Mr. Methane is a performing flatulist or petamane. He performs the art of controlled anal voicing, employing the same technique as 19th century Frenchman Joseph Peugeot, aka Le Petamane. He has performed his fart artistry at the world's top comedy festivals in Montreal, Melbourne and Edinburgh, as well as many public and private shows for exclusive clients. We first met in the mid-90s when we did a gala at the Montreal Comedy Festival. Jeanine Garofalo had a follow you. Please welcome, coming to us from the United Kingdom, Mr. Methane. Good evening or good morning, David. I'm not sure what time is it there. So, Mr. Methane, you and I met at the gala in Montreal. I remember Jeanine Garofalo had a go on after you. Do you remember that? I sort of, was that the big show? The one where it was Kelsey Grammer and Brett, Brett, was it Brett, a lady called Brett Butler? Today with a host. Yes, I do. And you were the, excuse me, for one second. I remember Bobcat Goldflate was there as well, wasn't he? Yes, it was Brett Butler introducing Loose Butler. Right, yes, I do remember, obviously I remember the show, but I don't remember, I don't remember who went on after me, because I'm always a little bit deflated after the show, if that makes sense. You know, I have to just go and have a quick lie down, really, and recuperate. I don't think, I don't think many people were that happy to follow, you know, I don't think everybody was that happy to actually follow me. I think Bobcat Goldflate did a set on what, because I did a few different evenings, you know, I did different, I probably did the theatre about two or three times, and one evening they sent Bobcat Goldflate on after me, and he did a whole part of his routine, and he says, well, why do I have to go on last? And they said, because nobody can follow you, and he said, I think the farting guy could follow me, you know, and then he got into this whole thing, he said, I really am sharing the dressing room with Mr Methane, you know, what did he say? Me, me, Mr Methane and Dick Cavett. He said, me, Mr Methane, Mr Methane, Dick Cavett and me, he says, there's a medium of the mind, you know. For our international listeners, Dick Cavett is a public intellectual, when Johnny Carson was hosting The Tonight Show, a more highbrow version of The Tonight Show was on ABC, and it was hosted by Dick Cavett.  Yes, Gilbert, yeah, Gilbert Gottfried, yes, yes, I remember Gilbert Gottfried, yeah, yeah, go on, because I'm interrupting here, I'm just getting excited because it was a good time, you know, I enjoyed the Montreal Festival, it was really nice. And then Janine Garofalo followed you, and then Jonathan Winters followed Janine Garofalo, and I remember walking up, I talked about this on the show last week, I walked up to Janine Garofalo and said to her, can you believe Jonathan, Jonathan Winters had a follow you, and she laughed really hard because she had a follow you, Mr. Methane, so you are truly a fartist, you can fart on command, correct? Yes, it's a muscular flatulence, it's not a dietary flatulence, so I don't use fermentation, you know, dietary fermentation, I actually expand the sphincter muscle and raise the diaphragm to draw air into the colon, and then I close the sphincter and expel the air, so it's sort of an anal breathing technique, very much I'm doing with my bottom, what Pavarotti used to do with his mouth, if you like, if that makes any sense to you.  I am, yes, yes, because it's physical, obviously I think we're not meant to give our ages away, are we, as entertainers, but I am in my fifties now, I mean when we worked together I was in my twenties and it doesn't get any easier as you get older. Do you find yourself out of breath? Are you winded? I have to now do, years ago I used to just be able to walk on stage and give it everything, but now I have to actually do about 10 to 15 minutes a day, I have a little room with a table set up to adopt the farting position which is this like fetal position on my back, if anybody's listening you just put Mr. Methane or Mr. Methane as we say over here into YouTube and you'll get to what we call a blow by blow account on YouTube, you know, all the crowd pleasing videos are there, but yeah it's very physical David, so I have to practice now, you know, as you get older your body gets a little stiff, your muscles get a little tighter, you know, the days of my youthful farting days are long behind me and I'm sort of in this age now where I'm thinking that maybe I've done enough now to just actually give a talk about what I've actually done, you know, it's an unusual, there's a whole circuit of after dinner speaking, where people talk about these unusual trades and professions they've had and I'm thinking a journalist recommended that I maybe just talk about, you know, the highlights and the low lights and everything really about being at the bottom end, literally at the bottom end of show business and, you know, and just finish off with one crowd pleaser at the end maybe the blue Danube, you know, just to sort of leave them wanting more if you like. You play Hey Jude on YouTube, you sing along with it. Oh, I do. Yes, yes, yes, yes. That's the best of British compilation with a finish with whole lots of love by Led Zeppelin. Yes. And I finish it, I think with the punchline, this is my whole, my whole lot of and then let out a big colon cough.  It's, you know, some comedians obviously because, you know, I appreciate how comedy works that you can craft a joke over a long, long time and it can just be based on getting a big laugh for the joke and just be about inserting a pause in the right place or an emphasis or just changing it a single word and comedians work for a long, long time to hone the jokes and hone the routine.   But it is, it's very strenuous. And it's difficult in the sense that if you put together a little show, you're basically telling the same joke with the same punch line. So you have to dress it up in different ways as you, as you move along. So you have to do things like, okay, right, you've, you've, you've broke wind to a classical song. Do something else. No. So then you have to introduce that blow out candles on the birthday cake. Then I might do a bit of popular. And then I might move on to blowing talc so people can actually see the colon coffees like a nuclear explosion by, by placing talc and powder on the seat of my palms. And the crowd pleaser, which you don't normally see at trying to keep it off YouTube. And just keep it for the Mr. Me saying, let's rip DVD. And that's the end of the show. I, I farted out into a four foot diameter balloon attached to somebody's head. It'd be like a William Tell sort of shooting the apple off the head.  And it shoots about seven or eight feet and hits the balloon, which is full of talc and powder. And, and really there's nothing you can do that would ever, if anybody asked you for an encore at many people, are you going back on? They really liked you. What's an encore? An encore. So sorry, but what can you do after you've just farted a dart into a four foot diameter balloon on somebody's head? There isn't anything that you can go back on and top it with. You know, that's the end of the show really. Yeah.  Is it safe to say you're more popular in Germany than you would be in, say, Great Britain? Yes, it's strange. No, it isn't. I completely understand why the Germans like you more. It's strange that there's also a thing about English people in, to, to a British crowd, I would sound like a northern English man and they'd think, well, there's nothing, nothing in particular exceptional about him. He doesn't even have a BBC accent.   I always used to say I was the man that put the ring into Ringo Starr, but he obviously, we do have similarities because Liverpool isn't, Liverpool and Manchester only 30 miles apart.  How did they ever win the war? You know, it's one of those, it's that easy.  And I don't mind being the person who goes abroad and trashes the brand a little bit and indulges in the little bits of self-depreciation, a bit like Mr. Bean in a sense, you know, role in that. Right, so let me, let Mr. Methane, let me ask you a couple of quick questions. Are you allowed to perform your fardistry on television in England? Are you allowed to perform it on television in Germany? Are there any countries in Europe that doesn't allow you to perform? Yes, it's interesting. In England, when they originally started the, the performances, I couldn't get them on primetime television, but obviously I've been performing now for nearly almost 30 years, and it's suddenly over the years, the culture and the attitudes have changed to the extent that about seven or eight years ago, I ended up on primetime Saturday night television in England. In Great Britain, yes, with, I was, I was, I was badgered, which is like, I suppose, what's the word?  What do you mean you gave in? They wanted you and you said no? Originally I said no, I don't want to do it, I don't want to do it, you know, but they continually said, oh please, oh please, you know, please come, please come. An English term is my drink, you know, that's what I was always saying. So when was the first time you appeared on television? In England, it was late night television in 1990, a show on the independent ITV network, one of the big four stations, it was called the James Whale radio show, although it wasn't a radio show, it was a TV show. And were you on the BBC radio before that? I was on the BBC radio a few years later, suddenly, again, because times and attitudes changed, originally the BBC said no, and then about five or six years later, a new broom swept clean, the popular music channel, and brought all these newer, more edgier DJ presenters in who were given this sort of free reign to try new things. So again, I wasn't on in the prime time, but was on in the evenings.  