- Cattle for everyone. ILRI hedges its bets.
- Markets in everything: smallholder edition.
- Breadfruit everywhere. Yeah that’ll work.
The economics of nutrition
Or nutrition in The Economist at any rate. Three — count them! — nutrition-related pieces in that venerable organ today for your delectation. Here come the money quotes:
People’s spending choices are a good way to assess levels of hunger. “Using data on people’s choice of what to eat leads to an estimate of hunger that is about half as large as the estimate using the standard method.” Which “typically involves fixing a calorie threshold—2,100 calories per day is a common benchmark—and trying to count how many people report eating food that gives them fewer calories than this number.”
How much can farming really improve people’s health? Haven’t read this yet, but Jeremy says the article takes you round the block, from farming has no impact, to the right kind of farming has great impact. Sounds like quite a ride.
Why small doses of vitamins could make a huge difference to the world’s health. “Public money should be concentrated not on supplying cheap food but on providing for those who do not control what they eat: babies and children.”
Meanwhile, away from the world of think-tanks and economic analysis:
Nibbles: Intensification, Turnips, Colourful breeding, Development, CGIAR Research Programs, C4 ALV, IRRI,
- Ecological intensification: some new science to use.
- Tetraploid turnip tolerates salt.
- The Scientist Gardener does colourful pepper (mostly) breeding.
- “Envy holds back agricultural development.” Say wha?
- IFPRI sells what it is up to on Policies and Nutrition.
- Cleome gynandra is a C4 plant with wonderful adaptations; I bet the people eating it don’t know that.
- IRRI impresses UK diplomat, especially the genebank.
Nibbles: Chickens!, Nigerian R&D, Obesity, Neglected species,
- Henderson’s Handy-Dandy Chicken Chart. Parochial: only one naked.
- “Local farmers hold key to ending hunger“. Q&A with Institute of Agricultural Research and Training, Nigeria.
- Selected papers on Food & Obesity, free from the Journal of Public Health Policy.
- UK academic promotes underutilised species shock.
Nibbles: Mulberry, Vegetable consumption, Banana peel, Timber
- Mulberries preserved twice, in the Pamirs and with a Slow Food Presidium. Kudos to Bioversity.
- Gardeners eat more veggies, but not fruit. Press release and paper.
- Banana peels concentrate heavy metals. Article and paper.
- Where tropical timber goes. GOOD Infographic.