October 2022 - Collab - lists.millets2023.space

Setaria & Panicum spp. for food in N. America before 1492
by Don Osborn 08 Nov '22

08 Nov '22

Long before the millets we are talking about today came to the shores of North America, and well before Columbus, Native Americans cultivated species of Setaria and Panicum - cousins, in effect, of today's foxtail (S. italica) and proso (P. mileaceum) millets. Aside from being interesting in its own right, I think this history - or prehistory - might be a unique dimension of our messaging about the International Year of Millets (IYM) in 2023. The species of millets, as we discuss them today, are crops originally of Eurasia and Africa, and parts of food cultures of those regions for ages. As we look to expand their cultivation and consumption here, it is worth remembering that the first peoples of this continent apparently had their own millets as part of their own rich foodways. We all are familiar with the amazing story of corn (maize), at least in its outlines - that this productive crop was domesticated and developed in Mexico, and eventually became part of Native American food cultures across the continent. But corn was not the only grain or source of starch for these peoples, especially over the time before it disseminated out of the location of its domestication. There is renewed interest in the story of these other crops/foods, as evidenced by an article earlier this month in The Atlantic./1 That article, however, doesn't mention millets (apart from the example of browntop millet in India, cultivation of which almost ceased at one point). So in the rest of this post, I'll briefly spotlight one species each in the genera of Setaria and Panicum, and what we currently understand about them from paleoethnobotony and, in the latter case, apparent ongoing cultivation: SETARIA GENICULATA or S. PARVIFLORA According to one source/2 (which cites others/3 /4 /5 /6), "A species of Setaria, probably S. geniculata, was the oldest cultivated cereal in the Americas, its origins dating to almost 9000 B.P." I believe this is another name for S. parviflora,/7 but have no expertise on this subject. This may be the only Setaria native to North America (if I read Dekker/2 correctly). Another source/8 discusses this cereal as S. parviflora, addressing possible reasons for abandonment of its cultivation, with reference to Setarias elsewhere. Its reference to other Setarias gathered, but not necessarily cultivated, for their comestible grains is also of interest. At the same time, it bears mentioning that may of those other Setarias are today considered weeds./2 It would be of great interest to know of anyone cultivating (or gathering) seeds of S. geniculata / S. parviflora for any food purposes. PANICUM HIRTICAULE or P. SONORUM A species of Panicum - P. hirticaule or P. sonorum - has been well documented as being under cultivation in what is now the SW US and northern Mexico since prehistoric times until modern times./9 /10 Cultivation now is apparently limited largely to small farms notably of Wariho Indians in Sonora, Mexico, where it was documented as recently as 2011./11 Regarding nomenclature, it seems that P. hirticaule/12 may be used more for the wild varieties, and P. sonorum/13 for the larger and larger-grained variants that have been cultivated. However usage varies, esp. in older literature. At one point, it was thought that this grain - its cultivated variety - was extinct./11 An important range of cultivation in the Colorado River delta effectively disappeared as an indirect effect of the Hoover Dam./9 Its present status is "vulnerable."/13 There is some discussion of whether P. sonorum is truly "domesticated" in the strictest agricultural sense of the term, but there is no question that it has long been selected and cultivated NATIVE AMERICAN MILLETS IN IYM? The prehistory, history, and limited current use of species of Setaria and Panicum in the agriculture and foodways of the first inhabitants of North America are in the domain of "hidden histories" and "lost crops." That should change, and current interest in crops of Native Americans before 1492, along with the focus on millets invited by the IYM, offer the potential to bring native millets out of obscurity. The IYM proposal was conceived with reference to better known millet crops established in agriculture of Eurasia (esp. Asia) and Africa, and introduced in limited degrees in other regions like North America. That focus is being framed by FAO in terms of "dryland small grains that contribute to food security and nutrition," which would logically include Panicum sonorum. One ideal outcome of the IYM in North America would be more attention and resources devoted to this grain (with respect to the communities and cultures of the people who have kept its cultivation alive). In terms of messaging about IYM in North America, the existence of species of Setaria and Panicum in this region that have been cultivated for food - and which rightly can be called "millets" - adds a unique dimension to the story of millets here. Can this be used to heighten awareness of and interest in millets in general? Don Don Osborn, PhD (East Lansing, MI, US) North American Millets Alliance don(a)milletsalliance.org bcc: Ms. Sarah Laskow, Sr. editor, The Atlantic, & author of the article referenced in note #1 Dr. Rob Myers, Dir., Ctr. for Regenerative Ag., U. Missouri & NCR-SARE Reg. Dir. of Extension Notes: 1. Sarah Laskow, "America's Lost Crops Rewrite the History of Farming: Our food systems could have been so different," The Atlantic, 1 Oct. 2022, https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2022/10/agricultural-revolution… 2. Jack Dekker, n.d. "The Foxtail (Setaria) Species-Group." http://agron-www.agron.iastate.edu/~weeds/PDF_Library/Jax_Pubs/FoxWSciRev7.… (this is likely the same article that the author published in Weed Science, Oct. 2003, 51(5): 641-656 https://www.jstor.org/stable/4046542 ) 3. E.O. Callen, 1965. "Food habits of some Pre-Columbian Mexican Indians." Economic Botany 19(4):335-343. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02904803 4. E.O. Callen. 1967. "The first New World cereal." American Antiquity *32*(4), 535-538 https://doi.org/10.2307/2694082 [NB- in his citation of this source, Dekker, footnote #2 above, mistakenly added an "s" after "cereal" in the title] 5. J.M.J. de Wet. 1992. "The three phases of cereal domestication." In: Grass evolution and domestication, G.P. Chapman (Ed.). Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, UK. pp. 176- 198. 6. C. Earle Smith, Jr. 1968. "The New World centers of origin of cultivated plants and the archaeological evidence." Economic Botany 22(3):253-266. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02861958 7. https://species.wikimedia.org/wiki/Setaria_geniculata 8. Daniel F. Austin. 2006. "Fox-tail millets (Setaria: Poaceae)—Abandoned food in two hemispheres." Economic Botany 60(2), 143–158. https://doi.org/10.1663/0013-0001(2006)60[143:FMSPFI]2.0.CO;2 9. Gary Nabhan & J.M.J. de Wet. 1984. "Panicum sonorum in Sonoran Desert Agriculture." Economic Botany, 38(1), 65–82. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4254574 10. https://www.nativeseeds.org/pages/sonoran-panic-grass 11. Barney T. Burns. 2011. "A Short History of Panic Grass." Seedhead News, No. 109, Spring 2011, pp. 6-7. https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0157/0808/files/SeedheadNews109-2011-Spri… (Republished in 2015 at https://www.nativeseeds.org/blogs/blog-news/a-short-history-of-panic-grass ) 12. https://species.wikimedia.org/wiki/Panicum_hirticaule 13. https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.130251/Panicum_sono…

