Category: Information

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Request for pulse nutritional data

As part of the International Year of Pulses, we are working on a global database on the composition of pulses, starting with the collection of analytical data. We have found many scientific articles on pulses, which we are compiling. As usual, most data are on proximates, minerals and amino acids. If you have any unpublished data on the composition of pulses or their products, we would be extremely happy to include them into our database, especially if they contain vitamins, but we would be interested in any compositional data, or if they are on processing influence, fermentation, soaking etc.

If you have any analytical compositional data to share please send the sources or the compiled data to Fernanda Grande, (Fernanda[dot]Grande[at]fao[dot]org) who is coordinating this project.

That’s from Ruth Charrondiere, INFOODS coordinator at FAO. There’s more information on the IYP website. Seems like a worthwhile endeavour, please give (data) generously. Oh, and if you want to meet Ruth and her colleagues, and learn more about food composition tables in general, check this out.

LATER: Wondering what to do with all that data? Here’s a thought…

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Will international tea party include genebanks?

Announcements such as this from UC Davis, of the launch of the Global Tea Initiative, make me wish there was a market for roving agrobiodiversity bloggers and tweeters. Alas, I’m reduced to the usual ploy of asking participants if they’d like to blog the thing for us.

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Will genebanks be discussed? There aren’t that many collections around the world, and one of them, in Japan, accounts for 7,500 of the 11,700 accessions WIEWS knows about. And where’s China? Can’t help thinking that’s not altogether healthy. Lots to talk about…

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Talking non-biotech coffee

I have said before that I would have a priori doubts about anything calling itself Talking Biotech. But I stand by what I also said in that post about the actual podcast of that name, by Dr Kevin Folta of the University of Florida, being largely free — though by no means entirely, alas — of the narrowness, nerdiness and preachyness that the name conjures up, at least for me. And so I congratulate Dr Folta on receiving a few days ago the Borlaug CAST Communications Award, given out annually by the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST). The recent episode on coffee, which we have have already Nibbled, is a pretty good introduction to his podcast, if you’re new to it. And I don’t say that just because I’m somewhat involved in the development of the coffee genetic resources conservation strategy mentioned therein.

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Nibbles: Drying seeds, Saving citrus, Shakespeare’s food, Ganja double, TPP, Aurochs art, Coffee diversity, Biofortification, Training, Breeding booklet