- Cherokee Nation seedbank goes online.
- Does that mean it is a biodiversity eden?
- New Grewia genebank in India. No word on community involvement.
- Meanwhile, at the CGIAR genebanks…
- Pre-breeding using CWR, some even from genebanks: finger millet, eggplant.
- Yeah, yeah, it’s not just about genebanks.
- Or maybe it is.
Nibbles: Trade wars, Native American seeds & diets, Diversifying staples, Cheese animation, Eggplant breeding
- Susan Bragdon and others on what Trump’s agricultural trade war with China really means.
- Meanwhile, in Tucson…
- What we need is Smart Foods.
- The cheese history video we’ve all been waiting for.
- Wild eggplants at WorldVeg.
The meat and potatoes of the healthy diets debate
And here is the EAT-Lancet report in all its glory, as promised.
Give me a day or two to, ahem, digest it…
#EATLancet: Diet and food production must radically change to improve health and avoid potentially catastrophic damage to the planet @EATForum #foodcanfixit https://t.co/bcVFoSZNtm pic.twitter.com/lD5i0EOjA1
— The Lancet (@TheLancet) January 17, 2019
Feeding the nutrition debate
There’s a new set of weekly information nibbles in town:
Food Bytes is a weekly blog post of “nibbles” of information on all things food and nutrition science, policy and culture.
It’s a bit tricky to work it out, but the person behind this welcome addition to the discussion of nutrition and related issues is none other than Dr Jess Fanzo, co-chair of the Independent Expert Group of the Global Nutrition Report. Which gives me the opportunity to remind everyone in the words of Jess herself that said report came out a couple of months back :
The Global Nutrition Report was released this November. The news is not great. The report revealed that the global burden of malnutrition is unacceptably high and now affects every country in the world. But it also highlighted that if we act now, it is not too late to end malnutrition in all its forms. In fact, we have an unprecedented opportunity to do so. Steps have been taken in understanding and addressing malnutrition in all its forms, yet, the uncomfortable question is not so much why are things so bad, but why are things not better when we know so much more than before? Check it out and read all the deets.
This recommendation from the report is particularly relevant to us here:
Healthy diet policies and programmes are proving effective in countries, cities and communities but overall there is inadequate delivery of a holistic package of actions. The World Health Organization Global database on the Implementation of Nutrition Action (GINA) includes more than 1,000 national policies in 191 countries in support of healthy diets. For example, many countries have adopted sugar-sweetened beverage taxes in recent years, and these are proving effective, as are product reformulation policies. Large-scale food fortification is another area where there has been progress – but also exemplifies that there remain many barriers to change. A growing number of community and city-level initiatives are being implemented to improve diets and nutrition. New evidence is showing that intensive multi-level action can improve infant diets and reduce childhood obesity. Lessons could be scaled up from city to national level and shared through newly emerging international city networks. To date, however, few countries have implemented the comprehensive package of actions needed to significantly improve diets at the population level.
And since we’re on the subject, the EAT-Lancet Commission on Food, Planet, Health, which is attempting to reach a scientific consensus on what constitutes a healthy and sustainable diet, is delivering its first scientific review tomorrow. No doubt Jess will have something to say about it in due course.
But if this commentary from Frédéric Leroy is anything to go by, that consensus may be elusive, at least with regards to meat.
…the campaign, that will be launched in Oslo on January 17th, sounds like a powerful push to shift global diets by discouraging animal products. It is fuelled by large budgets and will be mediatised for a long time to come, scheduling more than 30 events around the world. But a closer look into its background reveals some perturbing elements. The danger is that the overstatement of certain concerns will result in an anti-livestock narrative, create a false impression of scientific consensus, and do more harm than good in a world in need of nutrient-rich meals and sustainable food systems.
Our opinion piece (with @docmartincohen) in @efa_news on the EAT-Lancet campaign and the way it approaches #livestock & animal food products.
Please read carefully and RT the article if you share our concerns.#ClimateFoodFacts #meat #dairyhttps://t.co/CHopcq0J9O
— Frédéric Leroy (@fleroy1974) January 12, 2019
Brainfood: Coca phylogeny, Potato taste & nutrition & resistance, CC & nutrition, Light & nutrition, Remote poverty, Spicy toms, Input subsidies, Broilerocene, European livestock then & now, Bean domestication, Peach domestication, Machine conservation, Habitat fragmentation, Conservation planning, Taxidermy, Wheat diversity, Livestock GS
- Phylogenetic inference in section Archerythroxylum informs taxonomy, biogeography, and the domestication of coca (Erythroxylum species). Morphology is not enough.
- Improving Flavor to Increase Consumption. Yield is not enough.
- The Nutritional Contribution of Potato Varietal Diversity in Andean Food Systems: a Case Study. Yield is not enough.
- Stacking three late blight resistance genes from wild species directly into African highland potato varieties confers complete field resistance to local blight races. One resistance gene is not enough.
- Income growth and climate change effects on global nutrition security to mid-century. Calories will not be enough.
- Urbanization and Child Nutritional Outcomes. Urbanization is enough.
- Socioecologically informed use of remote sensing data to predict rural household poverty. Night light is not enough.
- Capsaicinoids: Pungency beyond Capsicum. Peppers and tomatoes are not enough.
- The impact of agricultural input subsidies on food and nutrition security: a systematic review. The data are not enough.
- The broiler chicken as a signal of a human reconfigured biosphere. The broiler is enough.
- Pre-Roman improvements to agricultural production: Evidence from livestock husbandry in late prehistoric Italy. The Romans were not enough.
- Optimizing ex situ genetic resource collections for European livestock conservation. One genebank is not enough.
- Does the Genomic Landscape of Species Divergence in Phaseolus Beans Coerce Parallel Signatures of Adaptation and Domestication? One genome is enough.
- Genome re-sequencing reveals the evolutionary history of peach fruit edibility. Human selection was not enough.
- Predicting plant conservation priorities on a global scale. This black box is enough.
- Is habitat fragmentation bad for biodiversity? Small patches may be enough.
- Synergies between the key biodiversity area and systematic conservation planning approaches. One conservation approach is not enough.
- Capturing goats: documenting two hundred years of mitochondrial DNA diversity among goat populations from Britain and Ireland. Stuffed goats are enough.
- Decline in climate resilience of European wheat. The current varieties are not enough.
- Harnessing genomic information for livestock improvement. Genomic selection was going to be enough.