- The late Prof. Trevor Williams, one of the pioneers of genebanking, in the news.
- The President of Niger visits a genebank, makes the news.
- Irish seedbanking in the news.
- Dr Mark Chapman on how to study domestication using seeds in genebanks.
- COP27 webinar on using seeds in genebanks for climate change adaptation.
- Pasturelands: sometimes genebanks are not enough. Though even then I bet they can help.
- Big Food still not doing much to support genebanks, despite reports such as this.
- A book on ancient Mesopotamian cooking. Who can think of the best link to genebanks?
The idea that Trevor was anything to do with the present Svalbard store is news to me (that, is, I don’t believe it). From Marte Qvenild’s PhD: “The 8th of August 2003, Henry Shands sent an email to Professor Cary Fowler, who was based in Norway … Shands expressed his discomfort with backing up the collection of CGIAR centers within the centers themselves.” As interviewed by Marte Qvenild, Shands went on:- “I believed that the original Norwegian [Svalbard] proposal should be revisited with several changes.”
Marte reports:-“ Within this new framework [the ITPGRFA], Fowler agreed with Henry Shands that the Svalbard idea could be looked into again, and he drafted an introductory note on Svalbard for the forthcoming meeting of the CGIAR’s the Genetic Resource Policy Committee (GRPC).”
Trevor left IBPGR 1990. The original Svalbard proposal was in an old coal mine and too cumbersome for any non-Nordic genebank to use.