Month: April 2011

April 6, 2011April 6, 2011

More on the orange sweet potato story

The author of the orange-fleshed sweet potato paper I talked about a couple of days ago has kindly informed me that the answer to the question I posed is that the impact of the dissemination of these new varieties in Uganda has indeed been measured, but just hasn’t been published yet. There was apparently a big multidisciplinary study in 2007-2009 both in Uganda and Mozambique, and the results are due to come out in the near future. Good to hear, and many thanks, Robert. In the meantime, we have the following snippet from an IFPRI publication to whet our collective, er, appetite.

April 6, 2011April 6, 2011

Nibbles: Lupine, Methane, Food crisis, Nutritionists, Carrots, Poi, Barhal, Mung bean, Invasives, European bison, Mango

Saving the scrub lupine. Well, it’s a crop wild relative of sorts.
Dietary approaches to reduction of belching. No, not less beer and peanuts in front of the TV.
“Governments and institutions should strongly promote new agricultural technologies suitable for smallholders through increased investment in crop breeding and livestock research.” That would be IFPRI on the actions needed to prevent recurring food crises. Hope that includes supporting the genebanks.
“Can’t nutritionists make up their minds? They keep changing things!” Nuff said.
Carrots are exotic? In Canada? Yes indeedy.
Rachel dissects the cost of proper poi in Hawaii.
Behold Barhal, relative of breadfruit.
High yielding mung-bean repatriated to Somalia. Genebanks protect and serve?
Do your bit for conservation, eat an invasive. Or, perhaps, a bison?
Bad news for Indian mangoes. What I want to know is whether there are any varieties that are doing really well.
Mediterranean forests going up in smoke. Bad for the crop wild relatives in them too, no doubt

April 6, 2011

To Serve and Conserve

That’s the title of the European Plant Genetic Resources Conference 2011, organized by Eucarpia, and on right now in Wageningen. Are you there? Can you tell us about it? We would particularly like to know the answer to the question “Whither genebanks?” asked by our old mate Geoff Hawtin. Oh, and here’s a note for the organizers: our blogging and twittering services come quite cheap.

April 6, 2011April 6, 2011

The VIR Department of Biotechnology, Pushkin

Tatjana Gavrilenko and her potato collection

Tatjana Gavrilenko and the slow growth chamber

The VIR Department of Biotechnology, Pushkin, a set on Flickr.

You may remember a post a few months back at Vaviblog describing a paper on the Vavilov’s Institute’s potato collection. I recently had the pleasure of meeting one of the authors, Dr Tatjana Gavrilenko, for the first time, and in her natural habitat to boot. Here are the results.

April 5, 2011April 5, 2011

Behold, the coconut!

Myths and legends surrounding the origins of food are, not surprisingly, very common. Here’s a new one on me: according to one story, deftly told by Roland Bourdeix on one of his blogs, the island of Niue — the Rock of Polynesia — owes its name to two very special varieties of coconut. But don’t take my word for it; read Roland’s post.

Are there other places named specifically for foods? And is there some central repository of myths and legends that involve agriculture and food? I don’t know of one.