Rediscovering the forgotten crops (BBC)

[eppur_se_muova]

Over the last century about 75% of the world's crop varieties have been lost, data from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) suggests.

UN researchers say that we now rely on just three crops: wheat, rice and maize.

The fact that poorer nations are almost twice as dependent on these cereals as richer nations has led to the question: are we now too reliant on too few crops?

The Kolli Hills in Tamil Nadu, southern India, is home to about 40,000 people.

Scientists have visited the area to see if ancient traditions offer any clues to finding a way out of a future global food crisis.
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more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7247218.stm

http://www.tve.org/earthreport/

Teff is an important food grain in Ethiopia and Eritrea, where it is used to make injera, and less so in India and Australia. Because of its small seeds (less than 1 mm diameter), one can hold enough to sow an entire field in one hand. This property makes teff particularly suited to a seminomadic lifestyle.
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It is adapted to environments ranging from drought stress to waterlogged soil conditions. Maximum teff production occurs at altitudes of 1800 to 2100 m, growing season rainfall of 450 to 550 mm, and a temperature range of 10 to 27 °C. Teff is day length sensitive and flowers best with 12 hours of daylight.
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Cultivation and uses

Teff has been widely cultivated and used in the countries of Eritrea, Ethiopia, India and its colonies, and Australia. Teff accounts for about a quarter of total cereal production in Ethiopia.<2> The grain has a high concentration of different nutrients, a very high calcium content, and high levels of phosphorus, iron, copper, aluminum, barium, and thiamin. A big advantage, the iron from teff is easily absorbed by the body. Teff is high in protein. It is considered to have an excellent amino acid composition (including all 8 essential amino acids for humans) and has lysine levels higher than wheat or barley. Because of this variety, it stimulates the flora of the large intestine. Teff is high in carbohydrates and fiber. It contains no gluten, so it is appropriate for those with gluten intolerance or celiac disease.

Interest in new crops has led some Dutch farmers to cultivate teff. In 2003, 150 farmers were growing it. By the estimation of the company involved (Soil & Crop Improvement BV), in 2006 there could be 50 km² of this African grain in the Netherlands.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teff

Teff has the advantage over wheat that all its blooms will produce seed even if the rains fail. Wheat will produce very little seed if the rains are insufficient after blooming. Thus teff provides the highest yield in dry years, even though wheat provides the highest average yield. Teff thus provides a safety factor that wheat does not.

[InkAddict]

1. Three ancient crops add spice: coca, poppies, cannabis n/t

[dusmcj]

2. and now they're being engineered to be sterile by Monsanto

because without those cocksuckers, life itself would be impossible.

I assume you're plugged into the situation in Iraq and elsewhere in the developing world (including India where farmers are committing suicide because of it) where shiteating American corporations like Monsanto are selling GM seedstock to the local farmers which can't be used to plant new crops because it's sterile. One question is, what happens when pollination takes place and genetic material from the sterile plants is mated to that from fertile plants. Are the results fertile or infertile, and is this material spreading into the uncontrolled gene pool for each species ?

This is of course having an extinction effect on small local farmers (presumably desired since across the globe they're being hustled into slums to serve as human resources for low-wage labor) since they can't afford to buy new seed every year, and since industrial agriculture underbids them on crop prices.

It's particularly ironic for Iraq insofar as it's the place (you know, that fertile valley between the Tigris and the Euphrates) where grain farming first started, and where the grain strains have been lovingly and carefully maintained for all of recorded human history. But we knew that shiteating American businessmen didn't care much for that sort of thing.

[scarletwoman]

8. Righteous post! Succinct and to the point.

Well-said! :applause:

sw

[riderinthestorm]

9. Can I just say , as a small organic farmer, that it's not QUITE as simple as you may want to paint.

Look, long before GM crops become popular, it was obvious to any farmer in the US that saving your own seeds was the only way towards purity. I mean 15 years ago or more....

I know, absolutely, without having spoken to a single farmer along the Tigris or Euphrates that they also KNEW/KNOW that sterile seeds were a bad. thing. Especially if "grain strains have been lovingly and carefully maintained for all of human recorded history", those farmers know shit (bad GM seed) if/when they see it.

Did they buy/take that shit out of greed? Why would they possibly screw up their one good thing with shit? It doesn't make sense.... Farmers (contrary to popular opinion) aren't some monolithic stupid class.

[troubleinwinter]

13. Look up Bremer's Order #81. See what you think of that.

[Random_Australian]

16. Ah, after so many posts with strange and dubious claims about GM,

it's great to hear someone say that really important and not at all unclear point about this stuff:

shiteating bastards are selling sterile seeds. Which makes them complete fuckers in my book.

What utter fuckers.

