Neglected species

April 18, 2011April 18, 2011

A different substitute for coffee

Personally, I’m not much in favour of ersatz anything, but sometimes the short word is as good a signifier as anything. Vegetarian burgers, for example, tells you, very roughly, what you’re getting (not much). So too with various substitutes for coffee, many of which are promoted precisely because they are caffeine free. Coffee, in this case, I suppose means vaguely bitter, brown, hot beverage, possibly refreshing. Even before coming to Italy I had been aware of Caffé d’orzo, “coffee” made from ground, roasted barley (though not the extent of the marketing surrounding it). A fellow blogger, however, introduced me to a new Italian “coffee” that had been in danger of extinction and is now more widely available.

MikeH shares his discovery of Altrei coffee, made from Lupinus pilosus, grown by the villagers of Altrei near the Italian Alps. And as he says:

A nitrogen fixer with an amazing blue flower that gives us a coffee substitute. It doesn’t get much better than that. Even if the coffee doesn’t cut it, we still have a spectacular nitrogen fixer that the bees in the orchard will love.

In the interests of science I need to see whether I can find that coffee here in the city. And the SeedZoo that MikeH mentions might repay study for those of you looking for a little horticultural diversity for your plot (though I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t bemoan the lack of proper botanical names).

April 14, 2011April 14, 2011

Nibbles: SEARICE, R&D, Sustainable intensification, Biofortification, Chillies, Safe movement, Mangoes, Weeds, Berries, Blueberries, Cerrado

SEARICE explains its approach to seed sovereignty and farmer participation.
Nature on IFPRI’s report on agricultural R&D in Africa. Not pretty.
Resilience Science on the UN Special Rapporteur’s sustainable intensification thing.
The Gates Foundation is on a nutritional roll; most of yesterday’s posts are available from this round-up.
New Mexico gets all protectionist about its chillies.
IITA explains how it provides healthy germplasm. Various different interesting stories in there, stick with it.
Farmer conservation power in India.
How to control invasive species. Eat more weeds.
Presentation on Trends in global nutrition and health: Local fruits and their potential importance for nutrition and health as seen at Pavlovsk berry meeting.
Speaking of berries…
The cerrado (and its crop wild relatives) is in trouble. We talked about this, weren’t you paying attention?

April 13, 2011April 13, 2011

Nibbles: Natural history collections, Vancouver’s Old Apple Tree, Conserving local crops, Biofuels, Quinoa, Climate change

Why don’t genebanks count as natural history collections?
Saving The Old Apple Tree. That would be as opposed to any old apple tree.
“If the indigenous seeds are important enough for scientists to fight to preserve in a seed vault deep in the belly of a mountain in Norway, would it not make sense to ensure these seeds survive within their own environments?” Good question from Uganda.
Council on Bioethics says “Biofuel policies are unethical”. Here’s the Press Release.
Local women’s quinoa cookbook (in Spanish) wins prize (in France). We’re calling it quinoa, not quinua, because we want people to find us.
CARE cares about climate change and food security.

April 12, 2011April 12, 2011

Nibbles: Desert legumes, BiH, Seedbombs, Workshops on food security, Mandrake, Productivity, Peppers, Cockles, Cassava

Desert seeds go to Svalbard.
“Two young engineers, Fuad Gasi and Idin Fazlic, are in charge of the bank, which is staffed by volunteers.”
Seedbombs: recipes and legal niceties.
Achieving food security sustainably. Report of a PAR/FAO workshop.
On the other hand, here’s what Australia’s leaders heard about A Food Secure World.
How much do you really need to know about mandrake?
Do rich countries produce more per hectare? h/t GOOD
Pocket guides to chili farming. Might have a wider audience than originally intended.
Collecting cockles is women’s work, at least in Ecuador.
Why would anyone want to eat it when they could use cassava for biofuel instead?

April 11, 2011April 11, 2011

Brainfood: Brazil nut, Cassava relatives, Botanic gardens, Pollinators, OECD, IPM, Community genetics, Insect resistance, Marco Polo sheep, Abiotic stresses, Better climate change modelling

Made in Brazil? Brazil Nut, yes. The genus Manihot, not so much.
The role of botanic gardens as resource and introduction centres in the face of global change. They have one. But they need to be more like genebanks.
Global growth and stability of agricultural yield decrease with pollinator dependence. Analysis of time-series FAO production data shows that more pollinator-dependent crops have lower yield growth and lower yield stability. So both should benefit from more active management of wild pollinators and their habitats. Results can be extended to other ecosystem services but that was a bridge too far for this reader.
Draft Policy Framework for Investment in Agriculture. “The purpose of this document is … to initiate discussion.” Off you go.
Deterrent and insecticidal properties of bean seed (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) whole meal or protein extract incorporated into the diet of Callosobruchus maculatus (F.) (Coleoptera: Bruchidae). To protect chickpeas from bruchid beetles, add bean proteins.
Community genetics: at the crossroads of ecology and evolutionary genetics, a special issue of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, which includes …
… Insect-resistant biotech crops and their impacts on beneficial arthropods. The abstract gives nothing away: “The findings … are discussed.”
High connectivity among argali sheep from Afghanistan and adjacent countries means you need international collaboration for conservation. Good luck with that.
Better phenomics and genomics means you can do really cool Genetic analysis of abiotic stress tolerance in crops, and their wild relatives of course. But we knew that.
Five ways of Improving assessment and modelling of climate change impacts on global terrestrial biodiversity: more data, process-based modelling, better understanding of role of community interactions and of the effect of genetic variation, and better functional groupings of species for improved simulations of vegetation distribution.