Nibbles: ISSS, SeedWorld, Farmers Pride, GRIN-U, Indian rematriation, NZ potatoes, European farming

13th Triennial Meeting of the International Society for Seed Science: Note in particular Dr Chris Ojiewo of ICRISAT on “Seed systems supporting legume crop improvement.”
Latest SeedWorld: Note in particular the article on QPM (quality protein maize) from CIMMYT (go to p 53).
NordGen’s Write-up of the Farmers’ Pride conference “Ensuring Diversity for Food and Agriculture”: Note in particular Dr Maria Bönisch on the first official network for crop wild relatives in Europe.
GRIN-U — Training resources for plant genetic resources conservation: Note in particular the genebank tours.
The John Innes Centre genebank sends some wheat back to India. The Benin Bronzes next?
Taewa, the Maori potato, gets a nice write-up. No word on returning it to somewhere in South America.
Young researchers helping European farmers diversify. How about by using Indian wheat and Maori potatoes?

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.