Here’s a cool idea. Apparently the International Institute for Species Exploration at Arizona State University and an international committee of taxonomists get together regularly and pick the top 10 new species described in the previous year. They’ve just announced the 2008 picks, and they include a crop wild relative. It’s Coffea charrieriana, a caffeine-free coffee from Cameroon. It was named after “Professor A. Charrier, who managed coffee breeding research and collecting missions at IRD during the last 30 years of the 20th century.” And with whom I had the privilege to work some years back in the early days of the African Coffee Research Network. Congratulations to all concerned.
Latest AJFAND arrives
The latest issue of the African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development (Vol. 9 No. 2) is out.
Nutrition features prominently as a result of the Ugandan Nutrition Congress which was successfully held in mid-February 2009 and we shall continue to announce the upcoming International Conference on Nutrition to be held in Bangkok in October 2009 and which will give prominence to African issues
That extends to Editor-in-Chief Prof. Ruth Oniang’o’s editorial.
Fungus flavours fermented food
Did you know that…
[t]he edible fungus Monascus purpureus imparts a distinct flavor and red color when added to fermented rice dishes such as those served in Asia.
Neither did I. But the boffins at USDA do.
Nibbles: Taxonomy, Herbs, Animal domestication, Bio-char, Videos, French fries, Barcoding
- Plea from taxonomist to nutritionists and food people: use scientific names and get them right.
- Cooking writer doesn’t get the hint.
- New Scientist rounds up bunch of recent animal domestication studies.
- DIY bio-char; Muck & Mystery has some ideas.
- Diverseeds has videos of diverse seeds.
- “For one week, 2500 people from Noirmoutier use all their might to harvest this precious La Bonnotte potato by hand.”
- Barcoding bananas: useful for field genebanks?
Amazing potato factoid: they’re high protein
People complain that potatoes are “only” 2% protein. But …
[P]otatoes are so prolific that you still end up with 500-1000kg of protein per year per hectare of potatoes, versus 164-500kg of protein from soybeans, 98-300kg of protein from wheat, and only 33kg protein from milk produced by cows.
Which is why, where the climate is right, potatoes should be a key component of urban agriculture and home gardens. You do have to eat a lot of them, just be sure not to peel them. From Tom Wagner’s blog.