Nutrition

July 3, 2015July 4, 2015

Quadruple diversification

Sometimes, a tweet says it all.

@agrobiodiverse Quadruple diversification: diversify production 4 sustainability, resilience & choice, diversify consumption for health.

— Lawrence Haddad (@l_haddad) July 3, 2015

But read the long version of the argument in a blog post on obesity by Uma Lele, Co-chair of the Food Security Information Network (FSIN) Technical Working Group on Measuring Food and Nutrition Security.

July 3, 2015July 3, 2015

Nibbles: Monocultures redux, Seedless watermelons, Red kiwifruit, Herbaria problems, Forest foods, Sorghum beer, SIRGEALC, Chinese veggies, Organic tomatoes, Andean women, Rise origins, Fermentation

Deploy your cover crop diversity in time rather than space. But deploy it.
Triploid goodness.
Searching for a red kiwi.
Herbaria on the rack.
Let them eat non-timber forest products.
Sorghum spurts in Kenya. Because beer.
Sign up for SIRGEALC 10.
Knowing your 菠菜 from your 西洋菜.
400 tomato varieties. No pesticides. No water. No problem.
Women are conserving Andean crops. Sure, though with some occasional help from genebanks.
The Rice Origins Wars continue.
Sauerkraut changed the world.

June 30, 2015June 29, 2015

Nibbles: Organic research, Plant models, Tabasco peppers, Andean shepherds, Weird pigs, Wild rice harvesting, Heritage ducks, Nutrient content

An investment in organic research. At last.
Plant models go online. Not those kinds of models.
Where the peppers for Tabasco sauce come from.
Apparently, “[w]hite alpacas have been overbred.” But not that kind of breeding, I think.
Pigs are weird.
Learn how to make poles. Yes, those kinds of poles.
Even ducks can be heritage.
Higher carbon dioxide bad for nutrition.

June 29, 2015June 23, 2015

Brainfood: Nigerian fruit & veg, South African veggies, Veggies in home gardens, Standardizing phenotyping, Potato diversity, Triploid chamomile, Chocolate chip, Fungi & oils, Melon diversity, CC and grasslands

Promoting food security and enhancing Nigeria’s small farmers’ income through value-added processing of lesser-known and under-utilized indigenous fruits and vegetables. It’s the infrastructure, stupid.
The role of wild vegetables in household food security in South Africa: A review. No, it’s the information, stupid.
Indigenous wild food plants in home gardens: improving health and income — with the assistance of agricultural extension. Nope, it’s the extension, stupid.
Towards recommendations for metadata and data handling in plant phenotyping. It’s the standardization, stupid.
Cytoplasmic diversity in potato breeding: case study from the International Potato Center. It’s a genetic bottleneck, stupid.
Towards breeding of triploid chamomile (Matricaria recutita L.) — Ploidy variation within German chamomile of various origins. It’s the triploids, stupid.
Making a chocolate chip: development and evaluation of a 6K SNP array for Theobroma cacao. Oh, very clever, now everybody and their uncle will be able to breed cacao, stupid.
Arbuscular mycorrhiza differentially affects synthesis of essential oils in coriander and dill. It’s not just genetics, stupid.
Comparative transcriptional profiling analysis of developing melon (Cucumis melo L.) fruit from climacteric and non-climacteric varieties. It’s the sugar metabolism, stupid.
Climate-driven diversity loss in a grassland community. It’s the increasing aridity, stupid.

June 26, 2015June 26, 2015

Nibbles: AVRDC genebank, Grits, Sikhs & parmesan, Congolese gouda, New rice, Poisonous plants, Bush tucker, Co-evolution, Amazonian medicinals, Native American usufruct

World Vegetable Centre looking for a genebank manager.
What’s a grit?
Who did you say saved parmesan? Who did you say is making gouda?
Philippines gets some new rice varieties. No, but these are climate-resilient.
A poisonous plants gardens fits perfectly with my mood today.
Involve native people in the development of a native foods industry. Well, duh.
Blame butterflies for broccoli.
There are a lot of medicinal plants in the Amazon.
Wild rice (wild but not rice) vs pipeline.