Nutrition

July 24, 2010July 28, 2010

Announcing a symposium on Biodiversity and Sustainable Diets

The first announcement and call for abstracts for the International Scientific Symposium on Biodiversity and Sustainable Diets is out. The symposium will take place 3-5 November 2010 at FAO Headquarters, Rome. But that’s all I know because the link to the announcement on FAO’s website is broken. (I’m writing this on Saturday: hopefully they’ll fix it on Monday.)

Wednesday: The link now goes to a Word document.

July 23, 2010July 24, 2010

Dangerous foods round-up

Playing follow-up this morning. Just noticed a couple of papers that deal with topics we’ve been considering here over the past couple of weeks. Remember the post about sorghum beer in Africa from a few days back? Well, it turns out it’s not all good news. There had to be a catch, right? And, following our discussion of a paper on the chemical ecology of cassava, there’s a vivid reminder of why detoxifying those tubers is still so important in some parts of Africa. ¹

July 22, 2010July 22, 2010

Nibble: Conservation ag, Sahelian famines, Homegarden fertility, Annals of Botany news roundup, Carrot geneflow, Cyanide in crops, Texas rice breeding

“…conservation tillage in Europe may indeed have some negative effect on yields, [but] these effects can be expected to be limited: the overall average reduction we found was ca. 4.5%.” Well I guess it’s good to have the data.
Today’s solution for the Niger famine is fertilizer micro-dosing. I kid you not. But you should read that first link.
Homegardens good for soil fertility. Well I guess it’s good to have the data.
Nigel Chaffey’s Plant Cuttings. Priceless.
“High outcrossing and long-distance pollen dispersal suggest high frequency of transgene flow might occur from cultivated to wild carrots and that they could easily spread within and between populations.” Transgenic carrots? Well I guess it’s good to have the data.
Kenneth Olsen interviewed on cyanide in plants. Nice enough, but you read about this stuff here first.
“Rice breeders seek yield advantage.” Do they now.

July 21, 2010July 21, 2010

Nibbles: Wetlands, Cucurbit phylogeny, Herbology, Malnutrition, Fungi, India, Livestock, Ug99, Madagascar, Beer

Conserving dambos for livelihoods in southern Africa. How many CWRs are found in such wetland habitats around the world, I wonder.
Cucumis not out of Africa.
Exploring “the connection between traditional knowledge of herbs, edible and medicinal plants and media networked culture.” And why not.
PBS video on malnutrition.
Fungal exhibition at RBG Edinburgh.
Indian Council on Agricultural Research framing guidelines for private-public partnerships in seed sector. That’ll stop the GM seed pirates.
Conserve African humpless cattle! They’re needed for breeding.
UG99 — and crop wild relatives — in the news. The proper news. The one people pay attention to.
Vanilla lovers better start stocking up.
Kenyan farmers earning money selling sorghum to brewers. What’s not to like.

July 20, 2010July 20, 2010

Nibbles: Breeding, Art, Bison, Pumpkin seeds, Sweet potato, Bambara groundnut, Carnival

Cary Fowler on the need to breed.
MRIs of fruits and vegetables. Well, why not?
The genetic consequences of bovine inter-specific sex explained. SFW.
How Mrs Joséphine Enoce Bouanga makes milk from squash seeds in Pointe-Noire.
Gates Foundation orange sweet potato project in Mozambique. Still waiting to hear what they’re going to do with all those useless landraces they’ll be replacing.
Nourishing the Future does Lost Crops of Africa 101. Beginners, start there, but don’t expect to be taken anywhere interesting.
Blog carnival Scientia Pro Publica #35 is up, but what’s with the verse alphabetical order? Harummph.