Posts

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Farmers spread with farming

I was going to attempt to read and comment on a recent paper in PLOS Biology myself, but fortunately smarter people than me, who understand the subject better, got there first. So all I need to do is point you to Razib Khan’s explanation of how recent DNA analyses confirm “tentatively” the idea that farming didn’t spread into Europe as a result of people imitating their neighbours. Instead, the DNA suggests that spread was:

[A] classic demic diffusion process. This is basically a very simple model whereby farmers with larger population growth rates expand into the “space” of hunter-gatherers.

Now to do the same with their crops and livestock?

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Tools for non-fools

We often prattle blithely about how exciting this and that might be if only we could gather the data by getting people to do this or that with their mobile phones. Of course, neither of us has any idea what that might entail in real life. Nor do we intend to find out. You, however, may be different, and crying out for the right tools to do the job. Here, then, thanks to a work colleague, are two important documents. An introduction to collecting data from mobile phones, and the associated matrix comparing different tools.

So off you go. And let us know how you get on.

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Yes, Nagoya backs ITPGRFA, kinda sorta

The Q&A on the Nagoya Protocol with UNEP expert Balakrishna Pisupati has only elicited three questions so far, but at least Dr Pisupati seems to agree with Bioversity’s Michael Halewood on what the Protocol means for the ITPGRFA:

This agreement is to be read in support of the ITPGRFA. Parties to the CBD had long discussions on the relationship between this Protocol and the ITPGRFA and came to the conclusion that it will not run counter to the objectives or scope of the ITPGRFA and will be complimenting the provisions under the ITPGRFA.

Phew!

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Kebab and apple strudel

A speaker at the International Scientific Symposium Biodiversity and Sustainable Diets alerted me to the existence of the EuroFIR (European Food Information Resource) project.

EuroFIR aims to provide the first comprehensive pan-European food information resource, using state-of-the-art database linking, to allow effective management, updating, extending and comparability.

Sounds pretty dry, but the stuff on traditional and ethnic foods is actually rather fun.