Botanic Gardens Conservation International — BGCI to its friends — seems to have launched a new blog in time to report on the excitement at the Convention on Biological Diversity’s COP10 meeting in Nagoya. If you’re finding the “official” reports unfollowable, try Plants for the Planet’s blog.
The State of the World’s PGRFA
I’ve spent much of the day wondering what on Earth can usefully be said about the 2nd report on the State of the World’s Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, published today by FAO. Not a lot, I suspect, without wading through the entire tome. So what does FAO think is important?
Jacques Diouf, Director General of FAO, had this to say:
Increasing the sustainable use of plant diversity could be the main key for addressing risks to genetic resources for agriculture.
Sorry Jacques, old chum, but I just can’t quite seem to parse that one.
The report “does not attempt to quantify biodiversity loss,” for which we must be grateful, although the press release reminds us of FAO’s estimate that “75 percent of crop diversity was lost between 1900 and 2000” and “predicts that as much as 22 percent of the wild relatives of important food crops of peanut, potato and beans will disappear by 2055 because of a changing climate.” Right.
Genebank numbers and accessions are up, so those entries in the long-term memory have to be scrubbed and updated. 1750 genebanks, 130 have more than 100,000 accessions, 7.4 million samples, 6.6 million in national genebanks, 45 percent in just 7 countries, down from 12 in 1996. But hey, that’s probably rationalisation at work, because “in 2008, the ultimate back-up of global crop diversity, the Svalbald [sic] Global Seed Vault, opened in Norway”.
Carping aside, the report is a useful compendium of country reports (each downloadable as a separate PDF) and specially-commissioned thematic background studies (ditto) all served from an easy-to-use website (although the Picture Gallery doesn’t work for me yet).
Definitely an A for effort, then.
Impressions of Terra Madre
As I always knew he would, Danny has posted his take on Terra Madre 2010 over at his blog. Bottom line: more focus needed. Good luck with that.
Nibbles: Apple Diversity, Sorghum, Ugandan organics, Cows, CABI, Giant pumpkin, Nutrigenomics, SOTW2
- Apple diversity on display at Terra Madre.
- A drought-resistant sorghum for Karamoja. Read the script of a radio programme.
- CIAT advises Ugandan farmers: produce what you can sell, don’t sell what you can produce. Hmmmn.
- Local cow breeds and Protected Designation of Origin cheeses. There’s a conclusion here struggling to emerge, but I can’t recognize it. Help me.
- CABI pushes for crop diversification. Get in line!
- Where giant pumpkins come from.
- Nutritionists should get to grips with human diversity.
- 2nd State of the World’s PGRFA launched by FAO to much fanfare. And usual incorrect figures on genetic erosion. Oh I give up.
Featured: Mini-mills
Nothing is ever as simple as it seems. Rahul Goswami sets Jeremy straight on mini-mills for the women of Wayanad:
Remember this is Kerala state, with hyperactive trade unions and a fully outfitted leftist government. So the grain pounders would either have to carry a lot of weight in their ‘panchayat’ (village council) or be politically well connected enough to neutralise the enormous labour implications. Besides, rural Kerala society is surprisingly patriarchal (there’s a complex left-gender struggle). So a mini-mill may be good for a discussion, as long as it stays a discussion.