And that was the show that I was actually the first time I was ever on prime time Saturday night television in England, it took nearly 20 years, you know, but the change happened. But you did not do well on Britain's Got Talent? I didn't do well, but I think I always feel that was part of the deal because I didn't expect to do well because I was going to, I was going with something alternative, slightly edgy and not really mainstream, you know, I wasn't, I hadn't got a nice little dancing dog. And then you went to Germany, but then you went, I did Super Talent. I did, I actually got to the semi-finals in that one, yes, yes. Did people complain? Did people complain? The man, I did a few concerts afterwards with a promoter from Switzerland. I was like, did a few of these, these big shows, big, big German shows. And the man booked me because he said, you made television history in Germany. He said, because your performance, I actually farted the dart. And the Germans being the Germans said, I tried to do it in a very English manner and conceal my nether regions, make it tasteful. But the Germans went for a big close-up on the sphincter muscle and the blowpipe going in, because Germans are just Germans, you know.   But where do you go? The same happened in Sweden in the early 90s when commercial television came about. My show, apparently, my appearance, blew the doors open for all manner of strange things on this sort of, it was like a David Letterman late night type show. And never before in Sweden they had anything beyond just people sat on a sofa talking very politely. Did people recognize you on the street? In actually, when I was flying back from Sweden the second time, this was in the early 90s, the air hostess said, oh, did you have a good show? She says, I missed the show, but I read in the newspapers that you were coming and before the internet you had no idea, you know, on the internet it's global now, but in those days you had no idea what was going on in another country. So apparently all the newspapers had sort of built up the reappearance or the return of this man who shocked the nation six months earlier. And I had no idea that it shocked the nation because you just come back to England and like I say, there wasn't that internet, so he stayed over there. He stayed over in Scandinavia with the national papers, which obviously didn't really translate across the water to England. We're talking with the performing flatulence Mr. Methane. By the way, a lot of my listeners are aspiring comedy writers, Mr. Methane. And you said air hostess? Oh, yes. Yeah. And that didn't go by me or my listeners. And I'm going to be getting emails from them. Why didn't you jump in when he said air hostess? Because I couldn't. I didn't want to interrupt you. When? What's going on with the air hostess? Am I meant to say flight attendant to this one? No, it was a pun. There's just, oh, there's so many puns. Yes. No, you're right. Sorry, it's like, it's quite late here, some sort of not on the ball, so to speak. I want to get back to technique. So you're saying you breathe in and breathe out, but you don't make a sound when you breathe in, do you? No, there's very much if you, some of the videos on YouTube, you'll hear me, you'll see me flex, sort of flexing my arms against my knees and catching me breath going, oh, oh, and then you'll sometimes hear, if you're listening very carefully, you'll hear a, and that's the air going in. Can you whistle?  Um, I was, funnily enough, I was watching the, the Montreal, you know, what we were on, we were on about earlier, the gala show in the Montreal festival and I watched the rendition of the Blue Danube and I listened to it and thought, my goodness, that is a lot less tonally, it's a lot less structured than how I do it now, you know, or all the renditions of the Blue Danube that you can watch on YouTube. That's an interesting point, that's interesting, Mr. Methane, because Louis Armstrong said, as I got older, I played much slower, much fewer notes, but I played them better. Do you find that that's true? Yeah, I think that describes me, yes, yeah, that describes me perfectly. You're hitting fewer notes, but the, it sounds better. It is, because you just, you know, what you do is, if you keep the buttocks splayed and just tighten the sphincter muscle, then you get like a rather harsh rasp, like a raspberry, but then you can bring, you can bring the buttocks together by moving your legs, so, so that then the air is escaping through the sphincter and also through the buttocks, so it's more like a, like a gas bubbling out of a swamp, but then what you can do is, on the end note, and you'll notice it on Britain's Got Talent, it sounds like I've gone all the way and maybe caught a bear in the net, and what I've actually done is, I've just relaxed the sphincter on the final discharge, so it sounds like I've had a terrible accident, you know, so, and I'll just go relax the sphincter, and it will just come out like a vroom, you know. I see. Do you have, do you have a tuning fork? Excuse me for a second, do you have a tuning fork? Do you, if you're being accompanied, will you say, we have to play in the key of A or the key of B? Can you play in various keys?  So is there a key, in other words, there are certain instruments where they say this instrument only plays C major, is there a... Well, everyone says the key of F, you know, because obviously they get a laugh out to saying I'm playing in the key of F. But what is the key, when you are being accompanied, what key are you playing in? Yeah, do you know that's something, because I guess I always get the musicians to, I always give them one for level, and then get them to worry about that. I've probably never, I must go away, next time I'm in the studio, which won't be very long from now, maybe another few weeks, I'll actually... Or I'd say I've got a few musicians in the family, I'll just ask them, basically. Frank Sinatra found, Frank Sinatra discovered that as he got older, and most singers discovered this, that their pitch is much lower, but there's a depth to it, a resonance to it. Are you finding that this happened where you can't play as high, but your lows have more... Yes, I tell you why, because when you're playing high, to play high, I have to really tighten the sphincter, and tighten the abdominal muscle region, because like a singer, when a singer wants to get those high notes, so he doesn't completely ruin his vocal cords, and you can make your vocal cords very sore, you actually tighten your low and abdominal region, and really, you let the air out, you're rationing the air that's coming through the vocal cords, because you don't want too much coming through, because you actually damage them, and I am doing the same thing with the sphincter at the bottom end, so I'm very, very tight, I'm using the same amount of air that I might emit from the colon in a minute on a high pitch, is the same amount that I might just use for a, you know, a big one, and because of that, when you're hitting those high pitches, you are very tensed up, and it is very muscular and strenuous, so you're not in a relaxed state, and so it is more quite physical, so I do avoid, actually, always doing this one, nowadays, in a live show, because I don't know if it adds that much to the show, I can almost miss it out, and people aren't that worried about it, because they just like the songs with the big disparity, and again, we're going back to Louis Armstrong, you know, just play less notes, but a variety of notes, yeah, yeah. That's a great singer you're singing from the diaphragm, and the way I understand the way you're describing this, you too are singing from the diaphragm. I am, yes, and I do, you know, I understand the technique, because in the past I've had singing lessons, you know, in the younger years, so I understand about the use of the diaphragm, the abdominal muscle region, and rationing the air coming out on the higher notes, and I'm literally doing the same with the bottom end, you know. And I just noticed, Mr. methane, I just noticed you cleared your throat. What happens during a show when you have to clear your other throat? Oh, it's a difficult one, because if without keeping it clean, because obviously I realize people could be having, you know, people could be eating, listening to this. It's very difficult, because you might want to clear your throat before a show, but if you clear your throat too close to the show, because you know, obviously you've got to make room in there, if you're too close to a show, you can have problems that, how can I say this? You've lubricated your passageway in such a way that it doesn't open up to admit the air. I mean, there's no way I could draw your diagram, but either way, none of this is particularly... So you have to time your... Yes. And so it must be very... It's a grueling... It's a very... It's very disillusioned. Eating as well.   You have to eat a few hours before... Is it a precise schedule? Is it very precise? If you know the show starts... If the show starts at 10, if you go on at 10 o'clock. Yes. I'd want to revet by seven. So I wouldn't want to eat any earlier, because with it being strenuous, I don't want to go on stage feeling hungry and weak. So I need the energy that the food gives me, but I don't want the food to be lying in the stomach and making me feel bloated, because I'm actually catching my breath.  