Eat This Newsletter 264: Curated
Hello
Three long reads for you today, on which I will mostly refrain from comment. And one that I did read, in order to comment, although there is also a straightforward summary.
Improved Crop Varieties: Good in Parts
A paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences makes a strong case that, quite apart from producing more food, improved crop varieties have been A Good Thing. Using a new and more detailed model of global agriculture, researchers at Purdue University and USDA asked how improved crop varieties contributed to changes in land use, greenhouse gas emissions, and biodiversity loss from 1961 to 2015.
“From 1961 to 2015, global crop output was higher by 226 million metric tons.” Is that a lot? Hard to know. I looked at quantity of cereals produced, as recorded by the FAO, and between 1961 and 2015 the “developing” world average (i.e. excluding North America, Europe, and Australia and New Zealand) is only 26 million tons a year, a total of about 56 billion tons over the period. So 226 million tons is about 0.4%. I’m sure I have something wrong.
“World cropland use was lower by 16.03 million hectares.” Total world cropland is of the order of 1.8 billion hectares, so about 0.9% less cropland used globally, thanks to improved crop varieties. Again, must be a mistake. Still, reduced conversion of other land to agriculture means less habitat loss and, perhaps, fewer extinctions.
“[A]round 1,043 threatened animal and plant species … globally were saved due to slower cropland expansion.” This is very tricky because we just don’t know how many plants and animals actually went extinct between 1961 and 2015; known unknowns and all that. Certainly a couple of thousand, so this may be a tenuous win.
“In total, global [land use change] emissions under the historical baseline are lower by 5.35 … billion metric tons of CO2 equivalent.” The IPCC estimates about 150–200 tons CO2 equivalent per hectare of deforestation, and FAO estimates about 500 million ha of deforestation from 1961 to 2015, for a total of 75–100 billion tons CO2 equivalent. As much as a 7.1% decrease in emissions thanks to reduced land coming into agriculture.
As you might have guessed, I’m not actually that impressed. Of course improved varieties have been really important in actually feeding people, and famine deaths as a result of crop failure are around a tenth of what they were in 1961. Good nutrition, however, remains out of reach for many, many people even in areas that have seen productivity increase hugely thanks to improved varieties.
A thousand or so plants and animals may have escaped extinction, but how many important farmer landraces are no longer available as a result of the spread of improved varieties?
I realise it is churlish to complain about the things the study didn’t look at, and I am happy to acknowledge that they are aware of the deficits:
“[O]ur study does not take into account the full set of environmental and health consequences that may accompany crop intensification resulting from adoption of improved crop varieties.”
Indeed. My conclusion, for what it is worth, is that while improved crop varieties have made a huge difference to people’s lives, it’s a bit of a stretch to claim, as one report did, that Crop innovation has delivered more food, land, & biodiversity without at least considering some of those other consequences. Still, read that rather than the paper if you just want unalloyed good news.
Sweet Cheeses
Amore Primitivo, a blue cheese aged in Primitivo wine for 100 days and then crowned with a tangle of deep maroon cherries.
From a lengthy piece in Taste about the new generation of wild and crazy cheese people, I picked Amore Primitivo because it is slightly local and affords me a headline that mostly matches my current mood. Go, read about all these keen young things doing delicious things, including Kayleigh Boucher’s “Gore-Dawn-Zola, a buttery Italian-style blue named after her aunt Dawn, since “Gorgonzola” is a protected name”.
Danes Embrace a Plant-based Future
Pigs outnumber Denmark’s six million people five to one. The country produces more meat per person than any other country in the world. Amazingly, then, the government recently started ploughing money into plant-based food. Damian Carrington in The Guardian has a long piece about how farmers, politicians and environmental groups came together to launch the new policy. It’s early days, as the article makes clear, but there is some optimism as well as some awareness of the problems, at least for Rune-Christoffer Dragsdahl, head of the Vegetarian Society of Denmark, who was involved from the start.
“There is a strong majority of Danes who are open to eating less meat. They understand it might be good for their health and the environment, but we should really not push it too hard or too far. Because then these people will just say: ‘Fuck off, it’s my plate.’”
Diet Terminological Inexactitude Shock
“[T]he Mediterranean diet has become a mishmash of hyperbole, half-truths and howlers, stirred together for political and commercial ends.”
You don’t say!
Is there anyone today who isn’t aware both that Ancel Keys’ original conclusions on the Mediterranean Diet were somewhat flawed and that the glare of publicity and marketing has morphed Italian food more generally into the all-powerful Godzilla of Cuisines?
I suppose there must be. How else to explain The Mediterranean diet is a lie, a long and breathless read from Politico. That’s not to dismiss the story, which is worth reading as it moves from the Mediterranean diet to the consequences of Giorgia Meloni’s rampant gastronationalism.
Take care
