Brainfood: Millet biscuits, Wheat micronutrients, Diversification and C footprint, Agroforestry, Epazote, Grape history, Belgian farmers, Millet phenology, Species migration, Barley domestication, Sheep genetics

Yale announces “Open Access” policy

We are happy to celebrate the announcement by Yale University that it is allowing “free access to online images of millions of objects housed in Yale’s museums, archives, and libraries” by reproducing this slide of

Produce of the native agriculture showing bananas, lemons, sweet potatoes, manioc, peppers, sugar cane, squash, lettuce, a spinach type of green, tomatoes, onion, potatoes, maize, and beans. In the center of the picture there is a plant used in black magic (red colored). 1954. Kamu Valley. Kapauku. (Mr. Leopold Pospisil’s collection of slides on the Kapauku Papuans of New Guinea.)

Plenty more in there of agrobiodiversity interest.

Yes, why not, the oldest horse breed in the world

Quick, what’s the oldest horse breed still in existence? Well, apparently, it’s the Caspian or Māzandarān Horse, and remains have recently been found in a cemetery dating back to 3400 BCE. Perhaps I should find it hard to believe one can recognize a breed from a skeleton, but I choose to suspend any disbelief I may have, because I like the story.

The Caspian horse was thought to have disappeared into antiquity, until 1965 when the American wife of an Iranian aristocrat called Louise Firouz went on an expedition on horseback and discovered small horses in the Iranian mountainous regions south of the Caspian Sea.

It happens to be very genetically diverse, which may suggest survival of wild horses in a Holocene refugium. Will they try to extract ancient DNA from the skeleton? Gosh, I do hope so. Via.