- Farming for balanced nutrition: an agricultural approach to addressing micronutrient deficiency among the vulnerable poor in Africa. Dietary diversity is a good idea for many reasons.
- Cultivar characterization of Aegean olive oils with respect to their volatile compounds. Only two varieties, and they do differ.
- Beef Authentication and Retrospective Dietary Verification Using Stable Isotope Ratio Analysis of Bovine Muscle and Tail Hair. Back40 has an explanation of why this is more important than all the certification schemes in the world.
- Promoting native trees in shade coffee plantations of southern India: comparison of growth rates with the exotic Grevillea robusta. Some native species might be able to compete, more research needed.
- Regeneration of Vitellaria paradoxa and Parkia biglobosa in a parkland in Southern Burkina Faso. Vitellaria doing better, possibly because farmers are overharvesting Parkia seeds.
- Defining the poor by the rural communities of Burkina Faso: implications for the development of sustainable parkland management. It’s complicated.
- Does soil biota benefit from organic farming in complex vs. simple landscapes? Organic farming increases weed diversity. No word on what it does for birds, but…
- Species richness and composition of bird communities in various field margins of Poland. Some types of field margins are better than others. No word on what they do for weeds.
Nibbles: GM in Africa, Bananas and Dates, Nutrition
- “The GM debate is about more than biosafety.” SciDev.net’s editor tells it like it is.
- Jeremy gets into a historical tiz about turning dates into bananas.
- One take on a report for USAID suggesting food aid could be more nutritious.
Food Slideshows
Two food slideshows for your delectation today.
One celebrates the orange-fleshed sweet potato and other nu-nutritional delights. Or, as Wired magazine puts it: “a visit to the laboratory of the International Potato Center in Maputo, Mozambique, where biofortification researchers are saving lives with starch”. Gabba gabba hey!
The other is from Foreign Policy magazine, which says: “The food in our mouths defines us in far more fundamental and visceral terms than the gas in our tanks or the lines on a map. So it’s not surprising that the most important questions of global politics often boil down to: What should we eat?”
Alas, time is pressing and so a detailed appreciation is currently out of the question, but both sites accept comments, and we’d be delighted if you would care to share any comments you do have here.
Nibbles: Olive oil, Food security, Jamaica, Phillipines, EU seed laws, Sorghum
- “Extra virgin” olive oil might not be, but could still be good for you.
- “The underlying causes of hunger are more associated with poverty, institutional weaknesses and policy environments than an inability to produce enough food.” Bob Watson, UK government adviser, on food security …
- … which Jamaica is tackling by enlisting an army of backyard farmers …
- … while Filipinos are told to save on rice by eating camote, sweet potato by another name.
- Bifurcated Carrots points to consultations on new seed laws in Europe.
- Sweet sorghum (jowar) boom in India, with preference for traditional varieties.
Breadfruit roundup
Our friend Diane Ragone of the Breadfruit Institute has kindly reminded us that there’s been quite a lot published on her favourite fruit lately. Almost worth a Brainfood all on its own, in fact.
Beyond the Bounty: Breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis) for food security and novel foods in the 21st Century. Great potential, but “a deeper understanding of the nutritional characteristics and the development of new products and markets are needed.” Which is kinda provided, at least to some extent, by the next two papers.
Diversity of breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis, Moraceae) seasonality: A resource for year-round nutrition. “About 24 cultivars exhibited very little seasonality and produced fruit throughout the year. The rest of the cultivars could be clustered into seasonality groups with characteristic fruiting patterns.”
Nutritional and morphological diversity of breadfruit (Artocarpus, Moraceae): Identification of elite cultivars for food security. “…individual varieties … are particularly good sources of mineral and protein nutrition.”
