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.
Mapping food and drink
I think we can all agree that it is better for all concerned – from farmers to consumers – for there to be lots of different types of beer. Problem is, some of these beers will be hard to find, and that means that they might not last in the market. Fear not: the Beer Mapping Project will show you where to go for your favourite amber nectar, at least if you live in the US. Here’s an article about the man behind the project, and the same author has also done a review of other food mapping sites here.
Rice diversity
Chow.com, basically a recipes site, has a really nice feature on rice, the different types, the different processing methods, and of course the different ways of cooking it.
Pharaonic laxatives
I blogged some time ago about a new project at the University of Manchester to document Pharaoh’s herbal medicines, but there was not much detail in the press release I quoted at the time. Now there’s a much fuller article on Discovery. It seems that the ancient Egyptians were martyrs to constipation.