If I've got a stomach full of food, I can't do that. So... And as I understand it, as I understand it, this is... The sounds you're making are not a byproduct of fermentation. This is... They're not. No. So it has nothing to do... It has nothing to do with the food you're eating. No, but you don't want to full stomach, because I'm actually... What I'm doing is very physical, and because I'm laying my back, I don't want stomach full of food, just because I do use an awful lot. I almost create the vacuum. Uh-huh. Do you think... But let me ask you a question, Mr. Methane. Do you think it's misleading to call yourself Mr. Methane when, in fact, what's coming out of you is not methane but oxygen? It is. It is. I totally agree, and it all came about, because I just cannot shake off Mr. Methane, because... But it is misleading. It is misleading. Oh, it is, in a sense. Yes, he does lead people up the wrong passage, if that's the right... And it came about, because I used to be just called... When I first started, I used to work on the railroads, and they used to call me the incredible farting man from Buxton, Shumtinyards, Buxton is a little town in England, and, you know, there was a freight yard there where they used to switch the wagons or shunting, as they call it in England, so I was the incredible farting man from Buxton, Shumtinyards, and then somebody said to me, I went on a tour with a rock group called the Macklabs, and they said, we need a persona for you, and I said, okay, they said, we want to call you Mr. Methane, or, you know, Methane, and we want you to come up with a costume, a superhero costume, because we're going to make this character, we're going to write a song about this character who can solve all the world's problems with a fart, and so they wrote a whole song, and I put this green costume, I made this green, devise this green superhero costume, and they wrote the song, and it is actually on YouTube, it's the Macklabs, Mr. Methane, the song is, and, you know, I do sort out all these early 1990s problems like German unity, you know, with a fart, and the press got hold of this, they liked, the English tabloids loved this guy in a green suit and Mr. Methane, and suddenly, I was stuck with Mr. Methane, I couldn't, you know, I'd got a brand if you like, and this brand was him, and yet really, I was using Petomania, you know, which is obviously muscular flatulence as opposed to dietary, but let me ask you, let me ask you, a little bit does come out, you know what I mean, there is a little bit to Methane, because as the air goes in, it blows a little bit of dietary fermentation out with it, so it's a bit like one of those drinks that Tony has, you know, the market's a drinker, and you find out that what the market needs on is actually only a tiny percentage of the overall total of the contents of the bottle, you know. Right, are there any competitors out there? Um, there was a guy called Gaseous Gary, I don't know what happened to him, he was a milkman, apparently, who started doing... And he was lactose intolerant, probably. Possibly, yes, I was, I had a bout of lactose intolerance earlier this year, which was quite distressing. I was depleted after I had a bit of flu over the winter, and with that, and, you know, the flu had all the good bugs in my intestinal, and made me lactose intolerant, which wasn't good for a week or so. But yeah, there was Gaseous, there was a guy in Japan, apparently, but I've never actually met face-to-face with it.  Are they as good as you? Well, none of them. In terms of stamina, there is a guy, I think he's called the Fartmaster. There's a few things going on there. One is he covers his face, so he's obviously embarrassed about doing it. I mean, I cover my face, but it doesn't work, I still get recognised.  You'll see pictures of them, and he doesn't worry me, you'll see pictures of what Mr Methane looks like, you know. But this guy covers his face up, and he does this long, long, long, juicy, rasping fart that lasts longer than a minute, and he says, I have broken Mr Methane's record, but they just seem to be doing as many farts as they can, or for as long as they can.  Are there any women who do this and then accompany themselves with a quiff? Yeah, now I've heard about a quiffing lady, and I forget the name. Oh, yes, she used to write to me. She was a lady, I think she was like, she had a sort of semi-soft, semi-erotic porn side, and she used to write to me, and I'm sure she was called the Queen of Quiffs, as you would be, you know. The Queen of Quiffs had write to me, and we never got together for the duet. I think she wanted to get together, but there was a bit of a problem. But she could do her own duet. She, well, yes, she could. I don't think she did the back bottom, though. This is the trouble that she only did the front. And I have actually once, there's a guy the guy in the States, he's very good. He does this thing where you play a tune with by putting the palm of your hand under your armpit. And I once did some kind of a duet. Oh, on Japanese television, we have in England, we have the world's loudest belcher. He's called the Burpa King, and he holds the records, the world's loudest belch. He's in the Guinness Booker Records. And I actually did the little duet with him on Japanese television, where we did the Blue Danube between the two of us. Do you have groupies? Do you have groupies? You do, it's strange. It appeals to the more, it's not really a lady's thing or a girl's thing. If I was 17, or if there's anybody out there who's 17 thinking of getting into this, I would say still getting to rock music and picking guitar up. Failing that, getting into comedy, you know, just stand-up comedy. And you know, you absolutely fall back as to become a farting man, really, because if you're looking for the girls, it's just not a girl's thing. But when the girls do turn up, you tend to find they are the more interesting intellectual types, because, you know, wild and sort of slightly offbeat things appeal to, you know, there's a fine line between genius and madness, you know. And lots of people, I think a lot of the girls have been attracted to me think they may be on the trail of a genius, you know, where really they're just talking to a lunatic. How old were you when you discovered this? I was 15 and I discovered I had a sister who practiced yoga and I used to emulate her yogic positions and I was in the full lotus position and I noticed that I had this ability to breathe both, you know, fore and aft. And then I went to the school the next day and said to the guys at school, you never guess what I can do. And they said, oh no, you can't do that. So we went to the squash courts because the acoustics were great, you know. And I gave a performance in the squash courts. Nothing exceptional, just a few blasts, long ones, short ones, fast ones. And it became a bit of a lunchtime. I became a pumping prodigy in the lunch hour.  And he really built, you know, he built from there. But I did actually stop him because I realized it wasn't a great thing for attracting the girls, you know. So for a few years, I did actually, that's how I came to pursue a career on the railroad, you know. And then I realized that just being normal wasn't for me. And I thought, wouldn't it be mad if you could actually, you know, you've got to do this now while you're young. You've got to see if you can actually make a living from breaking wind like the French gentleman Joseph Pujol. I'm going to ask you about Joseph Pujol in a second. Yoga. Oh yes. I like yoga. When you do yoga, you're told to breathe. And you feel good when you breathe. I'm going to ask you one last question about this. And then we'll talk about lepetamine. Breathing down under. Yes. Is that relaxing? I know that when I take deep breaths, I'm relaxed. Do you take deep breaths through that sphincter? And does it relax you?  If you can't when you go on, you need that adrenaline rush.   I want to run down the street and run away. And then they go, well, come on stage, Mr. methane. And you walk out. And all of a sudden that that that adrenaline turns into an energy to perform and get through the show. So you never quite relaxed until there's that show tension that that adrenaline of the show. Has there ever been a has there ever been a time on stage when you had butterflies in your stomach and they flew out of your sphincter? No, no, but they have caused you see, this is the thing that that that tension, though you need it for the performance can cause you your muscles to be tight and not really help you to relax the sphincter enough to draw the air in. It's difficult. It's like an every show, you know, when you're having a bad show, sometimes the timing isn't going quite right.  And that anxiety isn't good. I mean, I'm thinking at the end of the show, especially when I fart the dart into the balloon. If it doesn't go first time, because maybe the dart comes out and doesn't quite straighten itself up to pierce the balloon, and it bounces off. That's fine.   And you may be because you haven't got a rear view mirror. You're shaking a little bit. You really want to get it. You don't place the the pea shooter. You can't quite see where you're placing the pea shooter as you grip it with the sphincter muscle.  And it just gets worse and worse.  