Cooking

Nibbles: Freekeh, Teff, African Chef, Inga agroforestry, Apple erosion

Freekeh is the new quinoa. What, the next environmental and social catastrophe for the Bolivian altiplano?
Oh no, sorry, it’s teff that’s the new quinoa.
Only a matter of time until African Chef gets hold of it then.
And no doubt Inga edulis is not far behind.
Let’s hope it doesn’t go the way of the McIntosh.

The taxonomy of cow farts. Can’t improve on that title.
What the hell is Hawaiian Plantain, and why is it needed in Panama?
Ever eat a sedge?
Bet they could do with some pepper.
Ancient Japanese rice found. Let the DNA extraction begin.
Indian farmers can now claim royalties on traditional varieties. What could possibly go wrong?
How about paying them to preserve “traditional and fast disappearing millets“?
Video on CIFOR’s greatest successes. I think the greatest failures would be more instructive.
Self-consciously cool (but don’t let put you off) podcast on the domestication of the dog.
The evolution of human lactose persistence, however, is not all about calcium.
Today’s theory about honeybee deaths is sure to be discussed at today’s honeybee health summit.
Can participatory mapping save the commons? Probably not, but fun nevertheless.
Fun? How about the successful defence of a thesis on “The social structure of cultivated plants: the influence of exchanges, representations and practices on sorghum diversity in Mount Kenya’s people”.
Keep calm and eat kangkung. Don’t you love it when one meme eats another?
Say you want an African Green Revolution Forum … Well, you know, go to Maputo.

Today in dodgy journalism, part 1: ICRISAT gets a new mandate crop? What was the picture editor thinking. And smoking.
Today in dodgy journalism, part 2: Two typos in the obsolete name of the CGIAR.
Dissecting Chinese traditional medicine. Or would that be puncturing?
Hunter gatherers have special gut bacteria.
Bees: “That’s the beauty of the research. Because we’re still short on info, everything’s worth knowing about.”
Maple syrup tasting. Nice gig if you can get it.
Activist objects to proposed new seed law in Sri Lanka.
UC Davis wheat geneticist Jorge Dubcovsky wins 2014 Wolf Prize in Agriculture. Congrats.
Sandy Knapp on what she does all day.
The future of field guides. Yes, they have one.
Tapa cloth, in Cologne of all places. Don’t think there were any from Palau, though.
Abschlusskommuniqué of the Global Forum on Food and Agriculture 2014 supports conservation and use of agricultural biodiversity. Phew.

Google Map of British protected food names. Where’s fish and chips? Or the cream tea. Japan next?
Indian genebank in the record books for characterizing wheat.
And with no help from CIMMYT!
Getting those damn smallholders to innovate already.
Ghana gets a new cowpea to innovate with. Well, almost.
And there I was thinking smallholders had been innovating for thousands of years. Even in the frozen north. Winter may be coming, but we’ve got grog. Which you know is good for you.
As is chocolate, so go ahead and submit your heirloom cacao beans for evaluation. But don’t be tempted to cheat. We’ll know if you are.
Oh damn, it’s Green Week.
The story behind the methods used in a recent paper on dog diversity. Wonkish.
We seem to have slipped off the Berry Go Round treadmill, which means we missed some gorgeous photos of broad beans.
And another belated treat: UNESCO’s round up of World Heritage agricultural landscapes.
…one of which is not tea in China, but maybe it should be, before it’s too late.