, cured form.
Brainfood: Grasspea genomics, Eggplant genomics, Snakegourd hybrids, Bean drought resistance, Wild pear diversity, CNN 51 deconstructed, Sicilian grape diversity, Cash in the Usambaras, Kenyan sorghum diversity, Chinese sesame diversity, Chinese millet breeding
- Large-scale microsatellite development in grasspea (Lathyrus sativus L.), an orphan legume of the arid areas. Let the Grasspea Revolution begin.
- High resolution map of eggplant (Solanum melongena) reveals extensive chromosome rearrangement in domesticated members of the Solanaceae. Let the Eggplant Revolution begin.
- Genetic variability in snakegourd (Tricosanthes cucurminata). The Hybrid Snakegourd Revolution is one I’d really like to see.
- Differentially Expressed Genes during Flowering and Grain Filling in Common Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) Grown under Drought Stress Conditions. We know the drought resistance genes.
- Chloroplast DNA-based genetic diversity and phylogeography of Pyrus betulaefolia (Rosaceae) in Northern China. 3 particularly diverse populations, probably refugia, plus 3 others, identified for conservation.
- Genetic Characterization of the Cacao Cultivar CCN 51: Its Impact and Significance on Global Cacao Improvement and Production. It’s high yielding, resistant to lots of stuff, variable, and an important breeding resource. But it tastes like shit.
- Genotyping of Sicilian grapevine germplasm resources (V. vinifera L.) and their relationships with Sangiovese. Wait, Sangiovese was originally from Sicily?
- Allanblackia, butterflies and cardamom: sustaining livelihoods alongside biodiversity conservation on the forest–agroforestry interface in the East Usambara Mountains, Tanzania. My money is on the butterflies.
- Influence of Ethnolinguistic Diversity on the Sorghum Genetic Patterns in Subsistence Farming Systems in Eastern Kenya. Pattern of sorghum diversity correlates with language groups, not morphology. Improved varieties get given local names and slowly merge with landraces.
- Genetic analysis and molecular characterization of Chinese sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) cultivars using Insertion-Deletion (InDel) and Simple Sequence Repeat (SSR) markers. Improved varieties have narrower genetic base than landraces. Move along there, nothing to see here.
- Innovation of the New Superior Quality Foxtail Millet [Setaria italica (L.) P.Beauv] Variety-Jigu32 with Characteristics of Stress Resistance, Stable and High Yield and Its Physiological Mechanism. This looks like a really dodgy journal. Apologies to them if they’re not, but those ads at the bottom are weird. Anyway, this paper seems to describe the canonical genebank success story: assemble a diverse germplasm collection, evaluate the hell out of it, pick the best, fiddle with them, evaluate the hell out of the results, end up with something better than you started with. Maybe those sesame breeders could learn something…
Nibbles: Global plant cover, Veggies in Africa, Ancient middens, Raspberry fruit colour, Citrus greening, Jordan biodiversity, US nutrition, Subsidies, Seed and voucher fair, Bean diversity, Grape mildew fight
- GIS geeks sort out land cover at last.
- Role of vegetables in combating malnutrition in Africa. Author offers pdf of paper.
- Ancient native American middens just keep on giving.
- Raspberry colour good predictor of various fruit post-harvest characteristics. Good short-cut for breeders.
- Getting to the root of citrus greening. Scary disease.
- Freaky stuff about using frog eggs to figure out the genetics of grapevine’s susceptibility to another scary disease.
- Video of our friend Dr Nigel Maxted on Jordan’s socioeconomically important plants.
- Physician, heal thyself. Indian tells USAID to take care of its own food insecurity.
- How to create subsidies that promote biodiversity, in a model, which is probably highly unrealistic.
- Very realistic notes from a seed and voucher fair in Malawi.
- And anecdotes on the benefits of bean diversity in Uganda.
Ecuador puts its money where its chocolate is
Tweets emerging from the workshop on Climate Change and the Cocoa Industry: Leveraging Science and Technology for Sustainability at the Belfer Center last night suggest that there’s something of a revolution brewing in cacao research:
#Ecuador to create world's first #cocoa and #chocolate university http://t.co/fUiNXbAFoU http://t.co/lwMp74Kewh
— Calestous Juma (@calestous) April 30, 2014
Theobroma, wild and cultivated, has played and important part in the country’s history and economic development. And the diversity of the crop has been said to be threatened, despite largish collections. So it probably does make financial sense to invest in cacao research. The devil will be in the details. One to watch.
Nibbles: Extreme aquaculture, GMO ver. 2.0, Wheat genebank, Infrared coffee spectroscopy, Farmer photos, Land grab, Reindeer herder photos, Mapping blight, Food security software, Fragaria moschata
- Farming cobia off Panama. Look it up.
- Gene editing is the future. But is it GM?
- More on the CIMMYT genebank from the Australian press. Get a room already.
- Fancy machine can tell fancy Yemeni coffee from lesser stuff. No, not DNA. Producers of lesser stuff unavailable for comment.
- Some of them may end up being photographed by National Geographic though.
- Before being forced off their land.
- Different sort of land grab in the Gran Chaco. Pity those poor wild Arachis. And here’s a meta-analysis of the drivers of the problem.
- Feeling left out, herders get fancy photos too.
- “The data indicates a broad distribution of this clone from Spain to Russia and Scotland to Cypress.” Good grief. Potato blight, if you’re still interested.
- From household survey data to food security assessment: The software.
- The bubbleberry is increasingly a thing.