Featured

July 25, 2014

Featured: Glenda

Mike Jackson adds some detail to our short note on the recent typhoon in the Philippines:

This typhoon, known as Glenda in the Philippines, actually did more damage at IRRI probably than any other in recent years. In fact, one of my former staff who has been at IRRI for 40 years or so, told me it was the worst damage she had experienced. But, resilient as ever, IRRI staff have cleared up much of the damage, roofs and windows will be replaced, and soon things will get back to normal.

July 15, 2014

Featured: Bonnet gourd

Eve comes up trumps on those “bonnet gourds”:

There is one from Jamaica in the Economic Botany collection at the Field Museum in Chicago. One can search their database, but I’ll provide a couple of links.

Definitely worth a look.

May 26, 2014

Featured: Jam for tea

Patrick has “a lot of respect for Mr de Schutter,” but begs to differ on his take on sugar and salt, which we Nibbled:

Not only is there very little reason to classify sugar and salt as ‘bad’, but they are essential ingredients in traditionally processed foods.

Read the whole comment.

May 5, 2014

Featured: Resident evil

Cédric shares the latest intelligence on conservation of agricultural biodiversity:

Talking about Svalbard, I received this piece by a Food First board member in my inbox recently. I’ve read a lot of similar posts but this one tops them all. To sum it up: ex situ conservation = pure evil; in situ conservation = blissful harmony.

Uh-huh.

April 20, 2014

Featured: Green Revolution data

Chris Smaje needs your help:

I’m no expert in this area, but the sort of data I typically see used to suggest the green revolution’s success is pretty unconvincing. I wrote a little piece with some general thoughts on this on the Stats Views website. I’d be interested if anyone can point me to evidence that avoids some of the traps I discuss therein.

Any thoughts?

Fresh Nibbles

Grinding, fermenting, and detoxifying our way to bigger brains — an anthropologist makes the case that food processing, historically women’s work, did as much for human evolution as the mammoth-spearing got credit for.
Speaking of transforming raw ingredients into something civilization-defining: a Japanese temple has been quietly perfecting vegan cooking for 700 years, no marketing department required.
Meanwhile in the Philippines, Naturland, the international association for organic farming from Germany, is linking up with Global Seed Savers Philippines, to help farmers get their hands on indigenous crop diversity before it disappears.
If you want to see what “future-proofing seeds” looks like at scale, the National Soybean Germplasm Collection just turned 100: a century of squirreling away soybean diversity, just in case.
Kazakhstan wants in on the squirreling too: plans are moving forward for a new genebank to safeguard agricultural biodiversity across Islamic Organization for Food Security member states.
The University of Reading is also 100, and in celebration scientists there harvested beans from its cacao collection (yes, it has a cacao collection) to make Britain’s first homegrown chocolate bar since 1932, a novelty act with a serious undertone: climate change is squeezing cacao’s traditional growing belt.
And in Italy, the squeeze is already showing up on the balance sheet: Parmesan’s “Fort Knox” — $350 million of cheese squirreled away as loan collateral — is feeling the heat, with rising cooling costs and falling yields rattling wine and olive oil too.

Published on August 16, 2026