And and you thank you very much. And then there's this huge sort of like post, you know, there is that relax relaxation. But because it's the the post show sort of, oh, I've done it again. I've got through another show, end of the show, and everybody's cheering and clapping and waving and saying, thank you very much. I'm not able to notice whether it's the anal breathing that's relaxing, if that makes sense. It's obscured by the the adrenaline of the performance. But but here at home, I think when I've had me 10 minutes practice in the morning, I always feel a bit a bit refreshed, a bit like somebody has maybe had a bit of colonics, you know, and then going out to face the world afterwards, and they feel fresh inside, the room isn't fresh inside, you know, and I never open the door to the postman. If I've just been performing upstairs, you know, I always sort of say pass it through the window or something, you know, before you go before you go, you would use the term about the peristaltic waves and the petamane. I'm curious about the Joseph Pujo, aka Le Petamane. Yes, yes. What is what does petamane mean before we find out who Joseph Pujo was? Pet means to his French for fart. So petamane is the farting, fartman basically, is French for fartman, petamane or petamane and then but I do think there's a slight translation. I'm not sure, I'm not an exact expert on French. I mean, they did start teaching, when we joined the EU, they did start teaching it as at school. So you know, you're part of the EU now, so you're going to learn a foreign language, the French are just over there, learn that. And I think the old peto man might also be a slight translation might be fart maniac. So not just just fart man, but fart maniac. So by the way, for one of my listeners, his name is Nickname, I'm not going to do the EU joke, the EU, EU joke, I'm not going to do that, because I want to keep the interview going. When did you first discover Joseph Pujo, who was also Le Petamane? You were doing this before you knew there was a Le Petamane. I was. And we went to watch, we went to the local cinema to watch. I'm not sure, I think it might, yes, I think it was Monty Python and the Holy Grail. And you know, they always used to have a little trailer, a little film on before the main feature. Oh no, he could have been the life of Brian. Anyway, it was one of those two. But beforehand, there was a little 20, 15, 20 minute short film. And it was, I think it was a script by, I think Galton and Simpson, who were two quite famous British script writers, wrote it. And it was about the life of Le Petamane. And it was played by an English actor called Leonard Rosita. And I think we ended up enjoying that more than we enjoyed Monty Python. And suddenly, my friend said, this is you, you could do this, you know, look, look, look.  You know what I mean?    Do you know what I mean? I never lied to him. He was a weirdo. Or they'll say, he was a genius, you know, the man was a genius. He was a bit mad, but he was a genius. And so, you know, I just thought, well, this divides people's opinions. I shouldn't think, you know, I shouldn't, I didn't have any great desire to be liked. He doesn't worry me that people like Simon Cowell slag me off because I know that it's a reaction, you know, that it's creating a reaction. And of anything, I like that because I haven't got a statement, a political statement to make through farting. I'll leave that to the politicians, you know. But, you know, I like the fact that it sort of opens up in people a debate. When you've left the room, you know, they'll say, well, I like that. And there's someone I'll say, well, I thought it was disgusting.  And he was actually just saying earlier, because he's going to write a little bit of a blog. And he's talking about a passage in Mr. Pickwick. And there's actually a reference in there from around 1830. He said, you know, and around that time, he said, he's saying, this is a period when the victory, when Victorian 1830 Victorian prudery started to happen. Before that time, the old cartoonists like James Gilray would have an anything goes policy in their drawings. And they would happily show the king farting and shitting, you know, the change in public morality is summarized when one character says it's as though we no longer fart. And so it's this debate about morality, you know, that some people say, oh, no, I didn't find it funny. It was disgusting. And the others say, well, actually, you know, it's the first thing we laugh at as a child. And it's probably one of the few things we can always laugh at. You know, so I like to leave that debate and also just he gets reaction. But I don't get too theoretically involved in it myself, you know, to me, and I'm quite happy to drop the bomb and leave the room, so to speak. Well, we're all out of time. We've been talking with Paul Oldfield, also known as Mr. Methane. And he has been conversing with us from where in Great Britain? I'm up in the north of Manchester. I'm in what they call the English Lake District, which is the last county before you get into Scotland. Well, when you come to America, I'm hoping you play Boston, because that's Beantown. And then you go to Chicago, the Windy City. Oh, the Windy City, yeah. And your tour will be complete. MrMethane.com. It's MrMethane.com, right? That's the one. And then on there, you can see all the Mr. Methane products, including I do personalized greetings for people, which I share to them via YouTube.  Do you do wedding proposals? Anything. Anything. You know what I mean? Unless I'm asked to endorse something illegal or create public disorder. I mean, a few people ask me to do sort of things regarding Donald Trump before the election, because in England, the word Trump means to break wind. Does it really? And yes, it does. Yeah, if you're Trump in England, it means to break wind. And yeah, obviously in the States, it doesn't mean that. But it does now. It does. Yes. Yeah. But I don't like to get, I very much like to just keep it to the farting and not get involved in the political stance because I want both sides of the debate to enjoy, you know, I want to reach out to the alt-right as well as the left, you know, because that's a good link. We got to wrap it up. We have to wrap it up. But to you. All right, let's go. But that's a great message. That's a great message for you young comics who are listening. Take it from Mr. Methane. Political humor will divide an audience. It will. It literally will. And the best English comedians, the best English dublats in history was more common wise and they always stayed away from politics and everybody loved them. They hold the record. Their show, their Christmas show has never been, nobody has ever beaten the ratings for their Christmas show in the 1970s. And they're loved by the entire nation, whether you're on the left or the right. Everybody loves more common wise. I think what Mr. Methane is saying, give it to them right down the middle. Yeah. Yeah. I suppose so. Yeah. Thank you, Paul. From the bottom. Thanks, David. Thanks for having me and have a good rest of the day or evening. Thank you.


Thank you. Thank you, Marta. Good afternoon. Even good morning and good evening to everybody because we are, I know the participants are all from different time zones. It's wonderful to have all of you here. Thank you so much for finding time to join with us for this very exciting webinar on millets. Without wasting much time because there's a lot of exciting things to hear from our two experts, Dr. Paul and Chef Manisha. So let me just quickly introduce to you. Dr. Paul, Dr. Paul Newman is the director of the STG2 Advocacy Hub, which works to achieve STG2 and also bring together NGOs, advocacy groups, civil societies, the private sector and the UN agencies together in one platform to share the expertise, ideas and to collaborate on campaigns. He is also the coordinator of the chef's manifesto so you can see in his background a banner of the chef's manifesto. So thank you very much, Paul, for joining us and over to you. Well, thank you so much for the warm introduction. It's really great to be a part of this webinar series to highlight the importance of the international year of millets. It's wonderful to see that India has spearheaded this international year of millets in 2023 as declared by the United Nations. And I'm also incredibly delighted to be joined by Chef Manisha Basan because the best way to bring what I say to life is directly on your plates. So I'm really looking forward to the recipes and hearing from her as a chef working with millets, a little bit of her insight. Millets believe it or not provide a lot of opportunities to address some of the world's most pressing issues linked to food security, nutrition and the overall food system. Today I'm going to talk to you a little bit about feeding the world with millets in the context of the global climate and given the potential impact millets have for promoting sustainable food that is good for people and planet. So just to set the scene, we're facing many global challenges at unprecedented levels at the moment. We have a challenge around health. We have a food crisis that's threatening to reverse decades of progress on hunger and malnutrition, pushing us to urgently transform our food systems to nourish both people and planet. We've seen a continued rise in the world hunger 828 million in 2021, while at the same time 3.1 billion across the world cannot afford a healthy diet. We also have obesity and overweight in a world that is not enabling us to see progress as well as at the same time tackling stunting and wasting. And at the same time, there's also a cost of living crisis. You know, we see many people that have fallen into poverty as a direct consequence of global food and energy price surges. The world's still recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic and many communities as a result are facing this cost of living crisis at a time which is quite challenging. We also see global conflict happening in different places that's putting challenge on supply chains. This is pushing up food, fuel and fertilizers and it really pushes the cost of food to all time highs. At the same time, climate is a big issue as well. And we know that we produce enough food to feed the planet, but we also see a third of all food is wasted and a third of some of our greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture. We've also got massive issues around water, water usage and water shortages in certain parts of the world. And so finding solutions that can help us really look at people and planet are really critical. There's really no other way to put it, but we've been actually off track to reach sustainable development goal too. And