June 2025 - Collab - lists.millets2023.space

Video of Millets Webinar on grain sorghum, 19 June 2025
by Don Osborn 30 Jun '25

30 Jun '25

With apologies for the delay, the video of the Millets Webinar earlier this month is now available at https://youtu.be/Qz8FM9iGfUg. Again, the topic was grain sorghum as food, with focus on the "hidden middle" of the ag-food chain. Earl Roemer gave insights into the processing of sorghum from his long experience, including as the founder and president of Nu Life Market,/1 the largest milling and processing company for grain sorghum in the US./2 Joni Kindwall-Moore,who we of course know as a NAMA co-founder and the founder of Snacktivist,/3 offered her perspectives as a sorghum product innovator. See NAMA's YouTube channel for precious productions: https://www.youtube.com/@MilletsAlliance Don Osborn, PhD (East Lansing, MI, US) North American Millets Alliance Notes: 1. https://nulifemarket.com/ 2. https://www.usglc.org/blog/feeding-the-world-how-nu-life-market-leads-the-f… 3. https://snacktivistfoods.com/

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This Thursday (6/19) - webinar on processing sorghum for food
by Don Osborn 16 Jun '25

16 Jun '25

Dear all, Our Millets Webinar this month will shed light on the "hidden middle" of processing sorghum grain for food. We hope to advance current discussions of how to encourage more people to consume grain sorghum by helping demystify the processes by which it comes to us in comestible form, and to explore what the possibilities are of these processes for food innovation. We will be joined by Earl Roemer, whose bio follows. We'll also vary the webinar format a bit this time, "Earl Roemer is a fourth-generation agricultural producer and businessman from West Central Kansas with backgrounds in both animal and plant science. Earl has held state and national leadership roles in both the State of Kansas and National Sorghum Industry Organizations. Earl is the Founder and President of Nu Life Market. This company focuses on the production, milling, and processing of specific sorghum grains containing defined quality and chemistry characteristics for applications in the food and beverage industries. The sorghum grains utilized by Nu Life Market are produced under an extremely strict identity preservation and regenerative production management system by their team of growers to reduce carbon and other greenhouse gases being released into the atmosphere and utilize less of our natural resources in the production of the sorghum grains milled by this food company." Earl was among experts quoted in a recent Wall Street Journal feature about promoting sorghum as food in the US. Zoom details for the webinar follow the sig. Don Osborn, PhD (East Lansing, MI, US) North American Millets Alliance Topic: NAMA Monthly Webinar Session Time: This is a recurring meeting Meet anytime - next one is Thursday 19 June, 11 am EDT / 8 am PDT Join Zoom Meeting https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86716347793?pwd=Fbp5YT9KNYKcum7obg94cExifEXrDE.1 Meeting ID: 867 1634 7793 Passcode: 340314 --- One tap mobile +19292056099,,86716347793#,,,,*340314# US (New York) +13017158592,,86716347793#,,,,*340314# US (Washington DC) --- Dial by your location • +1 929 205 6099 US (New York) • +1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC) • +1 305 224 1968 US • +1 309 205 3325 US • +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago) • +1 646 931 3860 US • +1 346 248 7799 US (Houston) • +1 360 209 5623 US • +1 386 347 5053 US • +1 507 473 4847 US • +1 564 217 2000 US • +1 669 444 9171 US • +1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose) • +1 689 278 1000 US • +1 719 359 4580 US • +1 253 205 0468 US • +1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma) Meeting ID: 867 1634 7793 Passcode: 340314 Find your local number: https://us06web.zoom.us/u/keg1tuTYWl

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"Zahina" or "zahína" for marketing sorghum?
by Don Osborn 13 Jun '25

13 Jun '25

On the talk about marketing names for sorghum, the less-used Spanish name for this grain, zahína, seems to me (a non-Spanish speaker) like it might be an excellent possibility for sorghum-based products. Only possible slight drawback is that it has a secondary meaning of a thin flour porridge, or one that doesn't thicken (not sure how that works). Interestingly, Zahina (or Zaheena) in Arabic - زهينّا - is a woman's name meaning "intelligent." Back to the Spanish zahína, it traces back to an entirely different word in the Andalusian Arabic dialect (once spoken in Spain) that means ... sorghum. So there doesn't seem to be any really problematic meaning to watch out for. Anyway, it seems to me that this "zahina" could be a useful sorghum product or product line name, at least in English, but not to replace "sorghum" or "milo" in common parlance. How it might play in Hispanophone communities and countries would be another question. Does "sorgo" have the same mixed reception among Spanish speakers that "sorghum" is said to have in English? "Milo" - having mentioned it - is actually a very convenient way to refer to grain sorghum, altho apparently on farms in Kansas (the biggest producer of sorghum in the US) it's associated with feed for animals. Also, in English we don't generally have names for edible grains different from those of the crop (as they sometimes do in Chinese, for example, or as we in English have for some meats vs. the names of the animals they are taken from). Etymologically, "milo" may trace back to the Portuguese word for millet, "milho." Will leave it there, Don Don Osborn, PhD (East Lansing, MI, US) North American Millets Alliance

