Plantains are versatile, nutritionally very important in various parts of the world, and often delicious. But they tend to get a bad press, because what’s the point of a banana — well, any fruit, really — that’s not sweet, right? Here’s a case in point: travel editor goes to Dominican Republic and disses national dish. Pass the patacones!
Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog
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Fresh Nibbles: February 11, 2012
: <- click to comment- I’ve long thought that getting rid of the Aswan High Dam would be the best way Egypt could improve its food security.
- New video from Biofortified, how to pollinate carrots and beets.
- Hey Lawyers; time to study the commons! Including genetic resources? h/t capri.
- Today’s gene banks will save the world story is about cashews.
- Today’s rich world saving heritage varieties story is from Quebec.
- Today’s old stories given new legs story is about paying farmers for ecosystem services.
- Wired magazine discovers pastured poultry. Can the rest of the world be far behind?
- Proposal for a conference session on prehistoric globalisation of food. I’d be there if I could.
- And more from the Archaeobotanist, another journal special issue on Near Eastern domestication.
- CCAFS highlights (and links to) ICRAF report on climate change options for Southeast Asian Farmers
- Danforth Center depicts evolution of plant science, devaluing the word inforgraphic [sic] beyond repair.
- Viking beer. Sköl, or something.
Nibbles Archive: All that condensed goodness.
And easy access to the Brainfood Archive.
Featured Comment:
SLNRao regrets the mistakes of the past, but sees a bright future ahead for grasspea, and its relatives:
Looking at the likely benefits of Homoarginine on the cardiovasculature and emerging concepts on ODAP itself I am of the firm belief that grass pea in coming years will turn into a rich man’s pulse.
- February 11, 2012: Kenneth Welles commented on Giant swamp taro analyzed
- February 9, 2012: SLNRao commented on Debating the future of grasspea breeding
- February 8, 2012: Clare Trivedi commented on Nibbles: Mike Jackson blog, Philippines genebank fire, Ancient garden, USA maps, Horse domestication, Gnats, Livestock training, Chocolate, Epigenetics, Indian nutritional security, Kew fund, GM bananas, Reconciling databases
- February 7, 2012: Ola Westengen commented on Cotton doyen passes away
- February 7, 2012: Jacob commented on Nibbles: Musa taxonomy kerfuffle, Vouchers, Foodies, Aroid roundup, MAS is ok, Sierra Leone conservation
- February 7, 2012: David commented on Cotton doyen passes away
- February 6, 2012: Dave Wood commented on Nibbles: Mike Jackson blog, Philippines genebank fire, Ancient garden, USA maps, Horse domestication, Gnats, Livestock training, Chocolate, Epigenetics, Indian nutritional security, Kew fund, GM bananas, Reconciling databases
- February 6, 2012: Dave Wood commented on Consolidation in the seed industry
- February 6, 2012: Dirk Enneking commented on Consolidation in the seed industry
- February 4, 2012: Mark Sieffert commented on How they make cheese
- New Plant Hardiness Zone Map ready for prime time
- How to solve global hunger and malnutrition
- Online Biodiversity Heritage Library has agrobiodiversity too
- Next-generation sequencing and genebanks: a teaser
- Cotton doyen passes away
- Kermit sings the malnutrition blues
- Consolidation in the seed industry
- Brainfood: Falcons, Wild soybean squared, Horse domestication
- How they make cheese
- Mapping America
- Germplasm documentation is a two way street
- How grafting a plum tree led to an obsession
- Using data to inform nutrition security policy
- The quinoa story: it’s complicated
- Forests at your service: lessons from Kibale
- Breadfruit roundup
- Not all Andean tubers are potatoes
- Yemen spatial data online, sort of
- CGIAR research on Cassava Brown Streak Disease
- Ground-truthing SPAM
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Here’s to narrow-mindedness.
One thing: what is a plantain? Believe me, I’ve asked all the top bananas I can, and not one of them has been able to give me a definition that would allow me to decide whether an item is a banana or a plantain. And this — “If it looks like a banana but is treated like a potato, it must be a plantain” — from that article is simply laughable.
I’ve always figured that it’s a question of genome composition: if it’s got a B genome or two thrown in there it’s a plantain, if it’s all A genomes, then it’s a banana.
Not that I got that anywhere official…I think it’s just the definition I made up for myself, but it generally seems to hold. Not that it’s necessarily easy to use when you’re standing in a market or looking at plantation of them.