Nibbles: Maize history, Maize in Tanzania, WorldVeg feature, Pigeonpea speed breeding, Valuing nature in food, GIAHS, Ancient Egyptian brewing redux

  1. The history of maize — according to Pioneer.
  2. The importance of maize — according to Dr Mujuni Sospeter Kabululu, Curator, National Plant Genetic Resources Centre—Tanzania.
  3. The future of vegetables — according to WorldVeg.
  4. The future of pigeonpea — according to ICRISAT.
  5. How should we value nature in our food systems? By true cost accounting — according to TABLE.
  6. A good way to value nature in our food systems is through recognizing Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems — according to FAO.
  7. How strong was ancient Egyptian beer? Not very — according to ethnoarcheobotanists. But it’s still worth trying to reproduce it — according to me. Seneb!

Nibbles: Indian vault, Sundarban rice, Community seed banks, Fiji cassava, Georgia documentary, Kenya seed network, Nigeria mobilizes, Coffee prizes, Slow Food guardians, Peasant seed sovereignty, World Economic Forum seed pean, Seed sector shindig, Genesys acceleration

  1. Times of India says “India needs a new doomsday seed vault.” Why not just use the one already there in Svalbard?
  2. Meanwhile, women in the Sundarban are doing it for themselves.
  3. Maybe it’s community doomsday seed vaults that India needs?
  4. Fiji’s cassava is facing a doomsday of its own.
  5. Georgia — the country — is working on a documentary on crop diversity which will no doubt include their seed deposit in Svalbard.
  6. Kenya has a pretty good community genebanks video of its own.
  7. Nigeria is all over crop diversity. Not just once, but twice.
  8. Coffee prices going up? Can you imagine what will happen if we don’t conserve enough of its diversity?
  9. Want more examples of the coolness of crop diversity and its guardians? Slow Food has your back.
  10. La Via Campesina needs to encouragement either, where “peasant seeds” and their guardians are concerned.
  11. Even the World Economic Forum wants in on the act.
  12. And yet the seed sector seems…reluctant?
  13. Good job Genesys is getting faster, eh?

Brainfood: Complementarity, Temporality, Communality, Fonio trifecta, Atriplex domestication, Egyptian clover in India, Genebank information systems

Nibbles: Nourishing investments, Genebank RoI, Seed science double, Ecuador genebank, Ethiopian genebank, MSSRF genebank, CG genebanks, Botanic gardens, SwissAid saves seeds, Brazil conservation, Indian diner, Kenyan food, Saladino on citrus, Lost apple, Seed Savers, Hybrids, Germplasm crime

Coffee with everything

It might be because we happen to be doing something on the coffee diversity conservation strategy at work, but I have been noticing a lot of joe-related material online lately. There’s the bit on Sprudge (apparently, “the world’s most popular coffee publication”) about how coffee diversity needs a Svalbard. Seconded. And, from the same source, also comes a spotlight on Madagascar’s amazing coffee diversity.

Moving to West Africa’s diversity, there’s a Financial Times piece on Coffea stenophylla. And something that seems to be only on LinkedIn (for now) from Dr Steffen Schwarz of Coffee Consulate about how microbe diversity can do wonders with the flavour profile and caffeine content of C. liberica.

Finally, an official submission has gone in for Yemeni coffee to be included in UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage List. I wonder if all this bodes well for our thing.