Eat This Newsletter 281: Food Plus
Hello
Almost every link today demonstrates how much more food is than just something to eat.
One Bite at a Time
Columbia Magazine neatly sidesteps Betteridge’s law of headlines with an article entitled How Do We Change the Way We Eat?. The usual suspects — all connected to Columbia University in one way or another — offer the usual answers.
One, however, from climate scientist (and activist) Peter Kalmus, was new to me.
“As a global society of humans who care about having a livable planet, probably the easiest thing we could do, essentially overnight, to help stop or reduce irreversible planetary overheating would be to eliminate the beef industry. ...
“The fact is, if we stopped beef production, nobody would die. Nobody would starve. In fact, more people would eat. Some people would have to find different jobs, but we would be better positioned to feed the global population, because it takes an incredible amount of primary production to feed those cattle and then for people to eat that cow.”
I’ve always argued that beef is a good way of turning stuff we won’t eat, like grass, into stuff we will, like meat. But maybe the existence of “good” meat creates the incentive for “bad” meat. Just as Richard Leakey’s celebrated bonfire of confiscated elephant tusks was intended to destroy the market for ivory trinkets, perhaps a ban on beef would be a good thing. Not that it will ever happen.
Columbia’s education system also raises concerns when a recent recipient can state that “millions of people don’t have access to plant proteins”. Did they not learn about all those plants that offer terrific doses of protein without being put through a chemical wringer?
Still, that’s a quibble. I enjoyed the whole roundup and the way the writer bookended their survey with the first New York City Greenmarket and today’s Columbia Greenmarket, 50 years on. In particular, linking that first Greenmarket to the publication a year earlier of a paper warning about “a pronounced global warming” is a clear reminder that we really have known what was coming for a long, long time. What would the world would look like today if we had woken up to the message back then?
Fungi Fortify Wheat
A team of researchers in Australia recently discovered that inoculating wheat seeds with a fungus increases the grain harvest and, more importantly, also boosts the amount of zinc in the wheat.
Mycorrhizal fungi spread further into the soil than a plant’s root system and can deliver certain minerals, especially phosphorus, zinc and iron, back to the plant. Increasing those minerals can then increase their concentration in the plant. One drawback is that increased phosphorus allows the plant to make more phytate, a compound that blocks the absorption of zinc and iron in the gut.
The researchers had previously shown that while fungi can boost zinc levels in rice, the increase in phytate actually lowered the bioavailability of zinc in the rice. In this latest study on wheat, although there was an increase in phytate it did not reduce the bioavailability of iron and zinc.
Very often fertilisation with phosphorus, by increasing phytate, counterintuitively reduces the bioavailability of nutrients even as it increases yield. This new approach using mycorrhizal fungi to scavenge minerals beyond the reach of the roots could be a promising strategy to fortify zinc and iron in wheat.
Of Bread and Lotus
Two stories to delight you from Kashmir, both clearly showing how much more there is to food than nutrition.
First, a bakery in Bandipora, where they probably aren’t bothered by the bioavailability of minerals in their bread, offers an opportunity to see the kandur as a social centre for the people. Yes, there is bread to buy, but there is also information to be exchanged and heritage to be maintained. The article offers a roll-call of some of the breads made in the Sofi family’s bakery, including girda, lavasa, telvor, and baqerkhani.
Then, the lotus flowers of Wular Lake, which may or may not be just a few kilometres from Bandipora. (You can tell I’ve never been there). The Guardian has a long story about how the lake, once the source of highly-prized lotus stems, has finally recovered after floods in 1992 blanketed the bottom with silt, smothering the lotuses. A massive effort removed almost 8 billion cubic metres of silt and encouraged the flow of water that keeps the bottom clear. Lotus roots, buried and dormant, sprang back into life and locals are once again harvesting the stems and resurfacing more than lotus flowers.
Madd About the Fruit
Blessed relief that I don’t have to pun on the other local names for the fruit of Saba senegalensis; weda and laare. Madd is the name for this wild-harvested fruit in Wolof, and from FAO comes the story of how a geographical indicator for Madd de Casamance is improving life for the people of Casamance in southern Senegal.
A year ago, the African Organization of Intellectual Property made madd from Casamance the first Senegalese product to gain a geographical indicator (GI). The fruits from Casamance are preferred over those from other regions, which in the past allowed some dodgy illegal harvesting and illicit trade. Now there are limits to harvesting and processing, which must take place within 200 km of the harvest areas. FAO is overjoyed:
With GIs offering guarantees of origin, quality and traceability, customers are generally willing to pay more for these products. In some markets, prices have increased by an average of nearly 20 percent.
Note to self: update the Wikipedia page on madd.
Metal Mouth
In perhaps the greatest bait-and-switch of recent memory, I read What Is Pine Nut ‘Metal Mouth’ And How Long Does It Last?. The answers to both questions remain frustratingly vague.
What it is, is a “a metallic or bitter taste in the mouth experienced after eating pine nuts, which can be alarming or just plain annoying.” What causes it? Nobody knows. It isn’t mould or bacteria, and while it was once thought to be associated with only one species, Pinus armandii, it now seems broader than that. As for duration, it is a “temporary condition” that can last anywhere from 3 to 14 days.
Why was I wasting my time on this? Another imponderable. Andrew Janjigian’s excellent Wordloaf newsletter sent me as an aside from his intriguing recipe for basil pesto. Intriguing because he briefly blanches the basil leaves, to preserve their colour and aroma, which, he says, is essential if you aren’t going to eat your pesto immediately. So far, no pesto I make has ever lasted longer than 24 hours, but it would be nice to freeze our surplus, so I might have to try this technique.
Do any of you blanche basil? Please let me know.
Take care