this means we're still at the moment looking at nearly 10% of the world's population is going to face hunger in 2030 if our current trajectory continues. It is a little bit grim and I, as I share this, it can sometimes get a bit overwhelming, but we also have solutions at hand. We have things that are tangible that simple solutions that we can then help to move forward. So the question that I often think about is how can we improve what people are eating and how that food is grown that has a positive impact on the planet. And I think millets offer a really great solution and need to be part of the discussion, putting millets on the map is not just about making the crop more desirable and tasty. It's part of a larger effort to achieve the sustainable development goals. So, when we think about millets, they're often described as a smart food good for people, the planet and farmers millets in compass, a diverse group of small grain dry land cereals, including foxtail barnyard and fornio among others. As whole grains millets are a good source of essential nutrients. The millets are primarily grown in Asia and Africa with India being the top producer followed by Nigeria and Niger and China. They're among the first plants to be domesticated and still serve as a traditional staple crop in parts of sub Saharan Africa and Asia. These crops are rooted in ancient cultures and ancestral ancestral traditions and have long survived harsh growing conditions that climate resilience and adaptability offer opportunities for strengthening food security and bolstering economic growth. In fact, they hold the power to address multiple global issues from malnutrition to climate smart agriculture. With the international year of millets the UN calls for the urgent need to raise awareness of this climate resilient grain and the benefits and to advocate for diversified balanced and healthy diets through the increased sustainable production and consumption of millets. The international year of millets contributes to the United Nations agenda for sustainable development, particularly through gold to zero hunger through gold three good health and well being gold eight decent work and economic growth. Gold 12 around responsible consumption and production and gold 13 around climate action and SDG 15 on on life on land. So if you think about it what makes millets so special and how do they contribute so millets support climate resilient agriculture and their climate friendly they use 70% less water than rice they grow in half the time of week. They need 40% less energy and processing. They're very hardy and they can withstand extreme heat conditions they're nutritious they have many vitamins and minerals, including iron and cold calcium they are high in protein antioxidants resistant starch and have a low glycemic index which can help prevent or manage diabetes. They're also gluten free. And there's a whole grain millets provide different amounts of fiber that which has a role in regulating bowel function blood sugar and lipids and and and citation. So millets have this potential to really generate livelihoods, increase farmers incomes and ensure food and nutritional security all over the world. So the production of millets and the demand for them has declined as other cereals such as wheat, maize and rice became a dietary preference so what we're trying to see in this international year is how do you regain market opportunities. Look at revenue that can be created for small holders and boost economic growth. And so we're hoping that greater trading millets can really also improve the diversity of the global food system. So millets, including sorghum account for 3% of the global grains trade with the need to improve the resilience of global trade and the ability to respond to such changes in the food grain market millets are a viable option to increase output diversity and mitigate some of the risks related to production shocks. So I think we have this unlimited untapped potential in these ancient grains. So not only do the benefits I've already explained but they're also ingrained and there's no pun intended in a rich cultural history. Millets have said to be among the earliest if not actually the first cereals to have been cultivated by mankind. For many years around the world millets have been a staple food part of everyday meals. According to studies more than 90 million people in Africa and Asia depend on millets in their diet. And although global millet consumption has declined in the past. It really does show pot pot promising trends in the future. There's a variety of millets we've got here on the screen that we have to choose from to name a few there's finger millet, Kodo millet, pearl millet, foxtail millet and the list goes on. I don't know exactly which one of my favorite there's so many I was talking about this with chef just before we came on the call. It really does depend a little bit on which dish you're creating and how you bring it together and they all have amazing benefits. It's really amazing that one tiny grain can give so much. Each millet has the an importance of its own some millets such as finger millet are full of calcium. Some like Joe potassium and phosphorus and foxtail is fibrous while Kodo is rich in iron so you can actually use different millets in different ways to give different benefits. And when we experience biodiversity loss of alarming rate we need grains like millets to bring this alternative nutritious options. So I think we need to raise awareness to excite people about these kinds of foods that are good for people planet and prosperity while also offering solutions which are affordable accessible and available to all. We really need to encourage better farming practices planting diverse crops is better for the soil and crop diversification is better to navigate climate medic stresses. We need to do all of this while keeping in mind affordability access to food and also taste and flavor. The international year of millets is an opportunity to highlight the benefits of millets for better production, better nutrition, a better environment and a better life. Millets offer a solution which hits all of the targets. I think everyone has a role from government private sector companies to the general public and even young people and we need to work together to unleash the potential of millets. I've seen in my work over the past year some really great opportunities to showcase the power of millets and looking at millets in all kinds of different ways. So here there's different products. This is a product that has millets in pancake mix from Millet. There's lots of different ideas like this that are coming out to make millets more accessible and more available. I've got friends that have been doing things with Furnio and different other elements and so it's really excited to see some of the developments that are happening to see some of the ways that people are doing things. So I want to thank you for your attention. Let's go to the next part of the segment where we get to see chef in action bringing these grains to life and really talking to us about how they can really come into recipes. So thank you and looking forward to other Q&A. Thank you very much Paul for the very inspiring talk and also for in very insightful inputs on millets. Chef Manisha has been since 1996. She has planned her dishes around various local food. So she's in a way a sustainable food champion and in her career spanning more than 30 years. She has promoted energy efficiency green practices and the use of local ingredients in multiple cuisine. So over to you chef Manisha. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Paul. That was very interesting session. What I heard your take on the millet and thank you for having me here. Very interesting topic and this is something which has been very close to my heart for many, many years.  In India we are doing a lot of interesting work where as far as millets are concerned. So as we dive deeper into the millet we realize that the millets were very much part of our diets till 1960. You know, and as the green revolution came in, as Dr. Paul also mentioned earlier, as the wheat and the rice took over which consumes a lot of water. And it is a little more easier to cook the millets gradually started fading away from our diets. So today, the chefs in India and across the world have taken it over themselves to bring back the millet in their diet, not only in the traditional way, but also make it more interesting and perhaps add on to the new way of cooking which perhaps will be more appealing to the millenials as well. So that has been our endeavor and the recipe that I'm going to show today, which is actually quite challenging to do a recipe on webinar but I have tried to make it as interesting as possible. So I have picked up a very traditional age old recipe from India, which is called Halim which is a savory porridge for ease of explanation. Normally it is made with lamb or chicken, but we have replaced that with jackfruit again jackfruit is very nutritious and again highly. It's it's it's grown in huge quantity in India and in Asian countries as well. So I thought that would be a great alternate. But of course before I start the recipe. One, one, one wants to make it at home you can replace it with lamb or chicken as well. Or you can use chickpea or you can use blended vegetables. So this is just an indication how we want to go forward with that. So this end of my recipe, I have taken actual real time pictures of what we have been doing at itc hotels on under the mission minute program, where we have introduced various programs on the breakfast, as well as lunches and dinner and the response has been very, very heartening. So I'll just share my screen now. Okay, so this is the, this is various kinds of smell is that