Crop Science is publishing papers from the CGIAR Science Forum 2009. Lots of interesting stuff, including on biofortification and diet diversification, perennial favourites here of course. And all open access! Thanks, Jeff.
Nibbles: Sustainability, Urban Ag, Briefed, Tea, Yogurt, Manure, Soil, Intensiculture
- Interesting stuff behind a paywall: Thai government rethinks sustainability. Not that interesting.
- Same goes for Latin American Agroecologists Build a Powerful Scientific and Social Movement.
- CNN Mexico shows-and-tells the Spanish-speaking world about urban agriculture. Thanks Jeff.
- Emile Frison briefs Eurocrats on the The key relationship between biodiversity and agriculture. Video!
- Reflections on the invention of agriculture in MesoAmerica.
- Nailing fraudulent labeling of Darjeeling tea. Throw the book at them, I say.
- Lassi: “It’s the taste.” Yeah but how healthy can you make the stuff?
- “We found large differences in manure levels…” I bet you did.
- Soil! Don’t treat it like dirt. (Jeremy’s favourite bumper sticker.)
- Veggies in windows, fish in cages.
Is nutrition research any use without genetics & genomics?
That’s the question Keith Grimaldi of the Eurogene project asks in the latest post on his newish blog. By “genetics” he means human genetics.
His answer?
Without genetics & nutrigenomics, epidemiological nutritional research will remain “mostly harmless”. Or to paraphrase a less amusing person maybe it’s like trying to govern the Italians — “not difficult, just a waste of time”
We’ve suggested something similar here a couple of times, albeit it much less eloquently than Dr Grimaldi. Are the people designing projects aiming to improve the nutritional status of communities, whether based on biofortification through genetic modification or diversity-based approaches, listening?
Online forum on agrobiodiversity for nutrition
I’m not sure if we made a big enough deal of our friend Danny’s new venture, a Yahoo Group on Biodiversity for Food and Nutrition:
Currently we live in a world where a growing number of people suffer the consequences of a lack of vital nutrients due to dietary simplification and neglect of more nutritious options. This list is run by a small group of people associated with the UNEP/GEF supported “Mainstreaming Biodiversity for Food and Nutrition” project who are dedicated to reversing this situation. The list is specifically designed to bring people together who have a common interest in the use of biodiversity, wild and cultivated, for improving nutrition, health and wellbeing.
The latest post looks at a paper on fortification:
This paper was shared by a colleague and may be of interest to some. Although it deals with fortified blended foods and in emergency or food aid situations targetting largely children it does raise a few very important issues relevant to agrobiodiverse food and diets and nutrition and health. Most importantly, it highlights the general lack of evidence for the efficacy and effectiveness of the interventions described in the paper for improving nutritional and health outcomes and just how few interventions plan for undertaking such impact studies. Further, it demonstrates how complex a challenge it is to try and demonstrate such linkages between food intervention and nutrition and health outcomes.
Well worth joining.
Nibbles: Rice conservation and use, Tunisian genebank, Buno, Popcorn, Sustainability, Brazilian social networking, Strawberry breeding, Sunflower genomics, Climate change and fisheries
- Lots of Indian rice in the IRRI genebank. Any of it being used to develop drought-tolerant varieties?
- Lots of journalists in the Tunisian genebank.
- How they make coffee in Ethiopia.
- How they make popcorn the world over. You sometimes get popcorn (or popped sorghum) with coffee in Ethiopia, now I think of it. And since we’re on an Ethiopian kick, fancy some enjera? Gary Nabhan did.
- “Productivity vs. sustainability is a ‘false choice.’” Well I never. And probably not news to these people either, or these. But to these guys?
- A Twitter roundup from Embrapa.
- Ugly hybrid of two wild strawberries may cause allergies.
- Explanation of evolution of doubled genes in wild and cultivated sunflowers certainly causes pain in brain.
- Some good climate change news for the Atlantic croaker. Being a glass-totally-empty kinda guy I predict it tastes like shit.