After four days away from the intertubes, I’m astonished to be sent from a beer blog in Philadelphia, via a very local paper in that town, to a brew roundup in Burkina Faso, where sorghum is the starting material of choice. It’s a good, colourful write-up that makes it clear how important beer is in the everyday life of Zogore. And Philly. And yes, I know I need to get over it, but the sheer range of stuff out there continues to delight.
To all our Mexican readers
!Feliz Cinco de Mayo! You’ll be pleased to hear the California Avocado Commission is thinking of you too.
Cassava diversity 101
After hanging out with experts for three days here in Cali, this is what I think I know about cassava genetic diversity:
- There’s a hotspot in Brazil, but Central America is pretty diverse too. Those two places are also where the wild species are most numerous. There is geneflow between wild and cultivated populations.
- There’s little geographic structure within the New World diversity, except for Guatemalan material being way genetically distinct (and higher in protein to boot). Lots of geneflow, I guess.
- The African material is less diverse than the American, but not much, and significantly distinct from it. Selection, and isolation.
- Within Africa, the Nigerian material is somewhat distinct. In general, there is more geographic structure in Africa than in the Americas.
- Asia received material historically from both Brazil (via Africa) and Mexico (via the Philippines), but there hasn’t been the differentiation there that is seen in Africa. There hasn’t been as much selection of natural hybrids in Asia as in Africa.
- Weird mutants keep turning up, including “sugary cassava,” “ketchup cassava” (the pinkiness is due to lycopene), and amylose-free clones.
Tangled Bank #104
A warm welcome to all who’ve come over from Tangled Bank #104 at the wonderfully named Dammit Jim!. Hope you find lots of stuff to your liking.
Enola bean patent revoked
As luck would have it I’m at CIAT in Cali, Colombia just as the story of the overturning of the infamous Enola bean patent is gaining traction. Everyone very excited around here.