we have available in India and what we have been using. But Dr. Paul also just light on whether it's amaranth, sorghum, quinoa, barley, porso, rye, buckwheat and multiple things that I will just discussing my favorite being sorghum and perl millet. Because it has it is very versatile. And what does the screen that you see on your left hand side is various millet preparations and real time millets which are there. This is various preparations in Indian in Western and in Asian that we do in our hotels across not only itc other hotels also are following this. The millet is growing. It's a growing inflation urban population towards healthy food in Asia Pacific. Because of that, now there's a lot of interest in the millets. It also helps in increasing the less consumption of rice and wheat which follows unsustainable methods to produce it. And will it grows easily in a dryer climate with a smaller harvesting period. In terms of nutritional property there are superior to certain highly consuming cereals like rice and wheat. Like is like it was mentioned earlier they are very rich in calcium iron and fiber and helps to fortify essential nutrients nutrients for young children. These are photo insensitive that means they grow very well in summer as well, and highly resilient to climate change, and also have very low carbon and water footprint. I'll move on to my recipe here. The recipe is a multi millet, multi millet Halim made with jackfruit and spices. Now Halim started actually in Arabic country and it traveled towards India way back in way back in 1100 AD. And it is made with sorghum, pearl millet, white urad dal, raw jackfruit. Like I mentioned earlier, raw jackfruit can be replaced with chickpea or mixed vegetable or meat and chicken as well. So if you're a non-vegetarian you can have it and it comes out very well when you make it with lamb. So I'll just put a small video which will show the various ingredients which are there. These are the ingredients which is the turmeric, the cardamom, the star anise, garam masala, all spice. I was told earlier that there is going to be a booklet that is going to be printed so all these recipes will also be there and also will be available online. So I will go on to the next slide here. So step one is you soak the millet overnight and next morning boil the sorghum pearl millet, cashew nuts and urad dal in excess water till all are cooked. Now these what you see sorghum, these are soaked, washed, soaked and then pounded and then they are being boiled right now.  Now these millet you need not necessarily use only these three millets. You can replace it with other millets as well or you can use barley or whatever is available in your country. Dr. Paul was just mentioning the pancake and millet mix which is available. If you have a millet flour you can tweak the recipe and add the flour towards the end of the recipe. Right now I have used the millet per se as in seed and which is totally unprocessed but if in your country you don't get millet even in a dried form it is available in a powder form or a flour form. You can do, it's very versatile, you can use it in any which way you need. The only idea is that when you're using millet in your food, don't get guided by using 100% millet. If it's a challenge for you to even make pancakes for example with millet, you can fortify your pancake mixture by using half of refined flour and half of multi millet flour. It was chill absorbing millet to a certain extent in your diet and gradually introduced your diets rather than doing it 100% which sometimes may not be very acceptable in the, to the palate. We are cutting the jackfruit, marinate the jackfruit with salt and half of the ginger garlic paste and green chili paste for 30 minutes. If you find green chili paste very spicy you can always drop it. You don't get jackfruit you can replace it with chickpeas or you can add assorted green vegetables whatever you have and potato for little binding. You can add beans, you can have cauliflower, broccoli, process it the same way and add it to your, to your porridge, the savory porridge that I'm talking about. Heat the oil in a frying pan, in India we use a lot of ghee, ghee is made from milk fat, it's a, it's a defined butter, which is used a lot in our food. You can heat the oil in a frying pan and shallow fry the marinated jackfruit or whatever vegetable you have marinated on slow heat until cooked. Drain the excess oil away and once cool, pull apart the jackfruit like a pulled, pulled lamb or pulled chicken or whatever we do, you pull the jackfruit also into smaller strands. Then we, so the vessel that I have also used in India the metallurgy plays a very major role. In the kind of vessel we use, it works a lot so this is a very heavy bottom pan made of copper. It also adds value to nutritional value to the food that's the essential elements come into your food. So this is a very traditional vessel that's been used. So you heat ghee in a copper pan, add the cardamom, cinnamon, star anise and bay leaf, allow to crackle at the remaining ginger garlic and chili paste and saute. Add the powdered spices, which is the turmeric, the garam masala, the coriander powder and cook on medium heat for a few minutes, which brings you water in intervals to avoid burning of spices. If you don't have certain ingredients, don't, don't, don't worry, replace it with what you have at home or what you have in your pantry. Plus meat will come out well. The idea is to add millets to your daily diets. Add the boiled sorghum per minute cashew that you have done earlier, paste mixture to this masala that we have sauteed. If you don't have these spices, you can just crackle some cumin and add your boiled millets to this. Add the pulled vegetable or jackfruit and fold it well. Season with salt. Cook on a very low heat for approximately 30 minutes while stirring gently in intervals with the wooden spoon. Why wooden spoon? Because we don't want too much of scraping to happen across. It's typical that the very reason why we use the, why we use the non-stick in for the backlight. Cook on a very low heat for approximately 30 minutes while stirring gently in intervals. Add brown onions, chopped coriander and mint and finish with ghee. Ghee is very important in Indian diet. Of course there are studies also and even USDA today says that ghee is good for health. You must have it. Finally, cook until it turns brown and thick and by this point it will release the ghee and it will be a blend. It will be a gel or frothing. That's how it comes together. You finish with coriander, mint leaves and have it. This is the assembling that we are doing here. So if you make it with lamb also, it comes out brilliantly well. Add fried brown onions, flavors, mint and coriander sprigs and a lemon. It's a meal itself. It's a complete meal. You don't need any bread with it. You don't need anything. It has healthy fats. It has essential protein, vitamin with the vegetable there. And it's a whole meal with protein there. So enjoy the millet. The next slide I have is this is, these are some real time pictures that we have been introducing in our hotel. This was just to give a overview of how millet can be added to international food preparations also. The first picture that you see is a millet yogurt breakfast bowl. Earlier when we had marinated the millets, we had actually washed and soaked and boiled the millet. You can use that millet as to boiling it to your breakfast bowl. A pearl millet works wonderfully well in this. It's a great way to have it. Even amaranth, which is Dr. Paul's favorite too, works brilliantly well. Amaranth renders very well to a breakfast bowl. Typically you would add pumpkin seed or amaranth or whatever to your breakfast cereal. You add the soaked boiled millet to your bowl. It's a great way to have millet. You can make a salad. It is sorghum and avocado salad with the millet crisp. So typically you just take the millet, boil it, make it into a paste, put it on a baking sheet, and then make it a slow, slow bake it, crisp it. That's a crisp that comes to the salad. And just toss it up. If you keep millets preferably whichever millet you like or you get in the market, keep it boiled in your fridge and add them to your whatever dish you have. That's a great way to incorporate and fortify your diets with millet. This is the pancake that we were talking about earlier. In this, we have 50% millet flour. We have ragi here and 50% of refined flour in this we have added. So because of the texture, millet does not have gluten as we discussed earlier as well. So the texture is a little tricky to get. It renders very well to porridge kind of a consistency. But when you try to make a bread out of it, or you want to make a pancake, initially to start with my recommendation would be that you start by augmenting it with little flour, whatever flour you are used to, whether it's a rice flour or a wheat flour or a refined flour for that matter. So that you preparation is wholesome, you are taking millet in some way or the other, adding to your diets. The next picture you see here is the sorghum millet tacos. It is sorghum renders very well to rolling, very well to baking. You don't need to fortify that with any flour or anything that you need to add. You just make a dough, like typically you would do a dough for any tortilla or in Indian context or roti. You roll it and you likely bake it on a flat griddle or in the oven and you shape it and you add on whatever filling you want to add to that. The next one is a little millet flake clustered fish and chips. Fish and chips is everybody's favorite, you can't go wrong. So it's a kutki millet again one of my favorite actually I do a very good, we do a very interesting Indian preparation also, which is again potato and little millet vegetable preparation that we do. In this case