Nibbles: Sunflower breeding, ITPGRFA, Grape genetics, ABA

Jim Gerdes shows how the sunflower blossom is emasculated. Ouch.
Mary Taylor interviewed on Radio Australia about the ITPGRFA and all that.
The genetics of malvin production in grapes. No, wait, don’t go, it’s actually kind of interesting.
Prof. Bryant summarizes Annals of Botany papers on lotus pollination, salt/drought tolerance in Atriplex and pre-harvest sprouting in sorghum. ABA seems to be involved in everything.

A paean to diverse diets is just what we all need.
And another one, from the MIT Technology Review of all places.
Menawhile, there’s only one reference to dietary diversity in the World Bank’s investment framework for nutrition.
Maybe you have to quantify that diversity before you can save it? Now where have I heard that before?
Meanwhile, Europe reports on biodiversity-friendly farming practices. Does that include the biodiversity of the actual crops? Perhaps surprisingly, yes!
You want biodiversity-friendly farming practices? Talk to Indigenous people. The Committee on World Food Security (CFS) has launched an e-consultation on “Preserving, strengthening and promoting Indigenous Peoples’ food and knowledge systems and traditional practices for sustainable food systems.”
There’s diversity in asparagus too.
Genebanks can help with those biodiversity-friendly practices, diverse diets and rops and Indigenous practices.
Even big international genebanks.
Even the Svalbard Global Seed Vault.
But some are in trouble.
Though others are coming back.