- Effects of Introducing Threatened Falcons into Vineyards on Abundance of Passeriformes and Bird Damage to Grapes. Potential savings of US$234/ha for Sauvignon Blanc, more for Pinot Noir.
- Genetic characterization and gene flow in different geographical-distance neighbouring natural populations of wild soybean (Glycine soja Sieb. & Zucc.) and implications for protection from GM soybeans. There is a small amount of outcrossing, which decreases with distance. GM crops should be grown far from wild populations, certainly more than 1.5km. And we can work out better ways to collect for ex situ conservation.
- Phylogenetic relationships, interspecific hybridization and origin of some rare characters of wild soybean in the subgenus Glycine soja in China. Intermediate forms are closer to the wild than the cultivated species.
- Mitochondrial genomes from modern horses reveal the major haplogroups that underwent domestication. A diversity of maternal lines were domesticated about 150,000 years ago, leading to about 18 modern haplogroups. One of them is only found in the only remaining wild horse, E. przewalskii.
How they make cheese
This Sunday, an estimated 58 percent of Americans will order pizza for Super Bowl parties around the country. To celebrate Game Day classics like pizza, cheese dips and nachos, we went to Wisconsin — the American dairyland that produces 35 percent of the country’s cheese — to find out the chemistry behind cheesemaking.
The “we” in this case is the American Chemical Society, and having been to the University of Wisconsin and sampled the delights of the Babcock Hall experimental ice-cream shop, I was anxious to see the ACS video. Alas, it is as dull as factory cheese. And in light of that “58% will order pizza” statistic, I wish instead the ACS — or the University of Wisconsin-Madison — had investigated the whole business of analog, imitation substitute cheese which, and I’m guessing here, probably feature prominently, and possibly exclusively, on 98.2% of the pizzas those 58% of Americans are going to order.
Mapping America
So there I was Scooping away, and what should turn up among the stuff I follow, and almost side by side on the screen to boot? Well, this map of obesity rates and farmer markets in the USA:
And, I kid you not, this map of food insecurity in, you guessed it, the USA.
Eyeballing does suggest a certain association between obesity and food insecurity, doesn’t it? Talk about the double burden of malnutrition. Oh the fun one could have mixing and matching such maps, and the no doubt dozens of others that also exist out there, documenting the geographic distribution of McDonald’s, organic farms, drunkenness, gyms, pet ownership, house prices, fizzy drink consumption, weed busts…
Another photograph of Erna Bennett surfaces
Thanks to Helmut Knüpffer for sending in a scan of the Plant Introduction Newsletter No. 22 (July 1969), featuring a short report about the “FAO Panel of Experts on Plant Exploration and Introduction”. This includes a photograph of the eminent participants, one of whom is Erna Bennett (top left), who died a few weeks back.
How to react to emergencies
From early 2000, various agencies and individuals involved in livestock relief work began to question the quality and professionalism of their interventions.
Wow, thanks for sharing. Anyway, out of that crisis of self-esteem was LEGS born, the Livestock Emergency Guidelines and Standards. It’s not immediately clear to me after a brief browse of the website to what extent agrobiodiversity considerations come into these standards and guidelines, but I’ll explore some more and get back to you. Anyone out there aware of a similarly formalized initiative for seeds? It’s not as if guidelines for seed interventions are not needed. But they may be there already for all I know, embedded in the WFP and FAO seed relief playbooks.
LATER: And indeed they are. Good to know. Thanks to Tom Osborn from FAO.