Agrobiodiversity is crops, livestock, foodways, microbes, pollinators, wild relatives …
Ah, but only confusingly, and to downplay their current usefulness:
Wild relatives of crops could be better suited to harsher climes, but efforts to collect and breed such crops are just beginning.
The rest of the article tells you why Africa needs GMOs.
Crop Science is publishing papers from the CGIAR Science Forum 2009. Lots of interesting stuff, including on biofortification and diet diversification, perennial favourites here of course. And all open access! Thanks, Jeff.
Ford Denison lays it on the line:
I would like to see independent evidence of the superiority of transgenic corn under drought. The only published data I’ve found comes from tests by Monsanto, the company that developed it. I will be discussing this topic in greater depth in my forthcoming book: “Darwinian agriculture: where does nature’s wisdom lie?”
Can’t wait, for the data and the book.
Some call it plant breeding, but really it’s just vegetable eugenics. I get to create an all-conquering master race of ocas which will go forth and occupy vegetable gardens up and down the land. Megalomania was never so cheap, entertaining and – legal. I’m nothing but a Dalek in dungarees.
Rhizowen tells us where he’s coming from.
The Field Museum joined Flickr Commons in April 2009, inviting the public to help describe a selection of our historic photographs.
And that includes some incredible photos from botanist J. Francis MacBride’s expeditions to Peru in 1922 and 1923. Like this one, for example.
There’s some agrobiodiversity in there. If you can help out with describing any of the photos, leave a comment on its Flickr page.