- A very British baked bean.
- Hopefully it will prevent the sort of malnutrition for which there is archaeological evidence from Romano-British times.
- Although they did have lots of nice meat.
- “…differences in height by season of birth may not be due to climate-related fluctuations in nutrition or infections…” after all. No, not in Roman Britain.
- Recovering Israeli wheat landraces.
- Recovering a lost beer-snack radish.
- Will traditional Mongolian herding ever recover?
- New Zealand’s genebank in the news.
- The cool uses of potato wild relatives. And wheat too.
Brainfood: Nutrient availability, Afghani wheat, Poverty reduction, Tanzania ag development, Fish refuges, Gender, Cerrado conversion, Rice origins, Global erosion, Food perceptions, Ag & health, Mongolian Allium, Bean disease, Tropical legumes
- Combining the effects of increased atmospheric carbon dioxide on protein, iron, and zinc availability and projected climate change on global diets: a modelling study. Global net availability to decrease by 15-20% by 2050, mostly where it’s already low.
- Tracking the adoption of bread wheat varieties in Afghanistan using DNA fingerprinting. 75% of samples were varieties released after 2000, landraces are being replaced, and farmers name varieties correctly about 50% of the times.
- Pathways from research on improved staple crop germplasm to poverty reduction for smallholder farmers. Land, land, land.
- “Modern” farming and the transformation of livelihoods in rural Tanzania. Small is still beautiful.
- Analyzing drivers of fish biomass and biodiversity within community fish refuges in Cambodia. Governance, governance, governance.
- The Role of Women in Production and Management of RTB Crops in Rwanda and Burundi: Do Men Decide, and Women Work? Guess. I bet you’re wrong.
- Soy expansion in Brazil’s Cerrado. Forget the Amazon.
- Genomic history and ecology of the geographic spread of rice. Yangtze Valley –> global cooling –> temperate + tropical japonica –> SE Asia –> diversification. Indica is more complicated.
- Estimated six per cent loss of genetic variation in wild populations since the industrial revolution. The new 75%.
- Eating Healthy or Feeling Empty? How the “Healthy = Less Filling” Intuition Influences Satiety. Healthier food is perceived as less filling, unless it’s described as nutritions. People are strange.
- What is the cost of integration? Evidence from an integrated health and agriculture project to improve nutrition outcomes in Western Kenya. Not insignificant, but worth it.
- Traditional utilization and management of wild Allium plants in Inner Mongolia. 38 species, no less; many uses, much threatened.
- Haplotypes at the Phg-2 Locus Are Determining Pathotype-Specificity of Angular Leaf Spot Resistance in Common Bean. Good use being made of the CIAT genebank.
- A decade of Tropical Legumes projects: Development and adoption of improved varieties, creation of market‐demand to benefit smallholder farmers and empowerment of national programmes in sub‐Saharan Africa and South Asia. US$ 67 million in from Gates Foundation, US$ 3.2 billion out in certified seed alone. Read the whole special issue for more. All starts with genebanks, though, doesn’t it. Doesn’t it? Hello? Is there anyone out there? Is this thing on?
Nibbles: Jeanne Baret, Vigna, Musa, Indicators, Livestock, Oranges & lemons, Breadfruit, Seed warrior
- The story of the bougainvillea has a bit of everything.
- The story of the cowpea as told by its DNA.
- The banana has a really complicated story.
- Untangling the story of nutrition indicators.
- Telling the story of why livestock is important.
- The deep story of citrus.
- Another chapter in the story of breadfruit in Jamaica.
- Debal Deb tells his story in NY.
Nibbles: Colombian seeds, Seed diversity, Local crops & nutrition, Seed saving, Apple origins, Microbial collections, Dairy cows in USA, Bean sculptures, IPCC report, Potato linguistics, Piña cloth
- Climate-smartness and seeds in Colombia.
- Why do we need 158 varieties of cauliflower?
- Maybe it’s the nutrition? Gotta get those value chains working though: here’s how.
- Also, it will save the world.
- Biting hard into apple origins.
- Microbes need collections too.
- And cows.
- Inflatable beans. The jokes write themselves.
- Did I already link to my work blog post on the IPCC report?
- Papas or patatas? It’s…complicated.
- I want me a pineapple shirt.
Brainfood: Creole cattle, Wattle diversity, Olive death, Cucurbit diversity, Child nutrition, Seed systems, N efficiency, Black Sigatoka, Ag oils, Sharing double, Cow sharing, Horse phenotyping, Nutrients & CC
- The genetic ancestry of American Creole cattle inferred from uniparental and autosomal genetic markers. Out of Africa…
- Tracing the genetic origin of two Acacia mearnsii seed orchards in South Africa. For one of the orchards, the origin is unknown, but it’s distinct to all the other, known provenances.
- Genetic Characterization of Apulian Olive Germplasm as Potential Source in New Breeding Programs. Ok, but unclear what all this means for Xylella resistance, which presumably was the main reason for doing the work?
- Whole-genome resequencing of Cucurbita pepo morphotypes to discover genomic variants associated with morphology and horticulturally valuable traits. The two subspecies were domesticated and evolved independently.
- Mapping the effects of drought on child stunting. Lower precipitation is bad for kids.
- Governing Seeds in East Africa in the Face of Climate Change: Assessing Political and Social Outcomes. Wealthier, more food secure households are more likely to grow maize hybrids. Cause? Effect? But in any case the commercialization agenda has left sorghum behind.
- Exploiting genetic variation in nitrogen use efficiency for cereal crop improvement. Back to the genebank. Just one of a whole issue on genetic variation in physiological traits.
- Black Sigatoka in bananas: Ecoclimatic suitability and disease pressure assessments. The high yield areas are most at threat.
- Fats of the Land: New Histories of Agricultural Oils. Hidden histories are the best histories.
- Food Provisioning Services Via Homegardens and Communal Sharing in Satoyama Socio-ecological Production Landscapes on Japan’s Noto Peninsula. Sharing promotes diversity. Kinda beautiful.
- Cow Sharing and Alpine Ecosystems: A Comparative Case Study of Sharing Practices and Property Rights. The jury is out on whether it contributes to conservation, but it still seems pretty cool.
- Horse phenotyping based on video image analysis of jumping performance for conservation breeding. Judges don’t know what they’re talking about.
- Preserving the nutritional quality of crop plants under a changing climate: importance and strategies. Mainly due to eCO2. Need to breed for it under the new conditions. Or try other crops.