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Funding for research on millets
by Don Osborn 07 Jun '25

07 Jun '25

Following up on Dipak's mention of funding issues, here are some thoughts and a proposal. Lack of funding for millets research has always been an issue, and that seems to be even more of an issue with US cuts to Federal research funding in general (without getting into the politics of it)./1 In 2023, Prof. James Schnable, Dipak's colleague at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln, was quoted as saying: "(Proso millet) is in this weird hole in the federal funding schemes, which is part of why we ended up using private money to start Dryland Genetics. Because it’s a grain, it doesn’t qualify for a lot of the specialty crop grants,"/2 I think that gap is if anything bigger and deeper in the case of other millets (and "alternative crops"). In that same article, Dr. Rob Myers at University of Missouri (who was instrumental in getting us to the Millets Webinars series in 2023) remarked how what might be a relatively minor grant for major crops could be a game changer in the case of millets (my wording)./2 I hear Dipak's mention of it in his recent post as reflecting the recent changes and cuts in ag research funding in the US generally (without getting into the politics of it), and alerting us to a critical need at this point in time that goes beyond the previous dearth of funding for millets. So here's a question: How might we - NAMA and the community of interest in millets - call attention to the need and opportunity for funding ongoing and new research on millets, and the potential costs of not funding such research? Can we and should we in such an effort highlight specific programs such as Dipak's which (if I understand correctly) are at risk? How might such an appeal address a range of public, commercial, and foundation possibilities? Please let me know what you think is possible and realistic (or productively ambitious). Don Don Osborn, PhD (East Lansing, MI, US) North American Millets Alliance Notes: 1. I turned up a bevy of articles from around the US in a Google search under "News" on "current state of agriculture research funding" 2. "Millets — ancient drought-resistant grains — could help the Midwest survive climate change," by Eva Tesfaye, Harvest Public Radio, 22 May 2023 https://www.kcur.org/2023-05-17/millets-drought-climate-united-nations

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Foxtail millet husks for bioplastics, sound absorption, & antimicrobials
by Don Osborn 05 Jun '25

