A few thoughts about where we've been and where we're going with the Millets Webinar Series... The last two webinars in the series (February and March) dealt in broad terms and in some specifics with the multi-millennial history of millets. This is a vast subject that hasn't to my knowledge been treated as a historical whole There are many articles and some books that treat some subset of millets - usually one, sometimes a couple, and usually in a particular region and/or time period, This makes sense if you consider that we're talking about different crop species domesticated in various regions that fit in diverse cultures of agriculture and food. But since we're talking about this group of crops in the International Year of Millets, it is natural to ask about their collective story. So the last two webinars were intended as a stab in that direction. Here are some quick thoughts about the major trends I see in that long story - a "two-minute history of millets," if you will: * Millets (small grained cereals of the grass family) figured prominently in the earliest agriculture in various regions around the world, most notably in the vast continents of Asia and Africa * Many of these millets continued as local crops until today, but a few disseminated widely, and a few effectively disappeared from cultivation (for example in North America) * Of those that disseminated widely, foxtail and proso millets spread from East Asia south and west across Eurasia, and pearl millet, sorghum, and finger millet spread out of West and East Africa eastward to South Asia and beyond. This vast counterclockwise movement appears to have happened relatively quickly - that is, still in prehistory or ancient history. Incidentally it also established South Asia as a kind of "crossroads" of millets - a legacy you can see in India today * Over time, the prominent roles of millets in food and agriculture gradually ceded place to larger-grained cereals - this happening at different periods in different regions. That process picked up pace in some regions in the last century, in part due to the "Green Revolution" and its focus on selected large-grained crops. This marginalization of millets as crops and food has had economic, agronomic, and cultural aspects * In recent years, millets have received some renewed attention due to their adaptations as crops and qualities as foods, and in some places (such as India and China) an appeal to their cultural roles. The International Year of Millets is emblematic of this very recent trend. Does this portend another major shift in the long history of millets? (We are kind of betting it will.) If we look at the last three webinars, including also the January intro to millets, they set the stage for upcoming webinars about specific aspects of millets - agronomy, processing, nutrition, culinary, etc. More on those is upcoming. We look forward to your participation and feedback. Don Don Osborn, PhD (East Lansing, MI, US) North American Millets Alliance don@milletsalliance.org