Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog
Agrobiodiversity is crops, livestock, foodways, microbes, pollinators, wild relatives …
We’ve mostly (though not entirely) steered clear of the Xylella crisis in Italy, because it all seems to futile. I was in Puglia earlier this summer and it was heartbreaking to see entire olive groves dead and dying, and for what? Because of fear and mistrust all around, and an absolute absence of any kind …
The latest on the very troubling Xylella outbreak in olives is that you can spot infestation from the air before it’s obvious on the ground. The new research, published in the journal Nature Plants, demonstrates the first way to spot infected trees months before signs are visible to farmers. The scientists analysed more than 7,000 …
BTW, if you want to see what that “olive plague” we blogged about a few days ago looks like, here’s a despatch from the front lines by our intrepid photojournalist on the spot, Layla. Incidentally, my attention has coincidentally recently been drawn to the Bioresources For Oliviculture (BeFOre) project (emphasis added): The project aims at …
In case you were wondering, the latest on the “olive plague” (Xylella fastidiosa) is that it’s spreading through the so-called containment areas. Oh joy. It’s apparently all the fault of the “authorities,” according to a new audit of the control efforts, reported in Nature. The commission’s audit, published on 31 May, includes a litany of …
Donner and Blitzen — reindeer domestication Crop wild relative to the rescue, eventually, maybe. Wild olives uninfected by Xylella. Open source seeds, a roundup.