FAO’s online Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum) has just concluded its discussion on “Strengthening Food Security by Empowering Farmers to Contribute to Seed Biodiversity.” A proceedings and summary are available. There were about a dozen contributions. All very well informed, but nothing that was said struck me as particularly novel, including what I contributed. But I’m just be a jaded old curmudgeon. See what you think.
The cultural significance of corn colour
MAT’s post on the cultural consequences of corn colour, which we nibbled earlier today, has been brought to my attention. Immodesty forces me to note that we have explored similar byways here ourselves. Luigi experienced first hand contempt for yellow corn among a small sample of ethnic Africans. MAT’s assertion that “corn meal in the United States is yellow,” is undone by the clear north-south divide in preferences, noted here. 1 The whole business of yellow foods’ nutritional value is touched on in many places, not least here. And, of course, there’s the whole orange-fleshed sweet potato saga. Somehow, these “soft” ideas about culture seldom get the respect they deserve when talk turns to improving staple crops.
Nibbles: Vet, Pastoralists, Eggplant, US food map, Mexican food, Poultry, Maize, GMOs
- What’s it like being the only vet in a country? The BBC tells us.
- The CBD on how to be a good pastoralist.
- James does a mini-roundup of the India GM brinjal to-do.
- Mapping the fast food culture.
- Mexico wants Unesco to recognize culinary traditions. As if tamales were in danger of extinction. Didn’t France ask for the same last year?
- Heirloom chickens don’t taste like chicken.
- Deconstructing the cultural significance of the colour of corn.
- “GM crops: still not a panacea for poor farmers.” In other news, still no cure for cancer.
Documenting threatened languages in PNG
This project is recording and transcribing indigenous languages of Papua New Guinea, using voice recorders donated by Olympus. Papua New Guinea is home to over 800 languages, many with few remaining speakers, and many with minimal linguistic documentation. The work is being done by university staff and students who speak the local languages.
We hope to collect narratives, dialogues and songs for 100 languages, using the technique of “Basic Oral Language Documentation” (BOLD). Materials will be freely available for non-commercial use. The project runs for one year, from 21 February 2010 (UNESCO International Mother Language Day).
Such a cool idea. Wouldn’t it be great if they included in their documentation the local names of varieties of such crops as banana, taro, sugarcane, yams and sweet potato? These show incredible diversity in PNG, and are so central to the culture. Via.
Ancient Egyptian toffs were wine snobs
An article in The Independent a few days ago on daily life in ancient Egypt included this intriguing snippet of information.
Similarly to today perhaps, wine was the booze of choice for high society individuals. Fine wines were labelled with the date, vineyard and variety as the tax assessors requested, such as the ones found in Tutankhamun’s tomb.
I don’t know about you, but I’d love to see a list of ancient Egyptian grape variety names…