The World Vegetable Center rounds up its work on tomatoes in a recent feature. A new cherry tomato released in Taiwan promises three to five times more beta-carotene than currently available varieties. But, I wonder, finger ever on the pulse, is it the right sort of beta-carotene? Is it the trans form or the cis form, so much more readily absorbed? Either way, the new tomatoes are more than merely sources of vitamin A precursors. They are also higher in citric acid and ascorbic acid (vitamin C), and the higher levels of vitamin C make more iron available when the tomatoes are cooked with mung beans.
Non-wood forest products information
You may remember I blogged recently about a couple of FAO news resources, on plant breeding and on biotechnology. I just want to mention today a third: FAO’s Non-Wood Forest Products Digest, the focus of which is pretty self-explanatory. You can subscribe to it here((FAO’s link is broken.)) (there does not seem to be an RSS feed), thereby joining 1300 other people around the world. The website also has past issues. It comes around by email a couple of times a month, and it has the introductory text of articles, announcements etc., with links to the full pieces.
CABI blogs seed storage
“Hand picked…and carefully sorted” is where CABI’s content specialists go to blog. I came across it only when they linked to our water hyacinth story of a couple of weeks back, but it looks like it’s been going since November last year at least. Exploring the plant sciences stuff, I came across two pieces on seed conservation which make an interesting juxtaposition: this entry on indigenous methods of seed conservation in Bangladesh, which includes a CABI video, and this on the Svalbard International Seed Vault. Entries often have links to CABI publications and there is an RSS feed. Really great stuff.
Audible Darwin
It is easy to forget sometimes that The Origin of Species actually starts with a lengthy discussion of genetic diversity in crops, ornamentals, livestock and pets, although of course Darwin doesn’t call it that. He calls it “variation under domestication,” and you can now hear his seminal words, by downloading 24 hours’ worth of audio files from here. There’s a also a link to an e-text of the book.
(Useless) friends in high places
No less a gardener than Prince Charles (of England) does not like the EU seed marketing legislation, and admits that he could be considered a criminal for saving and distributing unregistered varieties. I have not seen any comments from him on the proposals for the future. But his opinion carries not the slightest bit of weight with the regulators, I promise. I wonder whether he has seen my own modest proposal? Probably not.