we instead of crusting with the bread crumb which is gluten, we've crusted it with the soaked kutki, soaked little millet, and then then process the side fish the way one would do at home. The last one you see is the Asian curry bowl with the millet fried rice. So there's no rice in this. It is just the millet which is there, it is a pearl millet which is again soaked and boiled and you process it like a fried rice. It's a vegetable fried rice, you can have an egg fried rice or whatever you would like to have. So again a great wholesome meal on its own. The reason I'm sharing these pictures with you is for just one for the audience to know how versatile millet can be. You just need to replace it wherever you're using rice wherever using flour, you just replace it with millet and at the dishes there, it's right there. Here we have a millet crusted baked cheesecake. So in a cheesecake typically one would put a biscuit crust. In this we put a multi-minute crust. So we just take a multi-minute flour which is available in other countries as well. You process it with butter, with shortening, make a short crust with that and make it blind and then process the way you do cheesecake. This is the pearl millet savory tart. In this the crust is of a multi-minute flour and inside also we have put a pearl millet. And this is a multi-minute baguette. Again 50% ratio is 50% flour and 50% millet. That is what we have done in this because like I said, breads are difficult to crack with just pure 100% millet. But yes, instead of adding refined flour, you can add the whole wheat flour. Or you can add rice flour and then you have to add xanthan and multiple other things. But one will have to, it's a trial and error actually that's how one comes up across with these breads because India the country has been eating millets in a very traditional form. So these are the, this is some of the work that we have done over the last six, eight months to come up with new dishes which are introduced in our buffet in our hotels across India. Thank you. Thank you. So this is the Indian preparation that we have here. The millet halim that we just saw, it's the same thing what we see here. The Indian spices. This is the Indian spiced millet dumpling which is a kunipaniyaram and a millet beetroot kabab. Again it is a beetroot mix with the millet is added to this, the boiled millet is added to it for the body and it's pan-fried. Yeah, so thank you Shubha, thank you Dr. Paul. Thank you to the viewers. Yeah, thank you, thank you Chef Besin for sharing with us this wonderful recipe and my mouth is already watering, I just can't wait to get all of the full recipe and start making something. So we are very much looking forward to it. So, thank you and Chef, could you kindly stop sharing the screen. Thank you. So we have a couple of questions we have received. In fact, now I can see more questions. So, first let me just see the first question. The first question is from Karima Singh. I think this is to Dr. Paul. The question is how can we inspire and cultivate a genuine inclination among today's youth to choose and appreciate nutritious alternatives like millets or products like I think you mentioned amidst the dominance of junk food in our modern era. Yeah, look, it's a great question. And I think there's lots of different ways that tend to be able to help on this. So you do have education can play a role in helping people to understand what are the health benefits. So it depends on where the youth are and exactly what sort of motivations they have. Understanding and working to help them understand, you know, where ingredients come from the impact they have on people and planet goes a long way, helping them to understand the health benefits is key. But I also think one of the other things that we've learned is that people don't often make decisions just based on education they make decisions on what tastes good on how it's presented to them.  And so I think it's also about presenting it in an exciting way. So that is desirable and I think this is sometimes the challenge is, you know, it can be through integrating the product into other products that they're already eating.  So you're getting grain into things that people eat they then develop a taste for the flavor, then you can educate them on the benefits. I think the starting point is to make them desirable. I also think there's a convenience question which is about how accessible are they a lot of the reason why people choose foods which are maybe not as good for them is because they're very convenient. And I think that's where, you know, for example, the, the, the melee kind of model, people that are busy working they don't want to go and buy the grain and work it out all the detail that may be on the weekend. They also need those quick alternatives or those quick recipes and so I think it's a it's a mixture of like looking at desirability, helping them to understand the benefits once they start to taste and engage, but then also looking at the convenience factors of how do you actually make this easy for people to make these choices. Thank you. Thank you very much, Paul. We have another very interesting question here. And I would like to direct this to Chef Manisha. Any special way to eat millets as daily routine is this lighter on stomach than regular cranes. Can people with cellular disease eat millets. Millet definitely is, there is a special, not a special way you can incorporate in your daily diet like Dr. Paul also just mentioned that we have to make it accessible make it easier for people to add to their food and more acceptable but remember we are competing with, with the era of rice and wheat which is had has had hold on the population for so many years. And to, so to get people to accept millet in daily diet it is very important to make it more tastier, make it less cumbersome, the ease of putting it together has to be kept in mind. So that's why I said that you know you you boil the millet keep it in a fridge and use it as a replacement wherever you're using rice. Look at it very creatively. Yes, but what you must do is you must alternate between the millets in India what we call, there's no, I don't think there's any English equivalent to that that is that this. That means the effect that food has on your body depending on the season that you had. So it's important that that every minute you can have round the year. There are certain minutes which have heating property and certain minutes which are cooling. So one must remember that that you know if it is if it is sorghum you should have it in in summer. If it is badger that you must have it in winter, because that is heating property this is schooling property. So this is something that has to be kept in mind and one should alternate between the millets. Don't get, don't get used to a certain one kind of a minute I feel that is my recommendation so that you can, you can digest the millet you cannot get used to one kind of minute where your digestion will may not be able to handle it. So that is very important. And yes millet is gluten free. It is 100% acceptable for Celia as a great alternative for that. Okay, thank you chef. There is another question. Let me direct this question to Dr Paul question by Shweta Sharma. Sir, how millets can serve as food security provision for developing and underdeveloped countries. So I think one of the things that I've heard a little bit about is traditionally millets were used when crops maybe had a bad season so when there was a failure of a crop at some point due to weather or climate coming at the wrong time. Millets were often used because of their shorter growing cycle. And so they were used to plant when a crop failed to actually then ensure that people had something to eat. So I think there's there's that element here with small lot of farmers that you know how could you actually utilize millets as as integrated as part of a broader system to actually supplement and to support the diversity on the farm. And because of because of that I think it enables then the, you know, in this kind of changing climate where we're seeing more and more crops fail because of weather events, water shortages, heat waves, these kinds of things you're seeing a shorter cycle which enables people to look at that. I also think it's about how do we think about, you know, the role of women in farming, you know, the majority of farming around the world is done by women. And I think, you know, empowering female producers to be able to look at different millet varieties I think is also really, really important. And so, how do we use, how do we look at doing that in in the right kind of way. You know, I think the hardiness of the crop as well as key because I think, you know, as this weather changes, it's a way of helping us to kind of have options and choices. And then I also think the nutrition or benefit because of the nutritional benefits and densities. You also get more bang for your buck kind of thing it's like it's more you get more nutrition than some other crops that maybe don't have that nutrition density. So I think you know in smaller areas where countries have got land pressure they've got this this is also another benefit. Okay, thank you. Thank you for that. I'm going to combine two questions, one by double and the other one by a joke. And I'm going to direct this to Chef Manisha. The question is, is there any side effect of eating millets daily should there be another change. Any other change one should adapt with change in the green. And the other question is how can we add millets into into the modern culinary concept. So, first to answer your first part of the question. There is no side effect in having millets jelly in India for centuries, you know the farmer before he would go to the before he go to the field in the morning he