Wild relatives

Nibbles: FAOSTAT, Drought, Seeds, Helianthus, Coffee trade, CePaCT, Figs, Old rice and new pigeonpea, Navajo tea, Cattle diversity, Diabetes, Art, Aurochs, Cocks

FAO sets data free. About time.
Presentation on drought risk and preparedness around the world. Nice maps.
A Facebook for seeds?
The diversity of Jerusalem artichoke. In France.
Coffee certification 101.
Nice plug for SPC’s Centre for Pacific Crops and Trees.
The fig of choice in San Francisco.
Back to traditional rice varieties in India. But forward to new pigeonpea varieties in Malawi. Go figure.
Navajo tea. Would love to try it.
“The mixed (east-west) affiliation of Mongolian cattle parallels the mixed affiliation of Mongolians themselves.”
Lancet article mentions Lois Englberger and her Go Local work in the Pacific in context of diabetes epidemic in Asia-Pacific.
Edible art.
More on bringing back the aurochs. Does anyone really want one, though?
Great variety of rare and exotic poultry breeds. Temptation to pun smuttily averted, mostly.

Climate change to bring lemons in Kent. Now for the bad news.
Monitoring biodiversity in Africa and India.
More Free Air Concentration Enrichment (FACE) research facilities needed, say those who work there.
Ethnic vegetables? Yep, you heard me.
Non-Wood Forest Products and Plant Breeding newsletters are out. Subscribe already!
W.S. Merwin: poet and Guardian of Biodiversity.

Rethinking peanut genetic diversity. All you need is a new marker.
Saving the English hay meadow. Hey, there’s a few crop wild relatives in there, apart from anything else!
30,000 year-old fibres not flax after all?
Today’s modifier for “Green Revolution” is “old-fashioned.”
Maize evolution is a tale of chromosome doubling and subsequent divergence of the two sets.

Buy Haiti’s Francis mangoes!
The Muge dog was, in fact, a dog.
Looking at the grapevine in its center of origin.
Need to fence lavender populations in Tunisia to protect them.
More Mediterranean stuff. History of the mastic trade in an Aegean island.
Making “drunken rice” in Korea. Sign me up.
Nutella to come with warning label? Jeremy says: We don’t need no nanny state!
Bluish mozzarella balls confiscated. Jeremy says: Ok, maybe we do after all.
EU makes itself useful and protects bacon pig of choice, with built-in apple sauce to boot.
“…finding how the physical and chemical composition of different cowpea varieties influence human health, reduce obesity and prevent diseases like cancer, hypertension and heart related ailments.”

Bird people say: Critical migratory waterbird sites need urgent protection. Tomato and potato crop wild relative people say: What, only the critical ones? You’re lucky, mate!
Toffs everywhere start stocking up on caviar.
Tequila and cheese geographically indicated. Foie gras says: Been there, done that, got the t-shirt.
Uganda Government minister says yams cause cancer. Oh, come now, steady on.
Are Tomatoes Fruits or Vegetables? Asks mental_floss. Oh no, I’m not going there, says me.
“…where there is a market, the Maya will work to develop supply capability; where there is no market, traditional subsistence methods are better than the introductions.”
Building a better slash-and-burn agriculture.
Nice Asian greens. I’m hungry already.
Crop Composition Database gets facelift.