Nibbles: Ethiopian gardens, Potato history, Early tobacco, Byzantine wine, American grapevines, Farmers & conservation

  1. Lecture on the enset (and other things) gardens of Ethiopia coming up in November.
  2. Book on the potato and governance tries to rescue small subsistence farmers from “the enormous condescension of posterity.”
  3. (Really) ancient Americans may have smoked around the campfire. Tobacco, people, just tobacco.
  4. Byzantine era wine factory found in Israel. Pass the bottle.
  5. Meanwhile, half a world away, Indigenous Americans were using their own grapes in their own way.
  6. Farmers and conservation of crop diversity.

Brainfood: Commons edition

Brainfood: Domestication, Maize roots, Dental calculus, Psychedelic drugs, Green manures, Forage millet, VIR radish, Wild beans, Siberian dogs, Maize taxi, Dairying history

Brainfood: Mapping double, Niche modelling, CGIAR impacts, Pathogen genebank, Data stewardship, Breeding tradeoffs, Organic vs conventional, Agronomic trials, Teff evaluation, Eggplant genetic resources, Quinoa phenotyping

Nibbles: Luxury brands, Food companies, TV and diets, Saving seeds, IUCN Green Status, 0 Hunger Pledge, Zizania

  1. Luxury brands discover biodiversity: “There is no champagne without grapes, no ready-to-wear without silk and cotton, no perfume without flowers…”
  2. What about global food and agriculture companies though? Let’s find out, shall we?
  3. TV can help where companies won’t.
  4. Of course, you can set up your own company, as these Tunisian women did.
  5. Imagine a company helping to move a species to “green status.” Imagine.
  6. They could sign the Zero Hunger Pledge for the Private Sector while they’re at it.
  7. But meanwhile, on Ojibwe land…