Brainfood: Post 2020, Dietary diversity, African greens, Pollinator diversity, Seed science, Seed systems, Sorghum landraces, Wild millet, Maize microbiome, AnGR, Yosemite apples
- Actions on sustainable food production and consumption for the post-2020 global biodiversity framework. Subsidy reform, valuation, food waste reduction, sustainability standards, life cycle assessments, sustainable diets, mainstreaming biodiversity and strengthening governance. Easy, then, I guess.
- Farming System for Nutrition-a pathway to dietary diversity: Evidence from India. Well at least mainstreaming biodiversity is very easy, it seems.
- Unpacking the value of traditional African vegetables for food and nutrition security. Not so fast. African leafy greens have come a long way, but there’s still a bit of mainstreaming to go.
- Wild insect diversity increases inter-annual stability in global crop pollinator communities. Mainstreaming biodiversity should include pollinators.
- First the seed: Genomic advances in seed science for improved crop productivity and food security. Yeah, but it starts with seeds.
- Pluralistic Seed System Development: A Path to Seed Security? Though sometimes the seeds don’t get to who needs them.
- Farmers’ Perception about the Use of Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) Landraces and Their Genetic Erosion in South Wollo Administrative Zone, Ethiopia. Sorghum landraces could do with some mainstreaming. Maybe pluralistic seed systems would help.
- Phenotypic variation and adaptation in morphology and salt spray tolerance in coastal and inland populations of Setaria viridis in central Japan. Mainstreaming diversity in a crop may involve protecting the habitats of its wild relatives.
- Maize germplasm chronosequence shows crop breeding history impacts recruitment of the rhizosphere microbiome. And not in a good way. Looks like mainstreaming biodiversity should also include the root microbiome.
- Farm animal genetic resources and the COVID-19 pandemic. Agroecology is the high road to mainstreaming farm animal biodiversity.
- Genetic data inform Yosemite National Park’s apple orchard management guidelines. Mainstreaming biodiversity in action.
Nibbles: Fungi at MSB, Seed companies declaration, Seed libraries, Alliance genebanks
- Seed in genebanks have fungi, and that could be a good thing.
- Seed sector mentions genebanks, and that’s a good thing.
- Seed libraries are great.
- You can take virtual tours of a couple of CGIAR genebanks, which can’t be bad.
Brainfood: Sweet cassava, Iranian wheat, Wild tomato, Ethiopian sorghum, Portuguese beans, Wild Algerian oats, Angolan Vigna, Apple tree, Regeneration, Robusta climate, Bronze Age diets, Maize domestication, Veld fruits, Red yeasts, Remote sensing
- Large‐scale genome‐wide association study, using historical data, identifies conserved genetic architecture of cyanogenic glucoside content in cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) root. Two loci explain about a third of variation in HCN content.
- Strategic use of Iranian bread wheat landrace accessions for genetic improvement: Core set formulation and validation. Not much structure, but some accessions are good for multiple traits.
- Population studies of the wild tomato species Solanum chilense reveal geographically structured major gene-mediated pathogen resistance. Not all populations of a crop wild relatives will be equally useful in breeding.
- Genetic diversity of Ethiopian sorghum reveals signatures of climatic adaptation. 12 sub-populations, with about 10% of the variation explained by either agroecology or geography.
- Common bean SNP alleles and candidate genes affecting photosynthesis under contrasting water regimes. And all in just 158 Portuguese accessions.
- Genetic Diversity and Population Structure of Algerian Endemic Plant Species Avena macrostachya Bal. ex Cross. et Durieu. Collecting sites need to be visited again. I can vouch that doing so would be very interesting.
- Conservation priorities for African Vigna species: Unveiling Angola’s diversity hotspots. It’s a huge collecting gap.
- Remote sensing enabled essential biodiversity variables for biodiversity assessment and monitoring: technological advancement and potentials. The Remote Sensing enabled Essential Biodiversity Variables are a work in progress. Would like to see it applied to those Vignas.
- Genomic consequences of apple improvement. …are relative genetic uniformity.
- Genome-Wide DArTSeq Genotyping and Phenotypic Based Assessment of Within and Among Accessions Diversity and Effective Sample Size in the Diverse Sorghum, Pearl Millet, and Pigeonpea Landraces. Optimal sample size for regeneration of genebank accessions varies from 50-200 among crops.
- Not so robust: Robusta coffee production is highly sensitive to temperature. Looking at historical production data from 800 farms in SE Asia suggests optimal temperature is below 20°C, a lot lower than suggested by the species’ home range in the Congo Basin.
- Exotic foods reveal contact between South Asia and the Near East during the second millennium BCE. Bronze Age Levantines ate bananas and soya, according to dental calculus. No word on coffee.
- Archaeological Central American maize genomes suggest ancient gene flow from South America. Pre-domesticated maize was taken to South America, where is was finished off away from introgression from pesky wild relatives, and then taken back home.
- Fruits of the Veld: Ecological and Socioeconomic Patterns of Natural Resource Use across South Africa. South Africans collect and eat a lot of wild fruits, but could plant and eat them more.
- Exploring the Biodiversity of Red Yeasts for In Vitro and In Vivo Phenotypes Relevant to Agri-Food-Related Processes. Which is interesting because they can delay food spoilage and also provide nutritional supplements. Though personally I’d prefer veld fruits.
Nibbles: Macron magic, UK Strategic Priorities Fund, Macadamia, Tepary, Nordic spuds, Diversification, Carolina rice, Couscous, Wild tobacco, Yeast diversity, Da 5 Foods
- France pushes for agricultural development. Money to follow mouth?
- Meanwhile, Britain puts its money into its own food systems.
- The macadamia is not diverse enough. Who’d have thought it.
- Couscous gets protected. Phew, ’cause it’s right on the verge of extinction, isn’t it.
- I hope tepary beans don’t become the next macadamia.
- Reviving old potatoes the Nordic way.
- Malaysia told to look beyond oil palm. To tepary and macadamia, maybe?
- Speaking of diversification, how about Laotian rice in Appalachia?
- Chasing the wild tobacco. See what I did there?
- Yeast has been domesticated by bakers into two genetic groups: industrial and artisanal sourdough.
- A history of the world in entirely the wrong 5 foods.