The End of Hummus?

[liuzhou]

Hummus could go extinct when the chickpeas/garbanzo beans all die. Article here.

[chromedome]

Paywalled, alas.

[liuzhou]

3 minutes ago, chromedome said:

Paywalled, alas.

 

Not for me. And I don't subscribe.  I saw it on Twitter, clicked the link and there it was.

Edited November 6, 2019 by liuzhou (log)

[chromedome]

LOL I guess we colonials don't rate...

 

(ETA: I looked up other articles covering the same ground, so thanks anyway for the heads-up. Biodiversity is a serious concern with most worldwide staple crops...)

Edited November 6, 2019 by chromedome (log)

[chromedome]

Here's the source material, for anyone else who can't read the original link. 

 

TL:DR version:

https://www.uvm.edu/uvmnews/news/genetic-limits-threaten-chickpeas-globally-critical-food

 

Science-geek version:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-02867-z

[blue_dolphin]

@liuzhou's link in the post above took me to a paywall but when I googled Financial Times Hummus, I got a link that took me to the article titled "The fight to save hummus from extinction"

[liuzhou]

12 minutes ago, blue_dolphin said:

@liuzhou's link in the post above took me to a paywall but when I googled Financial Times Hummus, I got a link that took me to the article titled "The fight to save hummus from extinction"

 

Yes. That's the article I was referencing.

[Anna N]

10 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

Yes. That's the article I was referencing

The loss of bio diversity concerns me a great deal. The end of hummus not so much. 

[kayb]

I could deal with losing hummus, though I do like it. I am not sure I could deal with losing falafel.

[Margaret Pilgrim]

So use another bean.

[chromedome]

On 11/6/2019 at 10:23 PM, Margaret Pilgrim said:

So use another bean.

 

Yeah, for those of us in other countries we can switch things up (for falafel fava beans are equally canonical; and we can certainly make other bean dips).

 

In the areas where chickpeas are a staple, though, it's not that simple. They're a core agricultural crop as well as a core food, so on one hand the food chain becomes that much more precarious for everyone if the crop fails (ie, we're likely looking at millions of people starving) and the agricultural sector also needs to learn - almost overnight - how to reinvent itself around a new and unfamiliar crop.

 

To put it into perspective, imagine a sudden blight wiping out the US corn crop. Americans and Canadians (because we grow the same cultivars, it would affect us as well) would not be in imminent danger of starving, thankfully, but it would be a massive, costly and emotionally wrenching* dislocation.

*How many corn-based dishes are hard-core, group-identity comfort foods in the Americas? It's like that for chickpeas in their homelands, too.

[heidih]

Yes!  My prior attempted post did not go yesterday. In many developing nations chickpeas are the affordable protein. But it is encouragng that scientists are working on it.  Not an ignored issue.