- Four barriers to the global understanding of biodiversity conservation: wealth, language, geographical location and security. Probably not a bad list for agricultural biodiversity either.
- SNP genotyping in melons: genetic variation, population structure, and linkage disequilibrium. Two main population, 5 sub-populations, no surprises. Oh hum.
- Turnip Mosaic Potyvirus Probably First Spread to Eurasian Brassica Crops from Wild Orchids about 1000 Years Ago. Which corresponds to the expansion of agriculture in Europe as a result of a warming phase.
- The Prey Pathway: A Regional History of Cattle (Bos taurus) and Pig (Sus scrofa) Domestication in the Northern Jordan Valley, Israel. Domestication in 8th millennium, preceded by overhunting. And all figured out without recourse to DNA.
- The Effects of Isolation and Natural Park Coverage for Landrace In situ Conservation: An Approach from the Montseny Mountains (NE Spain). Do farmers in parks conserve landraces because they are isolated, or because they are in parks? Both, it seems.
- Global food demand and the sustainable intensification of agriculture. Doubling in food demand from 2005 to 2050 predicted. Current trends of intensification in rich countries and expansion in not-so-rich bad, moderate intensification everywhere good.
- Postglacial recolonization history of the European crabapple (Malus sylvestris Mill.), a wild contributor to the domesticated apple. Differentiation in 3 separate glacial refugia, then expansion and admixture at boundaries.
- Testing Surrogacy Assumptions: Can Threatened and Endangered Plants Be Grouped by Biological Similarity and Abundances? No.
- Characterization of Capsicum annuum Genetic Diversity and Population Structure Based on Parallel Polymorphism Discovery with a 30K Unigene Pepper GeneChip. The hot ones are more diverse.
- Agronomical use as baby leaf salad of Silene vulgaris based on morphological, biochemical and molecular traits. Some populations are nicer than others.
- Patterns of contemporary gene flow suggest low functional connectivity of grasslands in a fragmented agricultural landscape. When restoring a species at a site, it is better if the new population is near a large existing population.
- Using choice experiments to understand public demand for the conservation of nature: A case study in a protected area of Chile. Visitors willing to pay $2-9 per visit, depending on the ecosystem service provided, which didn’t alas include CWRs.
- Y chromosome analysis of dingoes and Southeast Asian village dogs suggests a Neolithic continental expansion from Southeast Asia followed by multiple Austronesian dispersals. Dogs arose independently in SE Asia and displaced older lineages to the N and W.
- More Stable Productivity of Semi Natural Grasslands than Sown Pastures in a Seasonally Dry Climate. Over the course of a year that is, presumably due to species diversity. And the odd tree helps towards the end of the dry season. Which is why ICRAF is all over it.
Wild sunflower speciation talk…and more
Talks from #PAGXXI workshop on speciation genomics now available online https://t.co/C1DTh1yi
— Prof Richard Buggs (@RJABuggs) February 15, 2013
Which is particularly cool for us here because it includes that of Rose Andrew of the Rieseberg Lab at the University of British Columbia on “The Genomic and Geographic Landscapes of Sunflower Speciation: The Transition from Local Adaptation.” More from PAGXXI.
LATER: Plus there’s the whole Genomics of Genebanks thing too.
Bolivia: Crazy for Quinoa
The International Fund for Agricultural Development, long a supporter of projects to make use of neglected and underutilized species, has released a little video film celebrating quinoa.
Maybe the quinoa story isn’t that complicated after all?
Access to information
Some people have reported trouble accessing all the great stories at the Official Newsletter of Bioversity International — Asia, Pacific and Oceania Regional Office.
The big question: is it you, or is it them?
[poll id=”8″]
Thanks for voting.
LATER: Thanks, Bioversity!
@AgroBioDiverse Sorry that you are having continuing problems. We have added a PDF link to the newsletter on this page. http://t.co/ZTNWRFtQ
— Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT (@BiovIntCIAT_eng) February 14, 2013
What’s that got to do with the price of food?
The various food price indices seem to offer a simple way to gauge the price of food. High index price means people have to pay more for food, right? And beastly speculators create price spikes, right? Up to a point, Lord Copper. I confess, I’ve been guilty of jumping to the first conclusion and of rubbishing the second. But my knowledge is third-hand at best. So I’m happy to point you to a thoughtful analysis on the always interesting Resources Research website.
Makanaka rakes over the FAO Food Price Index and the same organisation’s Agricultural Market Information System, and discovers that they paint rather different pictures. He also explains why that should be so and, more trenchantly, that because many of the components of both reports are averages of indices of yet more averages of global trade numbers, they really don’t carry much value for the vast majority of people who grow and eat food. As for speculators, while I still don’t believe they cause price spikes, I’m fascinated by this:
Why the international trade and export quotations numbers dominate is revealed, in a roundabout way, by a regular paragraph in the AMIS Market Monitor. The monthly pronouncement has this to say about investment flows (that is, money chasing foodgrain), for 2013 February: “Managed money was a significant seller of wheat, maize and soybeans as futures prices attained early January lows prior to USDA stocks report”. Pay attention to that term, ‘managed money’, which means funds run by banks and big investment agencies. “Managed money reversed its position in wheat from long (bullish) to short (bearish) but maintains long positions in maize and soybeans.” Now the confusion should clear somewhat. The index helps traders and exchanges deal better with volumes of grain (and dairy and meat and edible oil). AMIS helps them with a great deal more sophistication.
Got that? Investors think the price of wheat is coming down, while that of maize and soybeans is going up. No word on horsemeat.