Jeremy Cherfas

March 9, 2012March 9, 2012

Vavilov varieties repatriated to Sardinia

It has come to my attention ¹ that the University of Sassari in Sardinia recently celebrated its 450th anniversary. And among the gifts it received were some seeds of oat and barley varieties collected by NI Vavilov on his 1926 expedition to the island. Fresh ones, I hope. A silver pin of Vavilov and two books — Five Continents and Vavilov and his Institute — rounded out the package. Igor Loskutov, author of the second book, gave a lecture on “Plant genetic resources collections heritage of the humankind”.

We’re trying to find out more about the repatriated varieties.

March 9, 2012March 9, 2012

Nibbles: Gene, Database, Climate Change, Nutrition, Archaeology, Website, Prices, Svalbard

Today’s maybe we’ll get some coverage if we link it to hunger and famine press release. Petunia gene.
Today’s there’s a database for that announcement. FAO’s Horticulture Cultivars Performance Database.
Today’s impact of climate change on X report. Forest resources in the Caribbean.
Today’s debunking a crappy piece of nutrition research killjoys. Experts respond to nutrition claims.
The Archaeobotanist has been going great guns; new book on domestication and millet domestication. We’ll pass on the museum post till we can firm it up.
IFPRI says let two flowers bloom. Here’s the super-groovy new policy kid on the block for non-policy wonks.
I’ll see your evil speculators and raise you a rising secular trend in food prices. (See what I did there?)
With a heavy clunk, The Economist gave Svalbard’s Doomsday Seed Vault a fine 4th birthday present.

March 8, 2012March 8, 2012

Nibbles: Women, Diplomats, Murderers, Speculators, Brainiacs, Participators, Cartographers, Foodographers, Native American agrobiodiversity

Mo’ women power, mo’ better food security. ILRI leads the pack of CGIAR centres, but there’s loads of stuff elsewhere.
British diplomat ponders the value of biodiversity.
Less than a human life, at least in some parts of Brazil.
Speaking (cynically) of values and prices, informed speculation on speculators is at hand.
Berries make you brainy; so I guess that reporter hasn’t eaten any lately.
You too can determine future-oriented research pathways for food security in East Africa, and no need to pig out on berries.
A kinda sorta interactive map of European agricultural biodiversity. Is it sustainable?
That map may need a special section for Florence, if one person’s photographic Florentine feast is anything to go by.
If there were a similar map for the US, it would probably include this kind of thing from the Cherokee.

March 8, 2012March 9, 2012

International Women’s Day

Just in case we didn’t get anything done ourselves, here’s a little something from Farming First and FAO.

March 6, 2012March 6, 2012

Ag day on Women’s day, or vice versa

You couldn’t make this up.

The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center has just reproduced an announcement about Ag Day 2012, which will take place on 8 March. As it so happens, that day is also International Women’s Day. What a great opportunity, then, to celebrate the huge contribution that women around the world make to growing food, nourishing their families, and selling their surplus to others. Does Ag Day offer any of that? Does it heck. Will we be able to do any better? That depends.