Nibbles: Heirloom rice, Kava traditions, State turnip, Japanese paper, Potato Day, Madagascar invasion

There’s Carolina Gold in them thar hills. Latest in a long list…
Kava in the Pacific, island by island.
A really ugly heirloom turnip is Vermont’s state vegetable. In other news, there are state vegetables.
This video will make you want to make your own paper, I guarantee it.
Oh come on, we missed Peru’s National Potato Day?
Crop remains confirm Malagasy origins. But was Carolina Gold among them? Here’s the paper.

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.