[Arctic Dave]

3. Some of the problem

is that farming has become more of a business driven entity. These three crops are more valuable money wise but in the long run create much higher odds of being devastating because they are not suited for the environment. Think 1930's Dust Bowl.

[kineneb]

4. let's not forget rye and oats, old European staples

mmmm, rye bread...food of my ancestors, served with Sauerkraut und Wurst; die schmecken gut! And no gluten, which is why real Pumpernickel is so dense.

Oats are great whole or ground into flour.

Then there is amaranth, barley, sorgum, millet and triticale.

[Igel]

5. I think triticale is new.

I think cabbage made it to northern Europe in the Dark Ages. Spread to Eastern Europe via monastic culture in the late Dark Ages and in the Middle Ages (which always comes to a shock to Poles and Russians; it's like imaging Ireland in 1000 AD without potatoes, Italy without tomatoes, W. Africa food without peanuts and corn, or Thai food without red peppers).

Rye is old in Europe. I'm not up on the history of oats.

Millet's cool. My favorite non-grain staple, after wheat, rice, and oats (never could get into rye or barley on an on-going basis).

You left out quinoa.

[alfredo]

12. I believe Teff is a type of millet.

[JCMach1]

15. And Amaranth

http://www3.jetro.go.jp/cgi/ttppoas/an_dsp.cgi?keyid=1079880&seq=2

[eppur_se_muova]

19. Imagine Africa w/out bananas ... a few years BCE.

Now there are 120 cultivars of bananas, and 60 of the closely related plantain -- far more than in SE Asia, where they originated.

[riderinthestorm]

6. Many of these "forgotten crops" are indigenous to their area

which means they aren't easily grown in other areas with difficult soils/environmental conditions. Teff sounds great but if it were as economically viable as the article purports, farmers would be all over it. Trust me, we're not stupid and we read ALL of this stuff. Wheat, rice and maize are popular for a reason - they have been/are profitable. But famers are supremely able to change their stripes (in the spring!) if they see the winds changing.

I can say, as a farmer, if a grain is available that is some kind of drought/soil content/environmental factor impervious, a farmer will RUN towards producing it. Not only just run, they will fall all over themselves to get it planted.

In my area, (northern Ilinois), nobody is making hay anymore (livestock feed) because corn is now king. They can make a fortune by planting their acres to corn for ethanol. I don't blame them. But where does that leave livestock growers? And corn is very susceptible to bad growing conditions... but still, growers will be planting corn this year - they are willing to gamble.

[eppur_se_muova]

18. Not to suggest at all that farmers are "stupid" for not growing teff ...

As I pointed out, the advantage of growing teff emerges where rainfall is marginal -- like the Sahelle, not Illinois. Where rainfall is reliable, wheat and corn give considerably higher yields. If you're farming for the market, go for corn.

If you're farming to fill your own belly, a different set of rules applies. My complaint is more that indigenes are often 'pushed' by economic forces, or even aid agencies, to adopt wheat, corn, or soy and join the global grain market. Fine, as long as the rains come. When the rains fail, they have to import grain -- but bad years are precisely when the prices go up, so they can't grow enough food, and can't afford to import much. If farmers in Ethiopia plant teff, they'll be much better off in bad years, at the cost of having a smaller excess in good years. But for subsitence farmers, that beats recurring famine.

Totally agree that where you are determines what's best to grow, that's kind of a truism. But indigenes need to be given credit for knowing that too. True, often their lives can be improved (even dramatically) by Western crops, or new strains of old crops, but an informed choice needs to be made -- not one forced by gov't (theirs or ours) decisions to favor one crop for arbitrary, or purely market, reasons.

[riderinthestorm]

7. I also have to "shout out" about Seed Savers

and other heirloom seed saver organizations that have done the most amazing work, for absolutely NO recompense for DECADES, to save our organic heritage. Truly, our organic produce salvation comes from this organization and a few others. Please support these organic seed saving institutions - whether your own local organic farmer, or a national database like Seed Savers.

Peace!

[alittlelark]

10. I just bought Teff tortilla at Draegars... I'd never heard of it.

They are quite good - a little chewier than standard tortillas, but still good.

[alfredo]

11. I've eaten teff many times. It's quite tasty.

[intheflow]

14. Scary stuff. kick. n/t

[formercia]

17. Saving seed

There was a time when most successful farmers saved their own seed. By selecting cultivars that are well adapted to a given soil and climate, they were able to maximize their yields. Like many things, big business has lulled us in to a sense of complacency and made us dependent on them and over the years, most have lost the skills needed to effectively select and preserve the crops needed to sustain themselves and provide food for others.

[Uncle Joe]

20. There is a danger in depending on too few varities of crops just as Ireland

learned during the potato famine.

Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, eppur_se_muova.