- The Silk Road Gourmet talks about Reconstructing Cuisines And Recipes From The Ancient World.
- Colin Tudge splutters about The Founding Fables of Industrialised Agriculture.
- India’s ongoing onion crisis still a vale of tears.
- But India’s jowar (sorghum) still offers superficial health benefits.
- You know how all the US soybeans are being exported to China? Think again.
- How the nasturtium got its spur; not a just-so-story.
- California discovers the productive miracle of fish in rice paddies.
Nibbles: Oca, Tasmanian Potatoes, Pasture diversity, Training for NUS, Kales
- There are still people who think oca is a kind of potato. After all we’ve done for them.
- And speaking of New Zealand Yams, here’s an old article about Tasmanian boutique potatoes.
- Pasture diversity for animal welfare and profit
- Young scientist in sub-Saharan Africa? Get trained on aspects of neglected and underutilized species.
- So you thought kale was an ancient veggie? Think again. NYT features kale innovators.
Brainfood: Chinese wheat, Kenyan sorghum, Yugoslav maize, RSA homegardens, Oysters, Conservation decision making, CWR list, Soil biota, Arbuscular mychorriza, Land grabbing, Biofuels
- Evaluation of Genetic Diversity of Sichuan Common Wheat Landraces in China by SSR Markers. “Our results suggested that Sichuan common wheat landraces is a useful genetic resource for genetic research and wheat improvement.” When is anything not?
- Identification and evaluation of sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (l.) moench) germplasm from Eastern Kenya. “These untapped resources could be useful in crop improvement programmes and in food security.” See what I mean?
- Genetic assessment of maize landraces from former Yugoslavia. No, wait, don’t tell me… “The results revealed a significant genetic heterogeneity indicating that the analyzed landraces could be valuable sources of genetic variability.” There you go.
- The Role of Home Gardens in Household Food Security in Eastern Cape: A Case Study of Three Villages in Nkonkobe Municipality. People who keep home gardens eat and sell the stuff they grow in their home gardens. And yet they need to be empowered. Oh, and naturally “[f]indings of this study will be useful to governmental and non-governmental bodies involved in promoting food security in the rural households.”
- A modelling study of the role of marine protected areas in metapopulation genetic connectivity in Delaware Bay oysters. Gotta site your seed populations for restoration with care.
- Conservation Genetic Resources for Effective Species Survival (ConGRESS): Bridging the divide between conservation research and practice. An online tool for making decisions about conservation, including based on genetic data, such as the kind above. May even be applicable to agricultural biodiversity.
- A prioritized crop wild relative inventory to help underpin global food security. Well here’s one decision making tool that certainly is applicable to agrobiodiversity.
- The impact of agricultural practices on soil biota: A regional study. It’s not good.
- Sustainable agriculture: possible trajectories from mutualistic symbiosis and plant neodomestication. Gotta make use of those arbuscular mycorrhiza. Wonder if these guys have read the paper above though.
- Rethinking Land Grab Ontology. “Responsible investments in land acquisition” or “responsibly destroying the world’s peasantry”? Not sure why nobody looks at the agricultural biodiversity implications of all this.
- Extension of energy crops on surplus agricultural lands: A potentially viable option in developing countries while fossil fuel reserves are diminishing. Something to do on all that surplus land being sold off?
Nibbles: Straw, Straw man, Synthetic straw man, Burning straw man, Banana diversity, Perennial grains, Right to Food, Fibrous meatballs, Fermentation, Colombian music
- There’s a straw shortage? Well, of course there is.
- And this week’s prize for most straw-clutching headline goes to “Mathematical study of photosynthesis clears the path to developing new super-crops”.
- On the other hand, why bother mimicking C4 when you could just reinvent photosynthesis?
- Speaking of C4, maybe less US maize will be turned into fuel next year.
- The “portal” to the diversity of bananas gets an update. But don’t go looking for plantains.
- Perennial grains still under discussion.
- The Right To Food and Nutrition Watch – a name to sow confusion – has made its 2013 articles available.
- Nutrition, these days, means adequate fibre, so of course the natural way to do that is to add citrus fibre to meatballs. Smacks forehead.
- Science Friday does fermentation, with nutritional benefits.
- And a little something for the weekend: Colombian artists sing in solidarity with farmers. Waiting for a review from Our Man in Cali.
Nibbles: Food sovereignty, Calories, Fortilizers, Barley, Climate changed coconuts, Global hunger index, Halloween food, World Food Day
- Native tribes in the US want more food sovereignty.
- People underreport the calories they consume shock. Research sponsored by Coke not a shock.
- For nutritionally fortified food, fortify the fertilizers first.
- German scientists working round to clock to decipher barley DNA and save Oktoberfest from climate-induced drought.
- Climate change, however, is a double-edged sword for coconuts in Guyana.
- 2013 Global Hunger Index says world hunger remains “serious”.
- Is all that scary enough to put you off your food?
- Relax, it’s World Food Day, everything’s gonna be alright.