Nibbles: Artisanal bread, Phenotyping, Maris Piper, Algae, Superfood debunk, Banana 101, Indian millets, Wheat seed photosynthesis, Chili evolution

Nice tweeting about bread and other Central Asian food over past few days.
Rothamsted’s “Scanalyzer“.
The genebank origin of the UK’s premier potato, Maris Piper.
Seaweed in South America.
Repeat after me: superfoods are a scam.
Third and final instalment in The Plate’s history of the banana.
India going on a millet kick.
The wheat seed is C4? Totally crazy.
The evolution of Capsicum in half a page. Which is both too much and not enough.

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.