History

May 10, 2024May 13, 2024

Leaders of crop diversity conservation land World Food Prize

Great to see a couple of my former bosses recognized for their exceptional contributions to the conservation of crop diversity.

I like this quote from Geoff:

This is really a chance to get that message out and say, look, this relatively small amount of money is our insurance policy, our insurance policy that we’re going to be able to feed the world in 50 years.

April 30, 2024

Nibbles: Seed video, Kew video, Indonesian cassava, Crop maps, Neglected crops, KEPHIS lab, Turkish genebank, Nepal rice, Polynesian sugarcane, Ancient beer, Garlic basics

Nice video celebrating seeds.
Nice old video about Kew Gardens.
Tracing the origins of Indonesian cassava. No, it wasn’t introduced by Kew, but yes, colonialism was involved.
Latest data on where crops are grown. Including cassava.
Self Help Africa director turns on to neglected crops. Including cassava.
New lab in Kenya for spreading clean crops around. Including cassava?
Türkiye’s genebank in the news. No cassava.
Nepalese rice gets a Welsh upgrade.
Collecting sugarcane in French Polynesia to (eventually) support local booze industry.
Long live the ancient booze bandwagon.
Garlic 101.

March 26, 2024March 25, 2024

Nibbles: VACS, FAO forgotten foods, African roots, Hopi corn, Adivasis rice, Sustainable farming, Llama history, Vicuña sweaters, Portuguese cattle, Mexico genebank, NZ genebank, Bat pollination, Eat This Newsletter, WEF

More on the US push for opportunity crops.
Oh look there’s a whole compendium on African opportunity crops from FAO.
Many of them are roots and tubers.
For the Hopi, maize is an opportunity crop.
For the Adivasis, it’s rice.
And more along the same lines from Odisha.
Llamas were an opportunity for lots of people down the ages.
…and still are, for some.
Portugal eschews llamas for an ancient cattle breed.
I bet Mexico’s genebank offers some amazing opportunities.
And New Zealand’s too.
Let’s not forget bats. Yes, bats.
Jeremy’s latest newsletter tackles turmeric, pepper and sweet potatoes, among other things.
And the best way to frame all of the above is that the World Economic Forum wants governments to ban people from growing their own food because that causes climate change.

March 19, 2024

Faith Fyles, and more

A Facebook post from the Canada Agriculture and Food Museum on Faith Fyles, botanist and botanical artist, and the first woman assistant botanist in the federal Department of Agriculture (1911), leads to a treasure trove of interesting stuff.

March 12, 2024March 19, 2024

Nibbles: Indian millets, Indian rice, Neolithic bread, Andean potatoes, UAE genebank, Niger onions, Lentil domestication, Italian rice, Sea cucumber

The trouble with millets. Because there’s always room for a Star Trek allusion.
Growing heritage rice varieties in Goa. With hardly any trouble, it seems.
Really, really old bread. And more from Jeremy.
Breeding company and CIP collaborating to save potato diversity in the Andes.
Another genebank opens in the Gulf.
The story of Niger’s Violet De Galmi onion. Or is it Niger’s?
The latest crop to be called humble is the lentil.
New varieties may help save risotto, but better water management will probably have to feature too, I suspect. Otherwise lentils could stand in I suppose.
In the end, though, maybe we should all just cultivate sea cucumbers.