- VIR on Atlas Obscura, with pic goodness courtesy of yours truly. And on the same site, something Vavilov would have approved of: a very diverse Tajik apple orchard.
- A new avocado to conjure by.
- Urban agriculture won’t cut the mustard.
- Trees that named Fragrant Harbour disappearing.
- The downside of coffee. But never fear, there’s a strategy coming!
- The beernome!
- Happy birthday Sir Hans Sloane, for many botanical reasons!
- Chinese pollinators in trouble. Enough of the exclamation marks.
- Do you have any examples of “plant or animal breeding that has successfully incorporated gender considerations into its strategies and end products”? Contact these people.
- Can seeds learn from meds, policy-wise?
- Bioversity DG lobbies for genebanks.
- Get your fill of quinoa, courtesy of Jeremy.
- Sustainable pot. ‘Cause that’s the California Way, man.
“Bioversity DG lobbies for genebanks”. The report of the DG of Bioversity (her 8th paragraph) is obscure on just what happened to a planned Future Harvest endowment of 2001.
In 2001 a consultant report commissioned by the `Future Harvest Centres’ of the CGIAR noted: “There was unanimous support for creating a sustainable financing mechanism for the Future Harvest genebanks.” Elsewhere in the report the purpose was to: “support the conservation of plant genetic resources collections held in trust for humanity, and the development of a blueprint for a rational global genebank system”. Note that the `in trust’ collections are those in the CG genebanks; only a `blueprint’ was envisaged for other genebanks.
In some way over 2001 and 2002 the endowment fund for the CG genebanks was given to the Crop Trust: a series of GRPC meeetings (11, 12, and 13) documents this. So we ended up with, what was it, the need to support 1760 genebanks all over the place: not possible.
As the CG genebanks send out over 93% of all samples under the Treaty SMTA, CG genebanks managers should be asking the Crop Trust and FAO: “Please can we have out Endowment Fund back?”