- A universally applicable definition for domestication. Domestication is just evolution in anthropogenic environments.
- Early evidence for pig domestication (8,000 cal. BP) in the Lower Yangtze, South China. Evolution in anthropogenic environments can follow different pathways.
- Orphan crops of archaeology-based crop history research. Some crops are also neglected by archaeologists. Maybe because they weren’t domesticated enough?
- Catastrophic fires and soil degradation: possible association with the Neolithic revolution in the southern Levant. Domestication was caused by lightning.
- Altiplano agricultural origins was a process of economic resilience, not hardship: Isotope chemistry, zooarchaeology, and archaeobotany in the Titicaca Basin, 5.5-3.0 ka. Farming was not caused by anything so traumatic as lightning on the Altiplano.
- Changing human-cattle relationships in Ireland: a 6000-year isotopic perspective. Open land management of cattle in the Iron Age led to their central position in Irish culture. Maybe lightning was involved in clearing the land?
- Re-thinking the ‘Green Revolution’ in the Mediterranean world. The impact of the Islamic Green Revolution was down to more than just new crops and irrigation. Bit like the modern Green Revolution then?
- Roman Atlantic garum: DNA confirms sardine use and population continuity in north-western Iberia. You can characterize and compare old fish remains based on the DNA that survived fermentation at the bottom of ancient salting vats.
- Exploration of crop germplasm resources knowledge mining in Chinese ancient books: a route toward sustainable agriculture. You can characterize and compare old rice varieties based on the descriptions that survived in ancient chronicles. Maybe pig varieties too?
Is the avocado toast?
Jeremy’s latest newsletter saves me including an interesting paper on the domestication of avocado in a forthcoming Brainfood.
The often humid climate of the tropics means that ancient plant remains are few and far between, making it difficult to trace the long-term history of crops there. Thanks to a dry rock shelter in western Honduras, which preserved “an unparalleled sequence of radiocarbon-dated avocado remains,” researchers have now rewritten its ancient history. The paper is paywalled; I found out about it because one of the universities involved has just published a popular account, which in turn led me to an earlier popular report from another of the universities.
Two key milestones emerged. First, people were tending wild avocado trees as far back as 11,000 years ago. And by 7500 years ago, they had begun to select for larger fruits with tougher skins. Those ages reveal a bigger surprise; they predate the arrival of maize. The standard view is that as maize spread to new locations, it transformed foragers into farmers. The new results show that people were “fully engaged in tree cultivation upon maize’s arrival”.
The research also has a message for the modern avocado industry, 90% of whose fruits are of the single Hass variety. Because they are multiplied as clonal offsets, those trees are all genetically identical and thus all equally vulnerable to any pest, disease or climate change that affects them. The researchers point out that farmers grew avocados from seedlings for millennia, and that much of that genetic diversity lingers in remaining relict populations. As Amber VanDerwarker, lead researcher on the study, points out:
Developing new varieties through seed selection of modern domesticates and wild relict populations growing throughout Central America may provide more success in adapting trees to these changing landscapes than clonal propagation alone.
Brainfood: Protein, AnGR, Indian chickens, US Mashona cattle, Asiatic wild ass, European Neolithic pigs, Low methane pastures, American dogs, Baker’s yeast, Lager yeast
- Links between protein-source diversity, household behavior, and protein consumption inadequacy in the Indian rural semi-arid tropics. More diversity in protein sources, including livestock, would probably lead to more consumption, especially if linked to more education on its importance.
- Integrating Local and Indigenous Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (LIAnGRFA) into global biodiversity governance. We wont keep livestock diversity for long if we don’t integrate its conservation into existing mechanisms.
- Introduction to chicken genetic resources of India: a comprehensive review. India seems to agree with the above, at least with regards to its chickens, and is doing something about it.
- Out of Africa: genetic characterization and diversity of Mashona cattle in the United States. Something will certainly have to be done about the Mashona in the US if its interesting but limited diversity is to survive.
- Impacts of Climate-Land Dynamics on Global Population and Sub-Populations of a Desert Equid. Ditto for the Asiatic wild ass, although I suppose its contribution to human protein supply is pretty safe.
- Archaeogenomic insights into commensalism and regional variation in pig management in Neolithic northwest Europe. Even Neolithic European farmers managed the diversity of their livestock, pigs in this case.
- Agronomic performance, herbage quality, methane yield and methane emission potential of pasture mixtures. All those diverse livestock might as well be eating the sort of feed that leads to lower methane emissions.
- Ancient dog mitogenomes support the dual dispersal of dogs and agriculture into South America. Domestic dogs were taken into South America along with maize, according to their genetic structure. No word on whether they were used as protein sources.
- Footprints of Human Migration in the Population Structure of Wild Baker’s Yeast. Saccharomyces cerevisiae is something else whose genetic structure was heavily influenced by early farmers, and indeed continues to be by modern farming.
- Revealing the ancient origins of blonde beers: Phylogeography and phylogenetics of cryotolerant fermentative yeast Saccharomyces eubayanus from pre-Hispanic pottery in Northwestern Patagonia, Argentina. Did those early South American farmers ferment their maize, I wonder? They had the yeast for it, which eventually made it to Europe and gave us lager. And no, beer is not a good protein source.
Nibbles: Maize history, Maize in Tanzania, WorldVeg feature, Pigeonpea speed breeding, Valuing nature in food, GIAHS, Ancient Egyptian brewing redux
- The history of maize — according to Pioneer.
- The importance of maize — according to Dr Mujuni Sospeter Kabululu, Curator, National Plant Genetic Resources Centre—Tanzania.
- The future of vegetables — according to WorldVeg.
- The future of pigeonpea — according to ICRISAT.
- How should we value nature in our food systems? By true cost accounting — according to TABLE.
- A good way to value nature in our food systems is through recognizing Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems — according to FAO.
- How strong was ancient Egyptian beer? Not very — according to ethnoarcheobotanists. But it’s still worth trying to reproduce it — according to me. Seneb!
Brainfood: Complementarity, Temporality, Communality, Fonio trifecta, Atriplex domestication, Egyptian clover in India, Genebank information systems
- A significantly enhanced role for plant genetic resource centres in linking in situ and ex situ conservation to aid user germplasm access. On-farm conservation must result in use of the conserved diversity, and genebanks can help with that. Just another way of saying the two approaches are complementary?
- Looking back to look ahead: the temporal dimension of conservation seed bank collections. Those genebanks may need to do repeated sampling of the same population though.
- Landrace diversity and heritage of the indigenous millet crop fonio (Digitaria exilis): Socio-cultural and climatic drivers of change in the Fouta Djallon region of Guinea. Repeated sampling would defintely have helped.
- Community seedbanks in Europe: their role between ex situ and on-farm conservation. Repeated sampling is kind of what community seedbanks do, no?
- Impacts of climate change on fonio millet: seed germination and suitability modelling of an important indigenous West African crop. Community seedbanks may not be enough though.
- Phylogenetics, evolution and biogeography of four Digitaria food crop lineages across West Africa, India, and Europe. Maybe the wild relatives will help.
- Black Ash – a Forgotten Domestication Trait in Garden Orach (Atriplex hortensis L.). It’s amazing what people domesticated plants for in the past. And might in the future.
- Quality seed production scenario of Egyptian clover (Trifolium alexandrinum) in India: A 24-year retrospective analysis. But in the end, you have to get high quality certified seeds out, and that’s not always easy.
- The potential of seedbank digital information in plant conservation. Will definitely need a pretty good documentation system to keep all the above straight.