As one of those who prefers not to visit some social sites unless I need to, let’s see whether this works.
Pawnee corn latest
Attentive readers who remember our series of posts on the resurrection of Pawnee corn from almost 10 years ago may be interested in this recent Twitter thread from Prof. C.S Prakash.
Amazing story of the revival of Pawnee Eagle Corn – Grown by native Americans, thought to be extinct. One family had saved last 50 kernels taken with them when they were exiled from Nebraska to Oklahoma in the 1870s. “It tastes like almonds with cream”https://t.co/pgRSxTk8oP pic.twitter.com/B5dVDKVRbW
— Channa Prakash (@AgBioWorld) February 18, 2018
For those who would prefer to stay away from Twitter, and I know there are some, I’ll take the liberty to reproduce Prof. Prakash’s text below, embedding the links for clarity, but minus the photos, alas.
- Amazing story of the revival of Pawnee Eagle Corn. Grown by native Americans, thought to be extinct. One family had saved last 50 kernels taken with them when they were exiled from Nebraska to Oklahoma in the 1870s. “It tastes like almonds with cream”.
- A farmer who grew the Pawnee Eagle and other heirloom corn 🌽. Much beauty in the biodiversity, once extinct it is lost forever. Gene banks and such farmers heroes! Vavilov is smiling!
- Deb Echo-Hawk, Pawnee tribe’s official ‘Keeper of the seeds’. When tribes were forced from state to state by the US govt — Trail of Tears — seed keepers brought their own strains of corn seeds with them, so when they settled again, they could grow food on their new land.
- Eagle corn revived from near-extinction by an unlikely friendship and determination of Native American seed saver from Oklahoma Deb-Echo Hawk along with Ronnie O’Brien, a culinary art instructor at a community college in Nebraska.
- Pawnee tribe lived along tributaries of the Missouri River in Nebraska. In 1870, ~ 12,000 people were removed from their land, forcibly exiled to Oklahoma, only about 600 survived. Eagle corn is a tragic testimony to the brutal racism Pawnee endured.
- Roger Echo-Hawk mentioned to me that as Native Americans could not get into US universities in the 19th century, black universities such as Hampton Institute educated them. Booker T. Washington who founded @TuskegeeUniv where I work, also studied there!
- Those who wish to reach Deb Echo-Hawk to learn more about the Pawnee Eagle Corn heirloom seed and check with her when the seeds would be public available may contact her through Facebook page.
- Learn more about this amazing Pawnee Eagle Corn — Workshop on ‘NATIVE CORN’ Honoring Nebraska’s First Farmers — The First Meeting on Indigenous Crops in Nebraska, April 28, 2018 at the Central Community College-Hastings, Hastings.
Brainfood: Core collections, Food system sustainability, Sunflower breeding, Modern/traditional mosaic, Nepal earthquake response, Modelling erosion, Folate in potato, Argentinian andigena, Millet evaluation, Pigeonpea evaluation, Sugarcane evaluation, Bean drought genes, Threatened trees
- An informational view of accession rarity and allele specificity in germplasm banks for management and conservation. Basically a better way of making cores.
- Multi-indicator sustainability assessment of global food systems. Thankfully includes both “Shannon Diversity of Food Supply” and “Food Production Diversity”. No sign of the Agrobiodiversity Index, though, alas.
- Cytoplasmic Diversity Studies in Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.): A Review. Have the wild relatives to thank for it.
- Mosaic of Traditional and Modern Agriculture Systems for Enhancing Resilience. Refers specifically to rice irrigation systems, but could be generalizable, why not?
- Post-disaster agricultural transitions in Nepal. To cardamon, mainly.
- Simulating the Impacts of Climate Variability and Change on Crop Varietal Diversity in Mali (West-Africa) Using Agent-Based Modeling Approach. Less favourable and unstable climatic conditions lead to loss of diversity.
- Genetic Diversity in Argentine Andean Potatoes by Means of Functional Markers. There’s a small group of weird, interesting ones.
- Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) markers associated with high folate content in wild potato species. Ten-fold variation in content in in F2 population derived from cross between high folate diploid clone of wild Solanum boliviense and low/medium folate diploid S. tuberosum. Nice.
- Identification of new sources of resistance for pearl millet downy mildew disease under field conditions. 20 really good ones out of 101. Could have been worse.
- Assay of Genetic Architecture for Identification of Waterlogging Tolerant Pigeonpea Germplasm. 38 out of 128 survived. People are lucky this week.
- Phenotypic evaluation of a diversity panel selected from the world collection of sugarcane (Saccharum spp) and related grasses. Out of 300, 27 were higher than commercial standards in dry or fresh mass. On a roll here.
- Genotyping by Sequencing and Genome–Environment Associations in Wild Common Bean Predict Widespread Divergent Adaptation to Drought. Two genes identified. Let’s quit while we’re ahead. No, come on, let’s do another one.
- Tree genetic resources at risk in South America: A spatial threat assessment to prioritize populations for conservation. 7 of 80 socieconomically important trees threatened across their range. Damn.
Nibbles: Gros Michel, Poultry photos, Pigeonpea prebreeding, Murnong, Wheat breeding, Hass, Indian forest foods, Popcorn domestication, Mustard history, Historical botanists, Barges & Bread, Samoan distilling, Kenyan brewing
- The quest for Big Mike. No, not Stormy Daniels’ latest. It’s a banana.
- Ok, I’m going to resist the temptation of making the obvious follow-up joke in connection with this gallery of beautiful chickens.
- Who needs chickens when you have pigeons. Ah, no, these are pigeonpeas.
- Australia’s answer to the potato. Unclear what the question was.
- Australia’s answer to frost-sensitive wheat: look in genebanks for resistant stuff.
- The mother of all avocados. Kind of a Hass-been, though.
- Avocado shmavocado, says India.
- Are you not entertained? Have some popcorn!
- And mustard for that hotdog. You know, like Mesolithic people did.
- History of plant collecting double feature: Bradby Blake & Frank N. Meyer.
- Listen to Jeremy on how grain made its way up the Thames.
- A lot of grain also makes its way to Ft Collins. See what I did there?
- Taro whiskey: I’ll drink to that.
- Kenyan coffee to finish things off? Maybe not for long.
Brainfood: Red List, Dormancy variation, Conservation priorities, Intensification, Buckwheat book, Wild barley, Sugarcane diversity, Pollinator diversity, Red Listing, Oily camellia
- The Value of the IUCN Red List for Business Decision-Making. It’s actually a two-way street.
- Phylogeny and source climate impact seed dormancy and germination of restoration-relevant forb species. Significant variation among population for 7 out of 8 species tested.
- An integrated framework to identify wildlife populations under threat from climate change. Brings together exposure to change, sensitivity to change and range shift potential to prioritize among 10 bat populations. Maybe more widely applicable.
- Winners and losers of national and global efforts to reconcile agricultural intensification and biodiversity conservation. Agricultural intensification leads to significant threats to vertebrate diversity, most of which can however be avoided by international cooperation; that being unlikely, national level optimization in 10 countries is next best.
- Buckwheat Germplasm in the World. Its time will surely come.
- Geographical and environmental determinants of the genetic structure of wild barley in southeastern Anatolia. More diverse, and different from the domesticate, with distinct W and E groups, and 4 loci possibly responsible for abiotic adaptation.
- Pedigree, marker recruitment, and genetic diversity of modern sugarcane cultivars in China and the United States. Not much diversity, especially in China.
- Species turnover promotes the importance of bee diversity for crop pollination at regional scales. Pollinator diversity is even more important than we thought.
- Comparing and contrasting threat assessments of plant species at the global and sub-global level. Most of the almost 90,000 assessments come from regional efforts, not global.
- Determination of Camellia oleifera Abel. Germplasm Resources of Genetic Diversity in China using ISSR Markers. Hunan is the place for diversity of this woody oil crop I never heard of.