- FAO says genes are good for climate.
- India’s first private sector genebank established.
- Well, at least one person is really excited about DivSeek.
- And one major journal.
- DuPont video on increasing sorghum Fe and Zn levels in Africa.
- Will they sell it through local vendors or supermarkets?
- Let them eat enset. Which is not, however, on this list of today’s top healthy crops.
- Neither is breadfruit, but that shouldn’t stop you going to this conference in Trinidad.
- Ford Denison writes about his appearance on Eat This Podcast.
- Enough with the scary chocolate stories already.
- Here, go play with this app about the flora of the paramo from Missouri Botanical Garden.
- The CIMMYT genebank in the news.
- Pig milk in your tea, vicar?
Nibbles: Tilapia pros & cons, Cotton history, Potato diversity, Mars sustainability, Forest conservation, Homegardens, Village forests, 14th century gardening, American chestnut, Soil barcoding, Non-cow milk, Conserving Spanish grapes, Biodiversity & poverty
- The truth about tilapia. Well, according to Fox News, anyway.
- “..the greatest industry that ever had or could by possibility have ever existed in any age or country.” Go on, guess. No, not tilapia aquaculture, though it has time.
- Modern Farmer gives us its hipster take on the potato. And bows out?
- Mars unleashes its sustainability policies.
- The Forest Stewardship Council gives examples of community-based conservation success stories.
- Homegardens for nutrition. (No, no pre-cooked bean products here).
- Ok, put the two previous together and you get this: Sumatran village forests.
- Bet those villagers don’t need a gardening manual, unlike Henry VIII of England.
- The American chestnut continues its comeback. Manual probably available.
- After barcoding: metabarcoding.
- Symposium on non-cow milk. Sounds like fun.
- “With more diversity, the more tools we have to fight against problems like climate change.” Yes, even with wine grapes.
- Biodiversity goods and bads: the role of biodiversity in poverty alleviation.
Nibbles: Potatoes, Saffron, Mammoths, Yield variation, African CWR, Indian cattle
- China needs potatoes. And McDonalds.
- And Afghanistan needs saffron.
- Mammoths killed by people, not asteroids.
- A third of yield variability due to climate.
- Conserving crop wild relatives in southern Africa.
- “The fascination for exotic cattle breeds has been the bane of Indian dairy industry.”
Nibbles: Tonga, Seeds, Fusarium wilt, Fungal beer, Cover crops, Gates Foundation
- Tonga joins the ITPGRFA. About time too. I started talking to them about it 10 years ago.
- What exactly does it mean to be “amped” about seeds? And do they have to be organic? And do these Filipino ones qualify?
- Enough with the banana scare stories already!
- Go on, nominate someone for the World Food Prize.
- Mushroom beer? Yeah, ok.
- USDA waxes nerdy about cover crops.
- Gateses’ Big Bet for African agriculture. Move along, nothing to see here.
Chefs help conserve peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
I believe we have Nibbled both of these articles, but I think they could stand another few minutes in the limelight. One describes how self-described “farmer-scientist” Dr Brian Ward of Clemson University — with a little help from his friends — is bringing back from near extinction a peanut variety called Carolina Africa Runner:
Luckily, in the 1940s North Carolina State University collected samples of a variety of peanuts during a breeding program, and the Carolina’s germplasm was preserved.
The second article is about maverick Washington State University breeder Dr Stephen Jones’s attempts to come up with better tasting bread.
Several years ago, he started a project called the Bread Lab, a Washington State program that approaches grain breeding with a focus on the eventual culinary end goal. The idea came about because Jones says he was tired of the USDA and Big Ag dictating the traits that he needed to breed for. “They would tell us [a certain wheat variety] doesn’t make a good loaf of bread. Well, what they meant was an industrial, high-speed, mixing, full of junk, white — just lily-white — bread,” Jones says. “And we didn’t want that opinion, so we had nowhere to go.”
WhatOne of the several things the stories have in common is the involvement of chefs. Now, there must also be one out there interested in heirloom fruits. Then we could bring them all together…