Morsels: Seed Saving, Climate Costs, Ingredients of the Year, Roman Snacks, Farming Places

Food for thought we've been chewing on this month:

• Seed saving movement calls for seeds to be publicly owned - Covid has led to a massive growth in demand for seed producers and seed banks, raising awareness of seed sovereignty, the right of growers to breed and exchange diverse, open source seeds, which can be saved and are not patented, genetically modified or owned by one of the four agrochemical companies that control more than 60% of global seed trade.
• Calculation of external climate costs for food highlights inadequate pricing of animal products - a new German study assessing the full external climate costs of foodstuffs
• The ingredient of the year (also part 2 and readers' discoveries) - an Australian perspective on new and rediscovered foods in 2020 including a few of our favourites: furikake, fava beans and lentils.
• Exceptionally well-preserved snack bar unearthed in Pompeii - as a reminder that fava beans' popularity is nothing new we were intrigued to read that "crushed fava beans, used to modify the taste of wine, were found at the bottom of one jar".
• Finding farming in our placenames - an Irish agriculture department project looks at how old townland names reveal historic agriculture practices, while...
• Key to English place-names - provides a great resource for exploring English places named for the crops grown there. Peasenhall, Benacre and Linstead are fine examples from our neck of the woods in Suffolk, though Pouy Street is sadly nothing to do with lentils.

Sign up to our monthly newsletter for the latest morsels along with other news, recipes and more.

Also in Hodmeblog