Thanks Don! Joanna is so inspiring. On Thu, Oct 17, 2024 at 5:43 AM Don Osborn <don@milletsalliance.org> wrote:
Joni, I hope you won't mind my posting about your recent Regenerative by Design Podcast episode in which you interviewed Joanna Kane-Potaka. Entitled "Unlocking the Power of Millets in Regenerative Agriculture with Joanna Kane-Potaka" (10 Oct. 2024; 45 min), I'd highly recommend it for anyone interested in millets: * (Apple) https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/unlocking-the-power-of-millets-in/id16... * (Regenerative by Design homepage, which has links to other podcast platforms) https://www.regenbydesign.info/
As most of the readers of Collab know, Joanna is an international strategic marketing expert and smarter foods evangelist. She has recently served as Deputy Director General for Strategy, Engagement, and Impact at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), and before that as Assistant Director General for External Relations at the International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT). She also serves as executive director of the Choosing Smarter Foods initiative.
The podcast interview is a lively and wide-ranging conversation between two women with notable expertise on millets and crop/food diversity, globally and in North America. Topics covered include, for example: * Joanna's background * Some of the back story to India's proposal for the International Year of Millets (2023) * marketing of millets - successes & challenges * the "smarter foods" concept and importance of staples * processing capacity as a limitation on bringing millets to market * nutritional variation among millets, and need for research on this * farmer interest in millets and crop diversity generally * adaptation of various millets to diverse agro-ecologies, and again, need for research on this * the crop research cycle, which has tended to favor development of a small number of major cereal crops * prospects for the future
On the topic of smart(er) foods (good for health, good for farmers, and good for the environment), you may also be interested in a statement on the occasion of World Food Day (10/16) by Joanna and Dr. Raj Kumar Bhandari. It's entitled "How we can progress towards smarter food systems":
https://www.governancenow.com/views/columns/how-we-can-progress-towards-smar...
Don Osborn, PhD (East Lansing, MI, US) North American Millets Alliance
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