December 2025 - Collab - lists.millets2023.space

P.J. Wester and adlay (Job's tears)
by Don Osborn 31 Dec '25

31 Dec '25

About a century ago, the Swedish-American botanist Peter Jansen Wester,/1 who was many years in the Philippines with the USDA, promoted Job's Tears (Coix lacryma-jobi)/2 as a food crop with great potential. He used the Cebuano (or possibly Tagalog) name "adlay" in his writing, and that term is widely used today. Like other grain crops, adlay has significant genetic variation. One major distinction is between varieties where the seed is enclosed in a soft shell, which facilitate dehulling and use as food, and those with a hard shell, which sometimes find use as beads in crafts. Another variation is in height with some being short, and others, such as in the photo on page 222 of Wester's 1922 article on adlay,/3 which grow taller than the average person. Adlay was grown in various localities in Asia ages before Wester's efforts to bring this food crop to wider attention. While it did not achieve widespread adoption after Wester's promotion of it, adlay is currently grown commercially in several parts of Asia, and is packaged for export to retailers, including in the US and Canada. (Sometimes it is labelled as "Chinese pearl barley," altho it is not closely related to barley.) It is not, to our knowledge, grown as a food crop anywhere in North America. Adlay has cultural roots where it has long been cultivated. For example, in Arunachala Pradesh, India, it is promoted as a traditional crop among the Adi people./4 And adlay features in Chinese traditional medicine, being considered to have a mild diuretic effect. There has been some intriguing research on culinary uses of adlay and on health effects of compounds in this grain, and there is a need for further work in these areas. Adlay, or Job's tears, is NAMA's millet of the month in December. Notes: 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Jansen_Wester 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adlay 3. Wester, P.J. (1922) "Adlay — A New Grain Plant From the Orient: A Relative of Indian Corn Found in Eastern Asia in a Great Number of Varietal Forms — Offering an Untouched Field of Work for the Plant Breeder." Journal of Heredity, Vol. 13, Issue 5, May 1922, pp. 221–227, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.jhered.a102209 (full text here - https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cb/The_journal_of_heredity… - search "adlay") 4. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/cropsecure-agritech-private-limited-company_… Don Osborn, PhD (East Lansing, MI, US) North American Millets Alliance

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Video of the Millets Webinar recap of 2025 & look ahead to 2026
by Don Osborn 20 Dec '25

20 Dec '25

With apologies for the delay, the video of our webinar on Tuesday 9 December 2025, in which we reviewed the year 2025 in millets, and looked ahead to 2026, is now uploaded to our Youtube channel at: https://youtu.be/YdT2JzJDR98 For the full list of webinars over the last year (and link in channel description to other past webinars), see https://www.youtube.com/@MilletsAlliance - where you can also subscribe. Don Osborn, PhD (East Lansing, MI, US) North American Millets Alliance

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(no subject)
by Om Dangi 11 Dec '25

11 Dec '25

Don, Will you please send us if it is recorded. Thanks *Om P.Dangi, Ph.D., P.Ag.President & CEOAgriculture Environmental Renewal Canada (AERC) Inc.821 Corkstown Rd., Ottawa, Ontario, K2K 2Y1Tel: 613 596 5927; Cell: 613-229-1886Website: www.aerc.ca <http://www.aerc.ca>*

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Re: Collab Digest, Vol 47, Issue 1
by Paul Overby/Lee Farms 10 Dec '25

