Beware of the “X doesn’t need A, it needs B” snowclone. For example: “Africa doesn’t need a green revolution. It needs agroecology.” Because it invariably turns out that what X really needs is both A and B.
Agrobiodiversity in Eden
I’ve mentioned before that — contrary to my original expectation — the Eden Project does try to get to grips with the domesticated side of plant biodiversity. The latest celebration of agricultural biodiversity down in Cornwall is cider-pressing. But you can also see bananas in the Crops That Feed the World exhibit, and sweet potatoes in the Global Garden, an allotment inspired by cultures around the world.
Hidden and unfamiliar agrobiodiversity
African cane rats infested with maggots, African yams (dioscorea), Andean potatoes, Bangladeshi cucurbit plants, bush meat, cherimoya fruit, curry leaves (murraya), dried orange peels, fresh eggs, giant African snail, impala skull cap, jackfruit seeds, June plum, kola nuts, mango, okra, passion fruit, pig nose, pig mouths, pork, raw poultry (chicken), South American pig head, South American tree tomatoes, South Asian lime infected with citrus canker, sugar cane (poaceae), uncooked meats, unidentified sub tropical plant in soil.
Gotta love any photograph with such a caption. See more.
Animal Breeding and Genomics newsletter out
The newsletter produced by the Animal Breeding and Genomics Centre (ABGC), a joint venture of Wageningen UR Livestock Research and Wageningen University, is unfortunately not available as an RSS feed, but I think it may well be worth subscribing to via email. The latest edition, for example, gives an update on the Dutch Heritage Sheep project, which points out that “[s]pecific equipment for semen collection was prepared in order to get the ram to mount a ewe in heat” and includes a helpful photograph.
A story of agrobiodiversity and agglomeration from Scotland
Dundee was Juteopolis? Who knew.