Learning about and from local seed systems
Germination to Detoxify Jack Bean
Techniques to Boost Plants’ Stress Tolerance and Extend Fruit Marketability
From ECHO's Seed Bank: Fever Tree
Books, Web Sites and Other Resources: Planetary Health Diet Proposal
Articles
Planetary Health Diet Proposal
Dawn Berkelaar
Have you ever wondered how our planet could support a nutritious diet for all people? A new report, released in January by 37 scientists making up the global “EAT-Lancet Commission on Food, Planet, Health,” proposes a way of eating that could "feed a future population of 10 billion people a healthy diet within planetary boundaries." As agricultural development workers, you no doubt have a concern to see people well fed and well nourished, and also a desire to see the land sustainably stewarded and improved. This report uniquely tries to address both concerns at once.
Fever Tree
Stacy Swartz
Fever tree (Acacia xanthophloea) is a fast-growing, medium-size tree (reaching 15 to 25 m in height) with smooth, yellow-green bark. Thorns up to 7 cm long grow on the trunk and become more dense in the spreading branches. Fever tree can be found throughout Africa, most commonly in swampy, low-lying areas. The tree’s common name indicates its association with malarial fever; this is because mosquitoes that transmit malaria prefer such swampy areas for breeding.
Techniques to Boost Plants’ Stress Tolerance and Extend Fruit Marketability
Tim Motis
In August of 2018, I attended the 30th International Horticultural Congress in Istanbul, Turkey. It was an excellent opportunity to meet other scientists and to hear talks on horticultural topics, many of which were relevant to ECHO’s network. Here is a synopsis of a few of those talks.
Learning about and from Local Seed Systems
Summarized by Dawn Berkelaar
At ECHO’s 2014 International Agriculture Conference, Dr. Laura Meitzner Yoder gave a plenary talk titled “Planting Connections: Learning from local seed systems and fostering community seed exchange.” The talk was based on collaborative work that was done by the following:
Rick Burnette, ECHO Asia founding director
Dr. Abram Bicksler, former ECHO Asia director
Dr. Ricky Bates, Penn State University
Dr. Tom Gill, Penn State University
Vincent Ricciardi, ECHO Asia research technician
Dr. Laura Meitzner Yoder, Wheaton College
Yongyooth Srigiofun, Maejo University.
Highlights from Dr. Meitzner Yoder’s talk are summarized in this article.
Germination to Detoxify Jack Bean
Dawn Berkelaar
In EDN 142, we linked to several documents from Feed the Future, produced with support from USAID for the RAMA-BC (Resilient Agricultural Markets Activity — Beira Corridor) project. Another, slightly longer document by Zachary Hall describes how to germinate, soak and boil jack beans, to detoxify them and make them suitable for human consumption. This article summarizes that information. We encourage you to read the full document for more details.