- Big IUCN report says that biodiversity and agriculture are in conflict, they don’t really need to be, but it’s really complicated for them not to be. So that’s us all told.
- If only annual crops were perennial, for example, eh?
- If only we incorporated more sustainable agriculture in education, for example, eh? Apart from anything else we could still have beer. No word on the role of perennial barley though.
- If only improved seeds were open source, for example, eh?
- If only we could cryopreserve coral, for example, eh? Wait, what?
“2. If only annual crops were perennial, for example, eh?” on the perennial wheatgrass Thinopyrum intermedium.
The linked article argues that: “Many of the crops that shaped modern farming, such as common wheat (Triticum aestivum), were domesticated from perennial ancestors. In the process, our ancestors swapped ecological benefits for higher yields.” It goes on: “perenniality is nature’s default” (and presumably something that needs to be copied, but why).
This is false reasoning.
The origin of bread wheat was complex. “Bread wheat (Triticum aestivum) evolved through two polyploidization events between Triticum urartu (AA genome) and an Aegilops speltoides-related species (BB genome) 0.5 million yr ago, forming Triticum turgidum ssp. diccocoides, and between Triticum turgidum ssp. durum (AABB genome) and Aegilops tauschii (DD genome) 10 000 yr ago, forming the modern hexaploid bread wheat (AABBDD) genome” [doi: 10.1111/nph.14113]
But the truth is that all three genomes contributing to bread wheat (Triticum urartu AA, Aegilops speltoides BB, and Aegilops tauschii DD) are annual wild species. The `Land Institute’, promoting the perennial Thinopyrum intermedium, has the wrong end of the stick. Bread wheat was NOT domesticated `from perennial ancestors’, as claimed. Importantly, neither were barley, oats, rice, Secale, oats and probably Sorghum, all with the “natural default” of growing as monodominants.