10 Dec '25

Was this recorded? Paul -----Original Message----- From: collab-request(a)lists.millets2023.space <collab-request(a)lists.millets2023.space> Sent: Tuesday, December 9, 2025 6:00 PM To: collab(a)lists.millets2023.space Subject: Collab Digest, Vol 47, Issue 1 Send Collab mailing list submissions to collab(a)lists.millets2023.space To subscribe or unsubscribe via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to collab-request(a)lists.millets2023.space You can reach the person managing the list at collab-owner(a)lists.millets2023.space When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of Collab digest..." Today's Topics: 1. Re: Millets 2025 re-cap & 2026 outlook, Tues. 9 Dec. (NAMA webinar), (Don Osborn) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Tue, 9 Dec 2025 10:40:00 -0500 From: Don Osborn <don(a)milletsalliance.org> Subject: [Collab] Re: Millets 2025 re-cap & 2026 outlook, Tues. 9 Dec. (NAMA webinar), To: collab(a)lists.millets2023.space Message-ID: <CA+RHibWzsn3-nPcKRiN+bVAbqbG7q6Zg+kxgXKEHz2Lj=L7x9g(a)mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Just a reminder as we're starting soon. Also, if you get a spam warning, please persist. The link and the site should be normal. Don DO, EL, MI, US NAMA NAMA is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting. Topic: NAMA Year End Time: Dec 9, 2025 08:00 AM Pacific Time (US and Canada) Join Zoom Meeting https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83214606195?pwd=da8l8lrJfC8fD2Ga0ik83LzEc82KoM.1 View meeting insights with Zoom AI Companion https://us06web.zoom.us/launch/edl?muid=83fc229f-a3ee-4840-b6bd-7d6e58153ce1 Meeting ID: 832 1460 6195 Passcode: 992589 --- One tap mobile +16694449171,,83214606195# US +16699006833,,83214606195# US (San Jose) Join instructions https://us06web.zoom.us/meetings/83214606195/invitations?signature=KvpZz8HP… On Fri, Dec 5, 2025 at 1:13 PM Don Osborn <don(a)milletsalliance.org> wrote: > Join us this Tuesday, December 9, at 11 am EST/8 am PST, for a review > of the year 2025 in millets - with focus on North America - and a look > forward to 2026. > > It will feature presentations by NAMA board members: > * Joni-Kindwall-Moore, founder of Snacktivist and co-founder of the > Ryzosphere > * Gary Wietgrefe, senior millets agronomist and author > * Dr. Don Osborn, senior consultant in international rural development > > You are invited to contribute your experience with millets, whether in > production, processing, marketing, or culinary uses. > > Zoom link: > https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83214606195?pwd=da8l8lrJfC8fD2Ga0ik83LzEc82K > oM.1 Zoom link (shortened, redirects to above): > https://millets2023.space/NAMA-Zoom > > Zoom Meeting ID: 832 1460 6195 > Passcode: 992589 > > --- > > One tap mobile > +16694449171,,83214606195# US > +16699006833,,83214606195# US (San Jose) > > Join instructions: > > https://us06web.zoom.us/meetings/83214606195/invitations?signature=Kvp > Zz8HP2H-ACVDioAbkJGM6Rc5iIClXKGbcIskU-sc > > --- > > Don Osborn, PhD > (East Lansing, MI, US) > North American Millets Alliance > ------------------------------ Subject: Digest Footer -- Collab mailing list -- collab(a)lists.millets2023.space To unsubscribe send an email to collab-leave(a)lists.millets2023.space ------------------------------ End of Collab Digest, Vol 47, Issue 1 *************************************

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Millets 2025 re-cap & 2026 outlook, Tues. 9 Dec. (NAMA webinar),
by Don Osborn 09 Dec '25

09 Dec '25

Join us this Tuesday, December 9, at 11 am EST/8 am PST, for a review of the year 2025 in millets - with focus on North America - and a look forward to 2026. It will feature presentations by NAMA board members: * Joni-Kindwall-Moore, founder of Snacktivist and co-founder of the Ryzosphere * Gary Wietgrefe, senior millets agronomist and author * Dr. Don Osborn, senior consultant in international rural development You are invited to contribute your experience with millets, whether in production, processing, marketing, or culinary uses. Zoom link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83214606195?pwd=da8l8lrJfC8fD2Ga0ik83LzEc82KoM.1 Zoom link (shortened, redirects to above): https://millets2023.space/NAMA-Zoom Zoom Meeting ID: 832 1460 6195 Passcode: 992589 --- One tap mobile +16694449171,,83214606195# US +16699006833,,83214606195# US (San Jose) Join instructions: https://us06web.zoom.us/meetings/83214606195/invitations?signature=KvpZz8HP… --- Don Osborn, PhD (East Lansing, MI, US) North American Millets Alliance

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