- The SDGs need proper long-term financing, say Prof. Jeffrey Sachs and co-authors. Maybe he’d like to have a look at the the Crop Trust’s endowment fund for SDG 2.5?
- There’s a 15x return on investment from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)? Ok, do Genesys next.
- Want to revitalize the food system? Think lentils, bananas, kale and walnuts. My take? Why stop there?
- I mean, there’s all sorts of cool pulses besides lentils, nice as they are.
- Really no end to them.
- Want some cock beer with your Lincolnshire beans? I bet you do.
- Shout out for the Access Agriculture farmer-to-farmer educational video platform from the Seed System Newsletter. Nothing on walnuts, alas. Or cock beer.
- As we’re on online resources, there’s also the Support Centre for Agriculture and Nutrition Research (SCANR). It “connects researchers with resources and guidance for carrying out interdisciplinary research related to agriculture, food systems, nutrition, and health.” I wonder what it has to say about walnuts.
- Nut genebank gets an upgrade in Oregon. No, not walnuts, alas. It’s Miller time!
- Lots of genebank action in Hawaii too.
- Livestock also getting the genebank treatment in the US.
- But not just in the US: Norway too. Love these back-from-the-brink stories.
- The regional genebank for the Pacific is one of my favourites.
- It’s up there with that of the World Vegetable Centre, which is getting a write-up in the New Yorker, of all places.
- Of course you can have community-level genebanks too. Here are two examples from India: conserving millets and mangoes.
- Maybe there should be more genebanks for wild food species, but these cool in situ conservation stories will do for now.
- Investing in community farming projects can revitalise degraded lands.
- Those farming project don’t have to involve orphan crops, but it wouldn’t hurt.
- You could do participatory plant breeding on them, couldn’t you. This book says that be just the ticket for rural revitalisation. Lots of revitalisation in these Nibbles.
- They would help with malnutrition where maize biofortification hasn’t worked so well, for example.
- Maize? Maize needs to be decolonized, not biofortified.
- Extension workers need to be better at identifying different crop varieties. IITA is on the case, but doesn’t seem to have thought about putting the data on GBIF. Walnuts next?
- Wait, what’s a variety?
Nibbles: Business, CGIAR & FARA, Agrobiodiversity Index, Beans, Artisanal sake, Nabhan on mezcals, Kernza anniversary, Fish diversity, Amazon trees, Dark extinctions
- Gardening pioneer says “Be as diverse as possible!“
- Frank Elderson, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB and Vice-Chair of the Supervisory Board of the ECB, says businesses should be as biodiverse as possible.
- CGIAR and FARA launch an initiative to transform agriculture in Africa but the role of biodiversity is unclear.
- Maybe they should embrace the Agrobiodiversity Index, now that it has won a big prize.
- Speaking of agricultural biodiversity and prizes, here’s a podcast on the EXARC Experimental Archaeology Award winning project “Investigating the Origin of the Common Bean in the New World.”
- A trio of pieces on agrobiodiverse products: sake, mezcal, Kernza.
- Don’t forget fish need to be as diverse as possible too.
- Ok, not agriculture-related, but this visual essay on finding the tallest tree in the Amazon is really cool.
- Not so cool: some species you can only see in natural history collections. The world is not as diverse as possible.
Nibbles: AGRA, National security, Filipino fruits, Scuba rice, Tasteless pea, Blue Jay bean, Taiwan genebanks, Agrobiodiversity walks
- NGOs call on USAID to stop supporting AGRA. And not for the first time either.
- Report calls for US to invest more in agricultural research in support of global food security. AGRA unavailable for comment.
- A pean to the fruit trees of the Philippines. I’ll second that.
- Scuba rice comes to Africa. What took it so long?
- Apparently there’s a “wild pea plant” in India in which the flavour gene is turned off, and that’s a good thing. Going to have to look into this.
- A famous Canadian bean makes a come-back. Of course there are famous Canadian beans. More famous than that tasteless pea anyway.
- Nice piece on Taiwan’s crop genebanks. Lots of famous varieties in there no doubt.
- I really like the concept of “agrobiodiversity walks.” There should be one built around that wild tasteless pea.
Brainfood – Nutrition Edition: Sweet potato double, Seaweed, Fruits & vegetables, Chickpeas, African Indigenous crops, Vegetables, Grapes, Meat
- Predictors of vitamin A rich food consumption among women living in households growing orange-fleshed sweetpotatoes in selected regions in Uganda. Women who knew less about vitamin A consumed more vitamin A-rich foods. Go figure.
- Degeneration of cleaned-up, virus-tested sweetpotato seed vines in Tanzania. Those orange-fleshed sweetpotatoes better be regularly cleaned, or resistant to viruses.
- Seaweed’s contribution to food security in low- and middle-income countries: Benefits from production, processing and trade. It’s the income. Maybe people should sell orange-fleshed sweetpotatoes rather than eat them?
- Fruit and vegetable processing and consumption: Knowledge, attitude, and practices among rural women in East Africa. Again, more knowledge, less consumption. Maybe equipment would help?
- Characterization of chickpea cultivars and trait specific germplasm for grain protein content and amino acids composition and identification of potential donors for genetic improvement of its nutritional quality. Hopefully knowing about their nutritional value will result in more use by breeders. Consumption is, however, another story.
- The Future of Food: Domestication and Commercialization of Indigenous Food Crops in Africa over the Third Decade (2012–2021). More knowledge about Indigenous crops by policy makers is needed for more consumption by regular people.
- Vegetables for Healthy Diets in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Scoping Review of the Food Systems Literature. Knowledge is increasing, but gaps remain, in particular joining-up-the-dots along the value chain kind.
- Tiangong Chuxin: An Early Maturing Pumpkin-shaped Grape Cultivar. I don’t care about its nutritional value or even taste: I’d eat it just for its shape.
- The societal role of meat—what the science says. The case for meat.
Nibbles: Ancient grains, Small millets, Wheat, Kelp genebank, Mongolian breeds, Pumpkin seeds, Bioversity & CIAT, Tree history, Cool maps, Business & biodiversity
- Make Me Care About…ancient grains.
- Not enough? Here’s more.
- Wait, does wheat count?
- Make Me Care About…kelp.
- Make Me Care About…rare livestock breeds. In Mongolia. Jeremy unavailable for comment.
- Make Me Care About…pumpkins.
- Make Me Care About…Bioversity International…and its Alliance with CIAT.
- Make Me Care About…old writing about trees.
- Make Me Care About…the World.
- Make the Private Sector Care About…biodiversity, nature and landscape restoration.