Brainfood – Nutrition Edition: Sweet potato double, Seaweed, Fruits & vegetables, Chickpeas, African Indigenous crops, Vegetables, Grapes, Meat

Are rare breeds important for the conservation of genetic diversity?

Today is the International Day of Biological Diversity. As it happens, Eat This Podcast today published an episode that raises a question I have seldom seen given any serious discussion. Are rare breeds important for the conservation of genetic diversity?

Like all headline questions, the answer is probably “No”. Let me explain.

Continue reading “Are rare breeds important for the conservation of genetic diversity?”

Brainfood: Vanilla diversity, Moth bean diversity, Lablab genome, Wheat allergens, Strampelli, Core collections, Collection structure, ITK, Sambal diversity

Nibbles: Alt-proteins, NPGS, Serviceberry, Fungal diseases, Old Irish farm

  1. The benefits of alt-proteins spelled out in a report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies. I bet they’ll need alt-genebanks.
  2. The US national genebank system expertly deconstructed in a page.
  3. Bozakmin, the best of the berries, used to contrast late stage capitalism with Indigenous gift economies. Well worth the long read.
  4. Comment in Nature about how we are not taking fungal diseases of crops sufficiently seriously.
  5. There’s a place in Ireland with a 6000 year history of farming. Well maybe that’s rounded up a bit.

Brainfood: Diversification, Nepal agrobiodiversity, Agroecology double, Agroforestry, Seeds of deforestation, Millets models