05 Jun '25

We have previously discussed how proso millet husks are sometimes used for pillow fill. Foxtail millet husks would seem to be too small to be practical for such use. However, there is research on possible uses of this by-product - or actually of compounds in it - for other purposes. Those include bio-plastics, sound absorption materials, and antimicrobials. What are implications for potential uses of hulls of other small millets? ---- Akhil Babu, Abhirami R. Kumar, N.R. Amrutha, S. Madhurya, H.N. Punil Kumar, Jeevan Prasad Reddy, P.S. Keshava Murthy, Kokkarachedu Varaprasad, "Utilizing foxtail millet husk waste for sustainable new bioplastic composites with enhanced thermal stability and biodegradability," International Journal of Biological Macromolecules, Vol. 282, Part 5, 2024, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2024.137283 Abstract: Foxtail millet husk (FMH) is a byproduct that is not suitable for consumption and is often discarded as solid waste. However, it can be used as a raw material to develop novel bioplastic composites that transform agro-based leftovers into value-added goods. Herein, new bioplastic composites were developed from poly(lactic acid), poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) and FMH based granules by Injection Molding. The required granules were generated via a solvent evaporation method. The resulted bioplastic composites were analyzed for their morphologies, mechanical properties, crystal structures, thermal stability, and melting and crystallization behaviors using various techniques, such as scanning electron microscopy, universal testing machine, X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis, and differential scanning calorimetry. Expressly, chemical bonding between FMH fibers and poly(lactic acid)/poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) PLA/PBAT was confirmed through Fourier Transform infrared spectroscopy analysis. The inclusion of FMH lowered the impact strength of the PLA/PBAT combination, which was confirmed by mechanical analysis. Morphological findings confirmed that the PLA/PBAT combination had FMH aggregation. DSC thermograph revealed negligible differences in glass transition and melting temperatures of PLA/PBAT blend with and without FMH. The thermogravimetry results exhibit that the FMH can improve bioplastic thermal stability. The addition of FMH improved the biodegradability of the PLA/PBAT bioplastic composites. Overall, FMH waste can be repurposed for bioplastic composites with enhanced thermal stability and biodegradability. This reduces solid waste from agricultural practices and creates eco-friendly products. Further research could lead to more sustainable alternatives. ---- Balasubramanian, Dhayalini, Senthil Rajendran, Bhuvanesh Srinivasan, and Nirmalakumari Angamuthu. 2020. "Elucidating the Sound Absorption Characteristics of Foxtail Millet (Setaria Italica) Husk" Materials 13, no. 22: 5126. https://doi.org/10.3390/ma13225126 Abstract: The current study deals with the analysis of sound absorption characteristics of foxtail millet husk powder. Noise is one the most persistent pollutants which has to be dealt seriously. Foxtail millet is a small seeded cereal cultivated across the world and its husk is less explored for its utilization in polymer composites. The husk is the outer protective covering of the seed, rich in silica and lingo-cellulose content making it suitable for sound insulation. The acoustic characterization is done for treated foxtail millet husk powder and polypropylene composite panels. The physical parameters like fiber mass content, density, and thickness of the composite panel were varied and their influence over sound absorption was mapped. The influence of porosity, airflow resistance, and tortuosity was also studied. The experimental result shows that 30-mm thick foxtail millet husk powder composite panel with 40% fiber mass content, 320 kg/m3 density showed promising sound absorption for sound frequency range above 1000 Hz. We achieved noise reduction coefficient (NRC) value of 0.54. In view to improve the performance of the panel in low-frequency range, we studied the efficiency of incorporating air gap and rigid backing material to the designed panel. We used foxtail millet husk powder panel of density 850 kg/m3 as rigid backing material with varying air gap thickness. Thus the composite of 320 kg/m3 density, 30-mm thick when provided with 35-mm air gap and backing material improved the composite’s performance in sound frequency range 250 Hz to 1000 Hz. The overall sound absorption performance was improved and the NRC value and average sound absorption coefficient (SAC) were increased to 0.7 and 0.63 respectively comparable with the commercial acoustic panels made out of the synthetic fibers. We have calculated the sound absorption coefficient values using Delany and Bezlay model (D&B model) and Johnson–Champoux–Allard model (JCA model) and compared them with the measured sound absorption values. ---- P.P. Darshitha, Athul Ravi, P. Lasya, Maneesha Menon, G. Sivasubramanian, K.M. Sreekanth, K.M. Sreedhar, "Foxtail millet husk as an innovative biomass in the preparation of silica-silver composite with antimicrobial and free radicle scavenging activities," Materials Today: Proceedings, Volume 66, Part 4, 2022, Pages 1830-1836, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2022.05.285. Abstract: The crop, Foxtail millet is rich in dietary fibres and proteins with low glycaemic index. Hence it qualifies as a regular food in the Indian diet. This has raised the importance of the millet in increased agricultural production. The husk is a waste that can be effectively utilised. Opaline silica is present as phytoliths in the spikelet of the husk. This can be solubilized and precipitated out. In this work, opaline silica was converted to sodium silicate and the composite was precipitated at a pH of 4 using the sol–gel technique. The amount of silica was first quantified using XRF. The results obtained from XRF correlated well with those obtained from thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The chemical groups are identified using IR spectroscopy. The phase identification of opaline silica and silver was done by powder X-ray diffractometry. The morphological characterization of the composite revealed an irregular structure with particle dimensions of 1.880 μm to 10.82 μm. EDX analysis showed the existence of silver and silicon. Prepared composite was tested for anti-microbial action against five pathogens and was found to be comparable with antibiotics ciprofloxacin and ampicillin. The composite also presented outstanding scavenging action against 5 radicals with BHT as a standard. Don Osborn, PhD (East Lansing, MI, US) North American Millets Alliance

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Breakable big-grain sorghum for cattle feed? And waxy sorghum?
by Don Osborn 04 Jun '25

04 Jun '25

Another item under the versatility of millets: Sorghum already has a larger grain than other millets (aside from adlay or Job's tears), but there is research on feed varieties with yet larger grains, designed to break during harvest to make nutrients more bioavailable for cattle. "Nevada Researcher Aims to Improve Sorghum Hybrids for Dairy Cattle Feed," by Emma Lande, Nevada Today, 20 Nov. 2023 https://www.unr.edu/nevada-today/news/2023/yerka-sorghum-seed Thi research is the project of Dr. Melinda Yerka, Assoc. Prof. of Agriculture, Veterinary & Rangeland Sciences at the University of Nevada, Reno. The sorghum varieties in question are also bred for the drier region west of the so-called sorghum belt. Apparently this is part of a much larger research program involving 200 varieties of sorghum: "Sorghum Varieties Developed For Dairy Feed and Gluten-Free Human Nutrition," Seed Today, 4 Feb. 2025 https://www.seedtoday.com/article/1074280/potential-game-changing-sorghum-v… I understand from Joni that among the varieties Dr. Yerka is working on is one that is "waxy." Don Osborn, PhD (East Lansing, MI, US) North American Millets Alliance

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