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Interesting definition/description of "millet(s), " plus comments
by Don Osborn 24 Oct '22

24 Oct '22

While I'm working on a couple of posts that are taking longer than expected (in that Pareto last 10%), here is an interesting definition/description of millets by archaeologist & professor of archaeobotany, Dorian Q. Fuller/1 from the Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology:/2 "Millet is an imprecise English term applied to a large number of smaller-grained, largely tropical cereals that are often distantly related. Millets tend to be small-seeded cereals, i.e., distinct from wheat, barley, oats, rice, and maize. Sorghum is sometimes included with millets (in Indian English it is the 'great millet'). Taxonomically speaking 'millet-grasses' refers to grasses in the Panicoid subfamily and the Paniceae tribe, but not all traditional millet crops are in this group. Finger millet (Eleusine coracana) and tef (Eragrostis tef) are in the Chloridoid subfamily. Although a few millet species have been cultivated in Europe, they are generally less important economically and culturally, leading to poor linguistic differentiation in European languages, e.g., French *millet*, German *hirse*, and Spanish *mijo*. "Millets have received far less research than the 'big' cereals (rice, wheat, and barley). Indeed statistics on millet production are very poor, ..." The above is all I have access to at this time. Some of the wording here might be adapted for press kits, I think. No arguments on the particulars of this excerpt, but some added info. * Current lists of millets also include members of the Andropogonae tribe of the Panicoid subfamily (Panicoideae). Namely sorghum (already mentioned by Prof. Fuller), and two less well known grains: Job's tears or adlay millet; and Taiwan oil millet. * Some sources apparently put kodo millet in the Paspaleae tribe of the Panicoid subfamily/3 * I really appreciate his mention of the linguistic dimension of this category, but the millets namespace in both French/4 and Spanish/5 are slightly more involved, as I explored on my intermittent blog last February. That I'm looking at and citing a work on archeology underscores the interdisciplinary & cross-specialization nature of our work. Don Don Osborn, PhD (East Lansing, MI, US North American Millets Alliance don(a)milletsalliance.org Notes: 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorian_Fuller 2. Fuller, D.Q. (2014). Millets: Origins and Development. In: Smith, C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_2181 3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paspalum_scrobiculatum 4. https://donosborn.org/blog/2022/iyom2023-in-french-mils-et-ou-millets/ 5. https://donosborn.org/blog/2022/iyom2023-in-spanish-los-mijos/

