In the summer time, when the living is beer

If you’re like many Canadians who have enjoyed a beer lately, did you know that a virus-resistant barley variety from Ethiopia is to thank for saving the Western world’s beer industry?

Here’s little piece from USC Canada’s site that hits me where I live:

We might not be drinking much beer today if it wasn’t for Ethiopian farmers. Back in the 1980s, a barley virus threatened the survival of the large and lucrative North American beer industry. The few varieties of barley being planted here weren’t resistant to yellow dwarf – a virus with the potential to destroy entire crops worldwide.

By going back to Ethiopia – where peasant farmers safeguard the largest barley diversity in the whole world – North American researchers were able to find a virus-resistant gene in a heritage barley variety, bringing it back to North America to rescue the industry.

Beer is one of the world’s oldest beverages, with its history dating back to the sixth millennium BC. It’s recorded in the written history of Ancient Iraq. The earliest Sumerian writings contain references to beer.

A prayer to the goddess Ninkasi known as “The Hymn to Ninkasi” serves as both a prayer as well as a method of remembering the recipe for beer in a culture with few literate people. (And for cultures that have had too much beer.)

So cheers to Ethiopian farmers and the power of biodiversity!