- Why the modern food system prizes uniformity even though resilience depends on diversity. Spoiler alert: follow the money.
- Historic crop varieties are finding renewed relevance as farmers contend with more volatile weather, emerging pests and changing markets. Let’s hope there’s money to conserve them.
- India’s traditional wheat varieties contain diversity that could help breeders develop crops better able to withstand heat and drought. Let’s hope there’s money to conserve them.
- India announces significant progress in conserving its wild rice genetic resources. Great that there was money to conserve them.
- Community seed banks across Kenya are calling for formal recognition and sustained support, arguing that locally managed collections strengthen seed sovereignty, preserve traditional varieties and help farming communities adapt to climate change. Yes, but are they enough without national genebanks?
- Researchers are racing to conserve wild coffee species whose genetic diversity may provide the resistance and resilience needed to secure tomorrow’s morning cup. Is the industry contributing, though ?
- New history of the macadamia traces its remarkable journey from Australia’s native forests to a global crop, while underscoring why conserving the remaining wild populations is essential for the crop’s long-term future.
- Researchers at the University of the South Pacific investigate how taro can withstand climate change, combining research with conservation to help protect one of the region’s most culturally and nutritionally important staple crops.
- Chester Zoo collects seeds from highly threatened cacti, because why not?
Brainfood: Wild chickpea, Feral brassica, Peruvian cacao, Panamanian cacao, Tree diversity, Healthy diets in PNG
- Genome-wide molecular diversity analyses identify wild Cicer as reservoirs of variations for chickpea improvement. Wild relatives of chickpea harbour a wealth of genetic variation that has yet to be exploited by breeders. But it’s mainly within species.
- Genetic and Morphological Diversity in Spontaneous Populations of Brassica rapa: How Do Feral Populations Differ From Wild Ones? When a crop escapes cultivation, does it become wild again? Apparently not. Pity.
- Genetic structure of traditional cacao reveals four new genetic lineages in indigenous Amazonian sites in Peru. Genetic analysis of traditional cacao maintained by Indigenous communities in the Peruvian Amazon uncovers four previously undescribed genetic lineages.
- Contrasting germplasm composition and propagation practices in the two major cacao-growing areas in Panama. Two of Panama’s principal cacao-growing regions have developed markedly different genetic profiles, reflecting both the varieties farmers cultivate and how they propagate them. I think they have been previously described though.
- Ecological multifunctionality of watersheds increases with tree species richness. Watersheds planted with a greater diversity of tree species perform better across multiple ecological functions simultaneously, including nutrient cycling, soil protection and water regulation.
- Nutrition sensitive poverty and its correlates in Papua New Guinea: incorporating healthy diet targets into poverty measurement. Conventional poverty measures ask whether people can afford basic necessities. Why not ask a more demanding question: can they afford a healthy diet? Hopefully meaning a diverse one.
Brainfood: Easter Island coffee, Sword bean, Sweetpotato names, Colombian potatoes, Nut grass, Market access, Pollinators, Seed microorganisms
- An insular in situ Coffea arabica resource from Rapa Nui (Easter Island): SSR uniformity and biochemical evaluation of material consistent with the Typica lineage. Coffee growing on remote Rapa Nui appears to represent a remarkably uniform population closely related to the historic Typica lineage. Not diverse doesn’t necessarily mean not interesting.
- Farmer knowledge, management practices, and seed morphological diversity of sword bean (Canavalia gladiata) in Côte d’Ivoire. Growers recognize, manage and maintain morphological variation in sword bean, a legume that could be more utilized.
- Consistency of farmer-named sweet potato cultivars and their physicochemical and color differentiation within a production region. While local naming systems are generally meaningful, they don’t always map perfectly onto measurable physicochemical and colour traits.
- Harnessing the Genetic Diversity of the Colombian Central Collection of Potatoes to Dissect Pigmentation Genomics in Andigenum Landraces. Colombia’s collection helps explain colourful potatoes.
- Novel food ingredients from Cyperus rotundus: an ancient famine food and the world’s most pernicious weed comes back to the table. One of the world’s most notorious weeds may also be an overlooked food crop, and a potential source of novel food ingredients. An opportunity weed?
- Market remoteness and the production–diet association in smallholder food systems: Evidence from rural Nepal. Growing a diverse range of crops does not always translate into a more diverse diet. In Nepal, the relationship depends strongly on market access, highlighting the importance of infrastructure alongside agricultural diversification. Ok, forget the nut grass then, at least far from markets.
- Pollinators support the nutrition and income of vulnerable communities. Pollinator diversity makes important contributions to both dietary quality and household incomes among vulnerable communities.
- Seed ageing increases the influence of native microorganisms on germination. As seeds deteriorate, their naturally associated microorganisms play an increasingly important role in determining whether they successfully germinate. Of course microorganism diversity had to get a look-in too.
Nibbles: Kenyan crops, Omani mangoes, Wheat mixtures, Wagyu origins
- Kenyan farmers are rediscovering indigenous crops.
- Oman discovers it has lots of mango diversity, and moves to conserve it.
- Swedish student discovering varietal mixtures.
- Discover how a locally adapted cattle population in Japan became a globally recognized premium brand by maintaining distinctive genetic and breeding characteristics. Lessons there for all of the above perhaps?
Brainfood: Animal genetic resources
- Beyond the binary: Queer inclusion and invisible labour in Samoa’s fisheries value chains. Fisheries in Samoa depend on significant but largely unrecognized labour by LGBTQ+ people, particularly fa’afafine and fa’afatama, whose contributions are overlooked by policies based on rigid gender categories.
- Genetic and morphological diversity of indigenous chicken of Kenya: A Review. Kenya’s indigenous chickens are adapted to diverse environments, resilient to disease, and important for rural livelihoods.
- Uncovering the lives of rock doves (Columba livia) in Late Bronze Age Hala Sultan Tekke, Cyprus. Rock doves lived alongside people in a major Late Bronze Age port city, revealing a more complex relationship than simple domestication in which doves exploited urban environments while providing food and other resources.
- Farmed Escapees Threaten MHC Diversity in Wild Atlantic Salmon. Escaped farmed Atlantic salmon can erode the diversity of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) genes in wild populations through interbreeding, which could reduce the long-term resilience and adaptability of wild salmon.
- Creation of intermuscular bone-free genetic mutants in grass carp and multiomics reveals molecular regulatory basis. Genome editing was used to produce grass carp lacking the numerous fine intermuscular bones that reduce consumer appeal, opening new possibilities for breeding more marketable fish while deepening understanding of skeletal biology.