- Someone needs to tell the Los Angeles Times that plantains are not the “tropical cousin of the banana”.
- Someone else needs to tell “British and American agricultural advisers” that poppies are generally going to be a better bet than cotton in Helmland Province. Like they were in Ghazipur.
- Is there anyone who can tell schools not to serve whole fruit, when children prefer bite-sized pieces?
- And who will tell us what happens at the Workshop in the EU Seed Law, in Vienna today and tomorrow?
- In which we are once again told that sustainable intensification is the answer, but not how to do it.
- A tool for helping agricultural development types figure out what to do about nutrition.
- Let the Times of India tell you about how wild fruits and seeds are used in traditional medicine.
- ISRIC tells the world about its new soil maps of Africa.
- And the US government about its biodiversity, also in maps.
- Lots of people recently told their stories of how genomics is going to revolutionize genetic resources use to a meeting in ICRISAT, and now ICRISAT tells us.
- A new film tells the story of rice savers in India. Not, presumably, though, Bihar.
- Are you really telling me Genghis Khan was a food waste champion?
Nibbles: Artichokes and bracts, Colour, DsG and experts, Fish, Genetics, Horseradish, Improved nutrition, Kenyan sorghum, Plant Press
- A is for artichoke, B is for bract. A botanist in the kitchen explains.
- C is for colour and color, both of which affect the nutritional value of rice.
- D is for Directorate of the EU, three of which are at a standstill as an expert is apparently blocking all attempts to loosen EU seed laws.
- F is for fish, which smart farmers are helping to survive low water in rice paddies.
- G is for the genes tweaked by scientists to deliver seeds without sex.
- H is for horseradish, whose root problems can now be solved. In other H-related news, horseradish has root problems.
- I is for improvements in child nutrition and less stunting is many countries.
- J is for Jeremy, who must have some time on his hands.
- K is for Kenya, where clever scientists have created Striga-resistant sorghum. Again.
- L is for Lodoicea, and other botanical treasures.
Nibbles: Wine and climate change, Botanic gardens video, Forest restoration video, Deforestation live, European breeders meet, Yams and gender and insurance, N, Fish pots, Ancient ag books, Bioinformatics training, Sustinable ag
- Blogging machine Tom Barnett worried about effect of climate change on his favourite tipple.
- BGCI shell out for cool animation on social role of botanic gardens, and it’s totally worth it.
- As also, but differently, are IUCN’s videos on forest restoration.
- All the world’s forests, online, any day now, to monitor the opposite of their restoration.
- Europe tries to stimulate innovation in plant breeding. By holding a meeting. Ah, but there’s a hashtag.
- Development economists illustrate interesting point about gender and yam cultivation with photo of sweet potatoes.
- The organic attitude to inorganic nitrogen.
- Late Pleistocene hunter-gatherers ate fish. Well I never.
- Reviews of couple books on agricultural origins.
- Need bioinformatics training? Who doesn’t.
- ICRAF reviews efforts to monitor sustainable intensification. Somewhere. I can’t for the life of me find the actual document.
Nibbles: Goats, Tomato clones, Wheat breeding
- Rwandan women receive gift of goats. Now all they need is to get over the taboo on drinking goat milk.
- Immortal tomatoes. Oh no! They’re clones! Eeeeeek!
- Breeding heat-tolerant wheats. Wonder whether they’ll be doing it with doubled haploids.
Food composition training materials planned
Are you working in a university which includes or is intending to include a course on food composition in its curriculum? well, if so, you might be interested in this recent announcement from INFOODS coordinator Ruth Charrondiere on FAO’s nutrition listserv.
I am pleased to announce that FAO/INFOODS is developing an e-learning course on food composition which is intended mainly for universities to easily incorporate food composition into their curricula. It will also be useful for self-learners and food composition courses. The e-learning course will supplement the FAO/INFOODS Food Composition Study Guide and its accompanying 12 PowerPoint Presentations (see http://www.fao.org/infoods/infoods/training/en/). It will be available in English. You will be able to download it free-of-charge from the INFOODS website and receive it on CD. We intend to launch it at the 10th IFDC in Granada.
So now you have no excuse for not documenting food composition data at the crop variety level.