Breadfruit tree in Palmira, Valle del Cauca, Colombia

• Beyond the Bounty: Breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis) for food security and novel foods in the 21st Century
• Diversity of breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis, Moraceae) seasonality: A resource for year-round nutrition
• Nutritional and morphological diversity of breadfruit (Artocarpus, Moraceae): Identification of elite cultivars for food security

-REUTERS-

The long awaited reform of the European Novel Food Regulation (NFR) appears to have been derailed, after nearly 10 years of an extended consultation process, negotiations and advocacy by many stakeholders (of which CFF has been a partner), by the failure of European lawmakers to compromise over the labelling of food stemming from the offspring of cloned animals. This is bad news for all those who hoped that a reformed NFR would lessen the food safety evidence that importers of traditional food must generate before they can introduce such “exotic” produce on the EU market, a long and costly process that has emerged as a non-tariff trade barrier to the trade in biodiversity products, mostly from neglected crops. Recent examples for products challenged by the NFR include the vitamin C-rich Amazonian fruit camu camu (Myrciaria dubia), baobab (Adansonia digitata) from Southern Africa, and the Andean root yacon (Smallanthus sonchifolius), all of which are established components of human diets, albeit outside of Europe. The failure to agree on a new NFR bill means that the stringent rules governing EU market access of novel food will continue to be applied to traditional food products (viewed as “exotic” from the EU perspective), which fall under the remit of the NFR. It is of a certain irony, that as with the original NFR, which was shaped by concerns over the food safety of GMOs, it is again fears by European consumers of anything that smacks of “genetic” or “clonal” that have lead to the abortion of the reform of the regulation and will curtail opportunities for poor countries to generate export income from native biodiversity. For more information on the NFR refer to this site.

From an article appearing on Bioversity International web site

Minor millets [ little millet (Panicum sumatrense), finger millet (Eleusine coracana) and foxtail millet (Setaria italica) ] are providing opportunities for resource poor farmers in India allowing adaptation options, better income and nutrition patterns.

Read about it here: Newly published research papers reveal the potential of minor millets to improve people’s lives in southern India

We are pleased to inform you that the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus in collaboration with the International Society for Horticultural Science (ISHS) with support from the ISHS Working Group on Underutilised Plant Genetic Resources, the ISHS Commission on Plant Genetic Resources and the ISHS Section on Tropical and Sub-Tropical Fruits is organising the above symposium.

The University of Nottingham  Malaysia Campus together with the Asia Pacific Oceania Office of Bioversity International, hosts the global Crops for the Future Centre in Malaysia. The symposium is co-convened and supported by the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (MARDI).

Attached please find the second circular which I hope you will be able to circulate to interested parties.  For more details please visit our website by following the link below

• Symposium’ second announcement
• Registration details
• Abstract submission

ENQUIRIES AND CORRESPONDENCE
Secretariat: Underutilised Plants Symposium 2011
Crops for the Future – beyond food security
The University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus
Jalan Broga, 43500 Semenyih
Selangor Darul Ehsan
Malaysia
Tel: +6 (03) 8924 8218
Fax: +6 (03) 8924 8018
Email: email hidden; JavaScript is required
Symposium website: http://www.cffsymposium2011.org

Photo: Luciano Ghersi

A recent study titled “Traditional food crops as a source of community resilience in Zimbabwe” by researchers from Cornell and Rhodes universities and the Sebakwe Black Rhino Conservation Trust found that traditional food crops, such as mubovora (pumpkin) and ipwa (sweet reed), are an important source of community resilience in Zimbabwe—including resilience to climate change and economic turbulence.

Read more here.