would have in the south of India they would have in Rajasthan, they would have bajra ki roti. So they've been having it for for centuries together and there is no, there is no side effect of having it. Only thing I was stressing upon was that you must remember what season are you, which if you're having it in summer, which minute you must have an inventor which minute must you have because of its efficacy on the body for absorption. If you have, like I said, if you have sorghum in, in, in winter, it is cooling, it's a cooling millet. It's, it's efficacy on your body its effectivity on your body is cooling. So that may not be a great option, not that it's going to harm you, but there are other millets which are good for you to have it winter. That is something that one must keep in mind. Coming to the next part of your question, which was, should there be any change one should adapt for in the green. If you can, you should actually try to explore as much as possible, you know, I'm, I'm talking about India in particular as a country where there's such a huge wealth of millet there's so many varieties of millet. There's certain varieties of millet which are available in Himachal Pradesh, or in the hills to what is available in the plains to what is available in the southern part of India. You should be able to explore that and and maybe revisit the traditional recipes also and see how your forefathers have had these millets in their diets like whatever I have been able to put together collectively has been by visiting these, you know, elderly people by asking the grandparents, asking them what they used to do what how they remember when they were growing up, how they were eating millets in their diets, and one has tried to incorporate that. The last part of the question in the modern culinary concept. Yes, it is very important. We have to because if you want millets to be part of the future generations diet. It is very important for us to also have add that to the modern cuisine as well. I think is been happening on that by a lot of chefs, you we do do multi grain, we do do multi millet pizzas, we do millet dim sums, we do my millet noodles. The company has come up with millet with all the kids want is that ready made noodle, which is becoming a cup of noodle can be any brand. So why don't you replace it with millet, make it more acceptable to the younger generation. So that when they grow up as a habit they will look for the minute preparation. What the recipes that I showed where we had crusted the, we had crusted the fish with the millet. That's again another option, or we had made the cheesecake crust with me that was another option. So one has to explore this. And yes, there are a lot of recipes now one is coming up with, which I have the, which have the modern stick to it as well. Okay. Thank you very much chef, and I know there are a number of questions here but we are very strict with time so time is already up now. So I will have, we will have to bring to a close to this session. I would like to thank both our resource person, Dr Paul as well as chef Manisha for sharing wonderful insights on on minutes, and we've learned a lot. So I would like to thank all the participants, especially for your active participation and for sharing your questions and comments and some of the questions we have already, you know, answered in the chat box and we do hope that you will continue to join us in the, in the future. So, thank you for joining us today. And this is the, as I said earlier this is the first in the series of three webinars so please do join us again on 7 July, which is the next webinar to learn about the role of in climate resilience and environmental stewardship. So you can get the full details. There's already details are in Marta has already posted in the chat box, so you can do that. So thank you very much for joining us once again, and see you on 7 July. Thank you. Thank you so much.


Okay, I'm Michael Vunch on the Plant Pathologist here at the NDSU Carrington Research Center. I'm standing here beside our Chickpea Research Trials that we're conducting this year here in 2020. As you can see, we have an extensive set of plots here, and this is exclusively to study the management of Ascocytoblite. Ascocytoblite, of course, is the major limiting factor for Chickpea production in the northern plains, and a constant concern for anyone who is considering or is producing chickpeas. So what we are working on in this particular set of studies is primarily looking at how we optimize fungicide applications. When you talk to somebody, say a plant pathology professional, they'll always tell you, apply your fungicides with more water, apply it 20 gallons an acre, not 10. They will typically also tell you, apply with fine to medium droplets, not coarse droplets. One of the challenges we have with these recommendations is that we have very little data, though. So obviously there's a cost involved to applying with 20 gallons an acre rather than 10. And the big thing that we struggle with is how much of a gain do you get, and is it worth it? And so starting last year, we began looking at that question as well as the question of droplet size. And while droplet size is cheaper to implement, all you have to do is change your tips and set your pressure appropriately, or keep your pressure in an appropriate range, it still takes time and sometimes takes money if you have to purchase new tips. And so again, what the lack of data telling us how much of a response we can get really limits the amount to which these practices are utilized and with good reason. And so because this disease is so critically important, we began starting in 2019 to look at these questions very rigorously. What we're using to address this is this tractor-based R&D sprayer. And what you can see is that we have a handmade aluminum boom that goes off to one side. It's equipped with a pulse width modulation system from CapSan Ag. And this year, we have switched to a completely PTO-driven system. Last year, we were still using a CO2-driven system, as is typically utilized in research trials. But PTO-driven systems give us a lot more flexibility and a greater ability to pressurize our systems, which allows us to go faster. And so we are making these applications this year at 10.5 miles an hour. Last year, we made them at 9 miles an hour. Regardless, the driving speed is realistic. We assess droplet size with both T-jet tips and Wilger tips. Anyone who's worked with T-jet tips knows that as you change droplet size, you change the output of the tips. But we need to in these studies keep driving speed constant and spray volume constant. And the way that we manage that is by pulse width. So we actually modify the pulse width such that the output remains the same and the driving speed remains the same. And thereby, we can actually compare droplet size. The reason why we also have a separate study with Wilger tips is because Wilger manufactures tips that differ in droplet size without changing output. And that allows us to maintain pulse width constant as well as driving speed and spray volume. And then the spray volume study, we are running also with a constant driving speed and a constant tip. In this case, we're putting out fine droplets. And we modify only the pulse width to achieve our differences in spray volume. In our testing conducted in 2019, as we move from coarse or medium coarse droplets down to fine droplets, we gained an average of 150 pounds an acre, chickpea yield. And we reduced our ascocotabyte from 19% to 6% of pods infected end of the season in frontier chickpeas, and from 14% to 8% of pods infected in CDC leader chickpeas. Which is a very important reduction for quality purposes. And the real surprise from 2019 was the impact of spray volume. When we increased spray volume from 10 to 15 gallons an acre, we increased the response from applying proline by 200 pounds an acre. And the response of applying proline plus bravo by over 500 pounds an acre, average over CDC leader and CDC frontier chickpeas. As we increased spray volume from 10 to 20 gallons an acre, we increased the yield response from proline by 374 pounds an acre. And 850 pounds an acre for proline plus bravo. Huge increases, huge responses of spray volume. And it's the disease data that really show the story. Because when we applied with 10 gallons an acre at the end of the season, 69% of pods had ascocutile lesions in CDC frontier. When we applied the proline bravo tank mix, and only 4% of pods had ascocutile lesions at 20 gallons an acre. And 4% pods with ascocutile lesions end of the season is basically a whistle clean chickpea field. And top grade chickpeas, 69% of plants with lesions are feed grade chickpeas. And we saw the same response when we applied proline alone, except the disease control was not as good. And so spray volume mattered enormously. And so this year, we're testing this again. Again, the response to spray volume was very surprising. I never expected that magnitude of response. And so we're testing it again this year. And we're also testing the droplosize again. The key here, though, yes, the response to droplosize was more moderate. But again, getting your droplosize right is cheap. All you need to do is select the right tips and target the correct pressure. And spray volume, well, that's a little more expensive. You might have to haul more water. But if ascocutile pressure is high, it's going to pay for you. At least that's what our data from last year suggests. Thank you for your time. And more information is available by googling NDC of Carrington, clicking on plant pathology and scrolling down to the section on ascocutibite. You'll find a series of PDFs looking at detail our data on fungicide droplosize, as well as spray volume for management of ascocutibite of chickpeas. Thank you.