I don’t think we nibbled it here, but I did post on Facebook a news story about how Italy is thinking of banning ethnic restaurants. This elicited more comments than I usually get. One friend said he’d send me a kebab in the mail. I politely declined, citing health concerns. Another suggested such a ban would be a good idea, as most ethnic restaurants in Italy are terrible, even when — or is it because — they absorb local ingredients and ways of doing things. 1 My wife wondered whether the move might set off tit-for-tat bans on Italian restaurants — including pizzerias 2 — around the world. And another commenter wondered what Italian cuisine would be like if pasta sauces featured only indigenous agrobiodiversity. That means no tomatoes. One sauce that I could think of that is composed solely of ingredients that could be said to be native to Italy — whatever that might mean — is pesto. Anyway, one thing is for certain, such a cuisine would probably drive me to kebabs.
Nibbles: Vanilla, Bhutan, Oca, Satoyama
- Vanilla domestication 101.
- Bhutan ponders biodiversity database. We say: Don’t forget the crops, people.
- “Crap crops of the Incas.” One man’s on-off relationship with oca.
Satoyama: Japan’s Secret Water Garden. A different approach to rice.
Nibbles: China, Coconut, Sheep, Water, Plums, Kew
- “These young people can’t farm.”
- Let the people tap!
- Wolf sighted in Massif Central. France surrenders.
- Fascinating discussion of how much water farmers “use”.
- “Blueberries have some stiff competition”. From plums.
- Millennium Seed Bank hit by credit crunch.
Sick, but good
Eat plants because they are disesased? You gotta be kidding, right? Well, no, as we’ve talked about here before. And as Jeremy goes into in some detail over at Vaviblog. Know any more examples? Leave him a comment.
Seed Systems and Agrobiodiversity: The Book
The Dutch ambassador to Ethiopia in his opening speech stressed that a well functioning seed system is crucial for improving food security, increasing agricultural export, and conserving agrobiodiversity.
That’s one enlightened ambassador. He was launching a book, which you can download in its entirety: Farmers, seeds and varieties. Supporting informal seed supply in Ethiopia, edited by Thijssen, M.H., Zewdie Bishaw, Abdurahman Beshir, Walter S. de Boef.