- Coffee: The World in Your Cup exhibit. I found it at Grist.
- Making beer with less water. At last a worthy use for germplasm collections.
- Rare Breeds Survival Trust take over sheep semen archive. Ah, those fun-loving Brits!.
- Illinois, 1937: farm diary in twitter form.
- Have chocolate, will travel.
- February 2, 1659: “…today, praise be to God, wine was pressed for the first time from Cape grapes.”
- Neanderthals hung out with — and hung on thanks to — biodiversity.
- Yield is not enough.
Indigenous pasta sauces
I don’t think we nibbled it here, but I did post on Facebook a news story about how Italy is thinking of banning ethnic restaurants. This elicited more comments than I usually get. One friend said he’d send me a kebab in the mail. I politely declined, citing health concerns. Another suggested such a ban would be a good idea, as most ethnic restaurants in Italy are terrible, even when — or is it because — they absorb local ingredients and ways of doing things. ((As dissected so admirably for Chinese restaurants by the writer Jennifer 8. Lee (æŽç«¶) in a recent, wonderful, TED talk.)) My wife wondered whether the move might set off tit-for-tat bans on Italian restaurants — including pizzerias ((Talking about absorbing local ingredients, is there a more spongiferous food than the pizza?)) — around the world. And another commenter wondered what Italian cuisine would be like if pasta sauces featured only indigenous agrobiodiversity. That means no tomatoes. One sauce that I could think of that is composed solely of ingredients that could be said to be native to Italy — whatever that might mean — is pesto. Anyway, one thing is for certain, such a cuisine would probably drive me to kebabs.
Grappa family awards prizes
You may have read that the Premio Nonino, a prestigious international literary prize, has just been awarded. I myself knew nothing of it, and only heard about it for the first time on the news a couple of days ago. The prize has an interesting, agrobiodiversity-themed history. Nonino is the name of the family-owned distillery that has revolutionized the making of grappa in the past few decades. Grappa is an Italian spirit concocted from pomace, the grape seeds, stalks and stems discarded by wine makers.
The character of Grappa changed in the 1960s, thanks, largely to the efforts of one woman РGiannola Nonino. Her Nonino distillery, in Percoto Italy, has been producing Grappa since 1897. In the early 1970s, she began making Grappa from a single grape, as opposed to the customary m̩lange of grape leftovers. She sought to make a quality drink, one to rival the great eaux-de-vie of France. It was an uphill battle. She sold very little of her first, 1973, production. Undaunted, she offered her Grappa free to journalists, restaurateurs, and asked that it be served at important commercial and government dinners. She poured the drink herself and told her story as she filled the glasses. Slowly, in this way, the charismatic Ms. Nonino created a following.
The Nonino Distillery’s first single grape Grappa was crafted from the Picolit grape. Today, over a dozen different grapes are used for single grape Grappas, called “monovitigno” Grappas, a term Ms. Nonino coined herself. In 1984, the same Nonino distillery gained government approval and began producing a higher quality Grappa made from whole fruit. They began with grapes and in the following years, produced products using cherries, pear, apricot, peach, and raspberry, among other fruits. Seeking a way to show off their new products, Nonino is also responsible for the stylish glass bottles in which Grappa today is sold, a dramatic change from the old medicinal-style bottles.
The Noninos first instituted a prize in 1975 with the aim of supporting efforts to save the ancient indigenous vines of the Friuli region of Italy. A literary prize came into being some years later “per sottolineare la permanente attualità della civiltà contadina” (to highlight the continuing relevance of rural culture). And finally an international literary prize was added. This last was won this year by, among others, the sociologist and documentary-maker Silvia Perez-Vitoria for her contribution to the “defence of farmers and spreading the values of ancestral knowledge.” One of the daughters of the redoubtable Giannola said, making the awards:
“We are proud that what started out as a project to promote the roots and traditions of Friuli has grown into a prize which honours those who cherish the roots and traditions of humanity as a whole.â€
Nice thought.
New and worse (nutritionally speaking)
Speaking of heirloom tomatoes, everyone will tell you that the tomatoes of their youth tasted better than they do today. Depends on the tomato, I’m sure, but in general that seems a safe bet, especially if you’re comparing something ugly fresh-picked from the garden with a supermarket beauty. Now, it seems, the older variety may have packed a superior nutritional punch too.
A fascinating paper to be published in HortScience Review by Donald R. Davis, who recently retired from the University of Texas, compares the mineral content of fruits and vegetables over the past 50 years or so. Davis looks at three types of evidence. First, the so-called dilution effect: the more yields increase, thanks to fertilizers, irrigation and other external inputs, the lower the concentrations of many minerals in the harvested part. Secondly, looking at historical food composition tables, older measurements tend to be higher than new ones, for many fruits and vegetables. Third, and most interesting, side-by-side comparisons of old and new varieties, grown today and measured in identical fashion, also show declines from old to new. This is effectively a “genetic” dilution effect. The increase in yield has been achieved by genetic selection, not environmental inputs, but the impact seems to be the same.
These last are perhaps the most convincing. Alas, they are also the most scarce. Broccoli varieties show a decline in calcium and magnesium. Wheat varieties likewise showed a decline in minerals, protein and oil from older varieties to newer. And three amino acids were lower in modern maize varieties than in older selections. Davis writes:
Recent studies of historical nutrient content data for fruits and vegetables spanning 50 to 70 years show apparent median declines of 5% to 40% or more in minerals, vitamins, and protein in groups of foods, especially in vegetables. Although these apparent declines in individual nutrients may be confounded by systematic errors in historical data, the broad evidence is consistent with more definitive studies and seems difficult to dismiss.
Without getting into the reasons for these results — almost certainly they relate to the fact that recent breeding efforts seldom target nutrients — one thing seems clear. More data would be useful. Would it be too much to ask genebanks, who often regenerate a time-series of accessions in a single year, to consider making part of the harvest available for detailed chemical analysis?
The Tale of the Bizzarria
I totally agree with the Evil Fruit Lord that the story of the periclinal citrus chimera known as Bizzarria is both fascinating and very well told over at Home Citrus Growers. I know what I’ll be doing the next time I’m in Florence.