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Brief presentation about NAMA
by Don Osborn 22 Oct '22

22 Oct '22

The North American Millets Alliance (NAMA) held a Zoom meeting on Friday 21 Oct. for a number of invited participants. As part of the meeting, there was a short & simple PowerPoint presentation of several slides about millets and about proposals and concepts NAMA is working on. That is attached in PDF format for your information (with apologies to those among the list subscribers who have received it already) We are planning a follow-up meeting for 17 Nov. Please contact me off list if you want more info (if you attended on 21 Oct., you should have already received notice). Thank you and all the best, Don Don Osborn, PhD (East Lansing, MI, US) North American Millets Alliance don(a)milletsalliance.org

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Sorghum & teff officially in International Year of Millets (2023)
by Don Osborn 20 Oct '22

20 Oct '22

I'd heard this from another source a little while ago, but it is official that both sorghum and teff are considered among the millets, or if you prefer, the grains that will be promoted during the International Year of Millets. I don't have an online reference for teff, but here's one for sorghum (with thx to Nate Blum): https://www.morningagclips.com/nebraska-grain-sorghum-board-commends-the-un… Just what counts as a "millet" is often a matter of discussion, with some including or not including sorghum and/or teff. We have suggested that "millets' is a kind of folk taxonomy - it is clearly not a clear botanical category - which usefully serves to identify a class of grains. For the International Year of Millets, the FAO is apparently using a definition of small dryland grains in the Poaceae (grass) family. More on that later. Don Don Osborn, PhD (East Lansing, MI, US - +1 202-621-3911) North American Millets Alliance don(a)milletsalliance.org

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Re: [Collab] New diagram for visualizing millets as a group
by Don Osborn 02 Oct '22

02 Oct '22

Here's an updated version of the diagram shared last month. The only changes have been in the explanatory text on the right of the triangle. This version is preferable to use or share if you find the concept useful. A full presentation of this schematic, with examples of uses, along the lines of what I shared on this list on 6 August, is coming. (Yes this is taking longer than planned.) DO ------- Original Message ------- On Tuesday, September 6th, 2022 at 2:33 PM, Don Osborn via Collab < collab(a)lists.millets2023.space> wrote: Last month on Collab, I shared a diagram for visualizing millets as a group, and how it might be used to illustrate some botanical relationships among millets and their origins, as well as to show how and where they are currently used. I indicated that I would rework the base diagram, and that is what you see in the attached. Main changes: * Number of boxes increased from 19 to 21 * Split Indian & Japanese barnyard millet, and white and black fonio each into two boxes * Added "Some Panicum species" next to the box for Setaria spp. The interest here is to begin to account for species related to cultivated millets that are or have been used for food in some circumstances (or in the past) * Rearranged how the various millets are presented in function of geographic origin (Asia, mostly towards the left, and Africa to the right) and botanic relationships (tribe, and genus where more than one species belong to a genus) * Added brief explanations on the right about each level in the diagram (sorghum - sometimes called "great millet" - is at the top as it's by far the most cultivated of all the grains presented worldwide, etc.) I'll probably tweak some of the wording a bit more, and plan to put it into a presentation, in order to show how it can be used to inform (and demystify) millets. However, please feel free to use or share this as is, if you think it is useful. DO, EL, MI, US

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