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You say Kartoffel

photo (3)Let’s be fair. The inability to distinguish the potato from other Andean roots and tubers is not entirely confined to National Geographic. Take, for example, the November 2013 edition of the German magazine P.M. History. I don’t think it is online, but there’s an article in there entitled “Eine kleine Knolle verändert die Welt,” or “A small tuber that changed the world.” The first couple of pages are reproduced here. Clearly, it’s about the potato.

photo (4)Ah, but wait, for a little further on one comes across a photo of what are clearly not potatoes. Unless of course all is explained in the caption, but somehow I doubt it.

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Breadfruit Institute on a roll

They’ve been busy at the Breadfruit Institute of late. Or even more busy than usual. The director, Dr Diane Ragone, has won one of the prestigious “Star of Oceania” awards, which this year recognize

…women of and from Micronesia, Melanesia, Polynesia and the state of Hawaii who reaffirm the capacity of women to serve, lead and inspire regionally, nationally and globally through aloha, courage, perseverance, precedence and faith.

The final version of the breadfruit climate suitability map is also now online, according to a post on the Institute’s Facebook page. Here it is:

breadfruit map

I’m not sure if we already blogged about this, but that map reminds me that WRI has a set of global water stress maps online now. Here it is for coffee.

coffee

Maybe one for breadfruit could be added sometime? Anyway, as if that weren’t enough, Diane has also put online various materials in support of a “Breadfruit and You” curriculum, including a nifty new graphic of breadfruit diversity and local names.

breadfruit

Our congratulations to Diane, for all of the above!

LATER: And breadfruit is not just good to eat, we also learned.

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Brainfood: Cassava erosion, Chinese cereals, New banana, Olive collection, Chicken diversity, Selling nature, Japan sustainable ag & green tourism, Integrated drylands

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National Geographic launches “Year of Food”

Pretty interesting 20-minute talk from Dennis Dimick, National Geographic Magazine’s Executive Editor for the Environment. NatGeo will be launching a Year of Food in May 2014, and I’m guessing that some family farms will be involved. While I’m not a betting man, I’ll offer two wagers:

  1. NatGeo will reach, and influence, more people than FAO.
  2. NatGeo will not explain the difference between oca and potato.

In case you’re wondering, I do believe those are oca at 16’43” in.

Near the end, Dimick says “maybe we just need to grow more farmers”. Now there’s a thought …