Indigenous knowledge systems

March 6, 2025March 4, 2025

Digging up the pig

I’m sure you enjoyed Jeremy’s fascinating conversation with Jordan Rosenblum on how the pig and the eagle diverged as the history of Jewish dietary law and custom played out. Which means you’d probably welcome another helping of Prof. Rosenblum. Well, you’d get that, and much more, in the excellent brief summary of the deep history of the animal — the pig that is, not the eagle — in the Levant coincidentally just out in Archaeology Magazine. Prepare to be surprised:

…the inhabitants of the earliest cities of the Bronze Age (3500–1200 b.c.) were enthusiastic pig eaters, and that even later Iron Age (1200–586 b.c.) residents of Jerusalem enjoyed the occasional pork feast.

February 18, 2025February 17, 2025

Nibbles: Genebanks in the US, CIAT, Egypt, Cambridge Botanic Garden, Chilean wild tomato, Kenyan veggies, PNG diet, PGRFA course

The USDA genebank is in the news. But will that save it?
The CIAT genebank in on a podcast. Can’t hurt, I guess.
The Egyptian genebank is in the news. And on a new website, apparently.
Good to see botanic gardens in the news too.
I wonder which genebank or botanic gardens this apparently re-discovered endemic Chilean wild tomato will end up in. If any.
But genebanks are not enough. You need vegetable fairs too.
Because vegetables are good for you. And not just in Kenya, also in Papua New Guinea.
Want to learn about all of the above? Check out the resources from the Entry-Level Training School on Plant Genetic Resources in 2023.

February 10, 2025February 10, 2025

Brainfood: Micronutrients, Healthy Diet Basket, Meat alternatives, Chickpea polyphenols, African yam bean breeding, CC and nutrition, Biofortification, Mali diet diversity, Myanmar & Malawi agroforestry, African indigenous vegetables, Indian fruits

Global estimation of dietary micronutrient inadequacies: a modelling analysis. Maybe 5 billion people don’t get enough micronutrients from their diets, absent fortification and supplementation.
Global analysis reveals persistent shortfalls and regional differences in availability of foods needed for health. There’s enough food in the world, but not enough healthy foods. Those 5 billion people would probably agree.
A multicriteria analysis of meat and milk alternatives from nutritional, health, environmental, and cost perspectives. Pulses would seem to be a good bet as healthy foods.
Spanish chickpea gene-bank seeds (Cicer arietinum L.) offer an enhanced nutritional quality and polyphenol profile compared with commercial cultivars. Yeah, but some pulses are better than others.
Selection criteria and yield stability in a large collection of African yam bean [Sphenostylis stenocarpa (Hochst ex. A. Rich) Harms] accessions. Wait, abut about the nutritional content?
Climate change and nutrition-associated diseases. We’re going to need a lot more healthy foods. I vote for African yam bean.
Biofortification: Future Challenges for a Newly Emerging Technology to Improve Nutrition Security Sustainably. Biofortification is still not delivering enough more healthy foods. Will it ever? Jeremy available for comment.
Do diverse crops or diverse market purchases matter more for women’s diet quality in farm households of Mali? Do both, of course. Jeremy nods sagely.
The nexus between agroforestry landscapes and dietary diversity: insights from Myanmar’s Central Dry Zone. Do agroforestry too, while you’re at it.
Trees on farms improve dietary quality in rural Malawi. No, really, agroforestry works.
The effects of market-oriented farming on living standards, nutrition, and informal sharing arrangements of smallholder farmers: the case of African indigenous vegetables in Kenya. Well, at least incomes went up.
Unveiling the bountiful treasures of India’s fruit genetic resources. Plenty of scope for putting more healthy foods on tables. Or more income in pockets. Who knows, with any luck, maybe both? But don’t forget the pulses and vegetables too.

February 7, 2025

Nibbles: Genebanks in South Africa, Ethiopia, Cherokee Nation, China, India, The Netherlands…

South Africa ratifies the Plant Treaty. Hope its genebank goes from strength to strength.
Ethiopia ratified a long time ago, and its genebank is going strong.
Wouldn’t it be nice if the Cherokee Nation could ratify the Plant Treaty?
Want to build a community genebank like the Cherokee Nation’s? Here’s a resource.
China hasn’t ratified, but that hasn’t stopped it building genebanks.
And using their contents, presumably.
India has ratified, and is also building genebanks.
The Netherlands ratified long ago, but I’m not sure if it has a water lentil (duckweed) collection, or if it does whether it’s in the Plant Treaty’s Multilateral System. But maybe it will, and it will be, soon. I hope so.
The Dutch also have an animal genebank, BTW.
Watermelons are not in the Plant Treaty’s Multilateral System, but maybe they should be.
Neither is Trigonella, though many other temperate legume forages are, so who knows.

February 3, 2025February 4, 2025

Brainfood: Maroon rice, Dutch aroids, Sicilian saffron, Inca agriculture, Native American agriculture, Mexican peppers, Afro-Mexican agriculture, Sahelian landraces, Small-scale fisheries, Coconut remote sensing

The Mystery of Black Rice: Food, Medicinal, and Spiritual Uses of Oryza glaberrima by Maroon Communities in Suriname and French Guiana. There’s a rich oral history of African rice in Maroon communities, but that doesn’t mean either the traditional knowledge or diversity of the crop is safe.
The Invisible Tropical Tuber Crop: Edible Aroids (Araceae) Sold as “Tajer” in the Netherlands. Another example of traditional knowledge on crops surviving far from their home.
Rethinking Pliny’s “Sicilian Crocus”: Ecophysiology, Environment, and Classical Texts. There might have been two distinct saffron species in ancient Sicily. Another way of recovering traditional knowledge is by reading ancient texts.
Trees, terraces and llamas: Resilient watershed management and sustainable agriculture the Inca way. The sedimentary record can be used to recover traditional knowledge too. No word on what ancient text have to say, but I’m sure it’s something.
Yield, growth, and labor demands of growing maize, beans, and squash in monoculture versus the Three Sisters. Sometimes traditional knowledge can use a helping hand from scientists. And vice versa.
Interdisciplinary insights into the cultural and chronological context of chili pepper (Capsicum annuum var. annuum L.) domestication in Mexico. About the only thing that’s missing here is traditional knowledge.
Afro-Indigenous harvests: Cultivating participatory agroecologies in Guerrero, Mexico.
Makes one wish these authors had been involved in the pepper study above.
Tradeoffs between the use of improved varieties and agrobiodiversity conservation in the Sahel. The effect of improved varieties on local landraces (and presumably associated traditional knowledge) is different for pearl millet and groundnut, and for Mali and Niger.
Illuminating the multidimensional contributions of small-scale fisheries. I’m sure lots of traditional knowledge is involved.
Satellite imagery reveals widespread coconut plantations on Pacific atolls. They could have just asked the small-scale fisherfolk, but ok.