Nibbles: Archaeocuisine, Ag-fab, Onion shortage, Healthy sorghum, Organic soybeans, Tropaeolum, Fish in rice

The Silk Road Gourmet talks about Reconstructing Cuisines And Recipes From The Ancient World.
Colin Tudge splutters about The Founding Fables of Industrialised Agriculture.
India’s ongoing onion crisis still a vale of tears.
But India’s jowar (sorghum) still offers superficial health benefits.
You know how all the US soybeans are being exported to China? Think again.
How the nasturtium got its spur; not a just-so-story.
California discovers the productive miracle of fish in rice paddies.

A paean to diverse diets is just what we all need.
And another one, from the MIT Technology Review of all places.
Menawhile, there’s only one reference to dietary diversity in the World Bank’s investment framework for nutrition.
Maybe you have to quantify that diversity before you can save it? Now where have I heard that before?
Meanwhile, Europe reports on biodiversity-friendly farming practices. Does that include the biodiversity of the actual crops? Perhaps surprisingly, yes!
You want biodiversity-friendly farming practices? Talk to Indigenous people. The Committee on World Food Security (CFS) has launched an e-consultation on “Preserving, strengthening and promoting Indigenous Peoples’ food and knowledge systems and traditional practices for sustainable food systems.”
There’s diversity in asparagus too.
Genebanks can help with those biodiversity-friendly practices, diverse diets and rops and Indigenous practices.
Even big international genebanks.
Even the Svalbard Global Seed Vault.
But some are in trouble.
Though others are coming back.