Podcasts

Why Did the Artist Cross the Chicken? “Every organism is looking for another organism to survive”

 , , , 1

Profile portraits of six different chickens that contribute to the cosmopolitan chicken project

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 28:17 — 26.0MB)

Subscribe: Google Podcasts | Spotify | Android | RSS | More

Koen Vanmechelen and Olivier Hanotte on either side of a white marble bust of a crowing rooster from the cosmopolitan chicken project
Koen Van Mechelen (left) and Olivier Hanotte (right) sandwich a large marble bust of a crowing cosmopolitan rooster.
In 1999, Koen Vanmechelen, a Belgian artist, decided to cross a Belgian rooster with a French hen. The union of the Mechelse Koekoek and the Poulet de Bresse gave rise to a clutch of chicks that thrilled Vanmechelen with their diversity, and launched him on a path to create the Cosmopolitan Chicken Project. One breed at a time, the CCP accumulated a huge amount of genetic diversity from chickens around the world. That diversity is now reversing out into the world through the Planetary Community Chicken, which uses the accumulated diversity to increase the resilience and productivity of village chickens in Africa. Olivier Hanotte, who triggered the PCC, joined me and Koen to talk about chicken diversity and what it means for art, for science, and for people.

Notes

  1. You can find out more about Koen Vanmechelen’s many projects on his website and follow him on Instagram.
  2. Olivier Hanotte talked to me about the past and future of African livestock, including chickens. He is on Twitter too.
  3. More about ILRI’s partnership with Vanmechelen on the ILRI website and on Koen Vanmechelen’s own website.
  4. Here is the transcript.
  5. Banner chicken profiles from Koen Vanmechelen.

huffduffer icon   Huffduff it

Podcasts

Feeding the People in Wartime Britain From National Kitchens to British Restaurants

 , 0

Trainee cooks during World War Two sit in front of a blackboard where a teacher is going through the recipes they are about to learn

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 25:27 — 23.4MB)

Subscribe: Google Podcasts | Spotify | Android | RSS | More

Bryce EvansCoupons and ration books during war was a way for the British government to try and ensure that restricted items were distributed as fairly as possible, and while it wasn’t perfect, it worked pretty well most of the time. At the same time, during both World War One and World War Two, there were concerted efforts to feed people. It started with centrally cooked meals that people took home to eat, but soon blossomed into a far-reaching network of government-run restaurants. A new book — Feeding the People in Wartime Britain — from historian Bryce Evans uncovers the past and offers some ideas for the present.

Notes

  1. Bryce Evans’ website includes his post on bringing back national kitchens. Early on in his research, he prompted an article by the BBC.
  2. Feeding the People in Wartime Britain is published by Bloomsbury Academic.
  3. Cover and banner photos © Imperial War Museum.

huffduffer icon   Huffduff it

Extra Matter

Iron-rich beans are not iron-rich Measurements trump assumptions

 , 0

One of the nicest things about publishing our recent paper What is Wrong with Biofortification is that it prompted several people to share results and opinions that support our conclusions. Confirmation bias aside, we have not yet had any substantive pushback. This piece was prompted by one of the responses we received.

A hand holding a dried bean pod showing several black beans

See those beans? They are “iron-rich”. Why the “scare quotes”? Lots of reasons, some trivial, some much less so.

Continue“Iron-rich beans are not iron-rich Measurements trump assumptions“

Extra Matter

Unintended Disaster Close, Sesame!

  0

Helena Bottemiller Evich had a story in her newsletter last week that left me open mouthed. Whatever bad things you think Big Food might be capable of, this is worse.

An allergic reaction to sesame can be fatal, and sesame is currently the 9th most common allergen in the US. Unlike allergens 1–8, until a couple of years ago the law did not require sesame to be disclosed or labelled. In 2021, however, Democrats and Republicans overcame their mutual allergic reactions to pass a bill requiring sesame to be disclosed. So what did food manufacturers do?

They added sesame to products that had not previously contained sesame.

Apparently, adding a touch of sesame overcomes two little difficulties. First, it means manufacturers don’t have to go to the trouble of decontaminating their lines of sesame (which they somehow are able to do for the other allergens on the compulsory disclosure list). More to the point, it means they can legitimately say that their product does contain sesame, which they are not allowed to do if it might not contain sesame.

Forgive me, but this is absolute madness. I accept it is an unintended consequence, because, I mean, who in their right mind could have intended such a consequence? I hope someone tracks down the currently unsung genius who first came up with this dodge.

By the way, here in Europe (and, apparently in Canada) sesame has to be disclosed, and is, without any great fuss (though there are appalling cases where very bad things have happened because products did contain undisclosed sesame).

Podcasts

What is Wrong with Biofortification Just about everything

 , , 3

A woman in Western Bangladesh offers a range of fruits and gegetables for sale

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 23:46 — 21.9MB)

Subscribe: Google Podcasts | Spotify | Android | RSS | More

cover artworkAbout two billion people around the world do not get enough micronutrients in their diet. This lack of vitamins and minerals — often called hidden hunger — has severe and lasting effects on individuals and their societies. One very popular approach to tackling hidden hunger is known as biofortification, engineering or selecting varieties of staple crops so that they produce higher levels of one micronutrient or another. On the surface, this makes perfect sense. Hidden hunger is strongly correlated with the amount of energy people get from staples, so putting more micronutrients in those staples ought to be a good thing, except that there’s little evidence that it works and yields of biofortified staples are generally lower than those of unfortified varieties. That’s a waste of land that could be used to grow the fruits and vegetables that contribute to a more diverse diet, which offers a far better approach to micronutrient deficiencies.

All this and more is brought out in a recent paper in the journal Global Food Security. I interviewed one of the authors.

Notes

  1. What is Wrong with Biofortification, by Maarten van Ginkel and Jeremy Cherfas, can be read in Global Food Security.
  2. A previous episode examined orange-fleshed sweet potato to feed hidden hunger, and there was evidence that OFSP can increase vitamin A status in children. I didn’t ask about yield.
  3. Here is the transcript.
  4. Banner photograph from Western Bengal, by Krishnasis Ghosh for The Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT.

huffduffer icon   Huffduff it