Nibbles

Nibbles: Homeric food, Two atlases, Cacao breeding, Smart foods, Lancet/EAT, Wild grapes, Landrace maize, Training breeders, Apios, Sustainable use, Cost of nutrition

Did Homeric heroes eat a lot of meat? The answer will surprise you. A thread.
Social food atlas to be launched.
Atlas of West African food systems already launched. Very different thing.
Saving chocolate through biotech.
What makes foods smart?
Pros and cons of the Lancet/EAT thing. And more.
Waking up the wine industry to the beauty grapevine wild relatives.
The magos of maize, from Mexico to the US, and back again.
Plant breeding training in Africa.
Pre-colonial North America: not wilderness, not dense forest, and not just the Three Sisters, lots of Apios too. Lots.
Food AND biodiversity.
Nutritious OR affordable.

Did ancient Iberians domesticate foxes?
Myanmar genebank staff receive training in Australia.
Why genebanks are important. Though not so much for wild rice. No, not that wild rice, we’re talking Zizania here.
Genebanks can be community-friendly.
Improving cowpea and banana. Need genebanks for that.
Picturing genebanks.
Drinking for conservation.
Mapping tree diversity.
Some grasses steal genes from neighbours.
Polish hops for Polish beer.

Genebanks, crop wild relatives, friends, even a cool title — this one has it all: The New Potato.
Latest on the CATIE seed collection.
The wonder of Ethiopian food.
Which I guess can include teff again now.
Digitizing the Smithsonian — fast.
George Washington Carver celebrated.
Oh look, there’s a new version of SPAM. Let the GISsing begin.

“It’s embarrassing if your lab is the only one that isn’t sharing data.” One would hope so, but…
CRISPR snips out virus from banana genome.
CIP-related potato varieties are planted on about 1.43 Mha, or 19% of total area.
Saving Peru’s agricultural biodiversity is more than just about markets.
I suspect the same is the case for Madagascar’s wild coffees.
Studying evolution experimentally. Using mice. Plants would have been cooler.
More on Access to Seeds Index: “Seeds of Nope” seems unnecessarily negative, though.

Access to Seeds comes out with 2019 edition. Not much change, alas. LATER: Ok, I stand corrected. And spanked.
Maybe this ICRISAT online seed tool will help with that access.
How many people will have access to this high protein rice?
Indigenous American grape species: more than just rootstocks.
The religion of diets.
Bush tucker is a religion for some.