Luigi Guarino – Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog

September 22, 2018September 19, 2018

First Annual Crop Wild Relatives Week kicks off

That’s thanks to the Crop Science Society of America.

The Crop Science Society of America is proud to host Crop Wild Relatives Week on September 22 – 29, 2018, to celebrate the contribution that these humble and hearty plants have made to increasing food security around the world. The collections of plants; the work being done to collect, conserve, characterize, and use them; and the importance of continuing to do so will be highlighted in blogs, web stories, and infographics. Online resources for anyone interested in learning more crop wild relatives can be found (https://www.crops.org/crop-wild-relative). In addition, new stories and resources will be added to the site on an ongoing basis, including educational materials for educators and parents of K-12 kids, our future scientists.

Let the fun begin!

September 19, 2018

The 2017 Frank Meyer Medal for Plant Genetic Resources Lecture is online

It’s by USDA’s Peter Bretting, of course, who aptly quotes Kurt Vonnegut in his discussion of Stewards of Our Agricultural Future: “Another flaw in the human character is that everybody wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance.”

Experienced PGR stewards must not only successfully manage PGR, the green line that stands between humanity and calamity, but also serve as leaders to mentor those who recently became or will soon become the PGR stewards of our agricultural future. It is a collective responsibility for all of us, regardless of our job title, career stage, or intrinsic talents, to provide such leadership and thereby begin to erase that “flaw in the human character.”

September 19, 2018September 20, 2018

Nibbles: Transformation, Restoration, Renumeration, Validation, Mensuration, Celebration, Visualization, Diversification, Fructification, Information, Fermentation, Sustentation, Association, Migration, Transformation, Microconservation

Lawrence Haddad on how to start transforming the food system.
Here’s an idea: CIMMYT genebank recognized for restoring agricultural diversity in Guatemala.
And another. Cash transfers are better than more conventional interventions for malnutrition, but they have to be real money.
But, of course, they don’t always work. That’s one of many development myths listed in this fun Twitter thread.
We also need metrics, sure, but the right ones, and we may already have them.
The first ecologist remembered. That would be Humboldt.
Terrible visualizations of the changing geography of American agriculture.
But where are heirloom grown? Rice, say?
And where are all the pomegranate farmers?
I’m sure there are plenty of grape maps of France somewhere. But what’s with all these varieties? And are there more than in pomegranate?
IUCN launches a new Red List website.
Laos launches a sort of Red List website on traditional foods. Here it is. No word on linkages with Ark of Taste.
Belgian lambic beer threatened by climate change. Now it’s personal.
In Italy, the landscape needs people to keep it safe.
Even olive landscapes, which maybe need to be more promiscuous.
Early agricultural migrations fuelled by cheese.
Early eggplant migrations fuelled by elephants.
Microbes to the rescue.

September 17, 2018

The need for seed

Next year’s ISTA Seed Symposium, on 26-28 June 2019, has a conservation-themed session that looks unmissable:

Session 2: Ensuring seed quality for future generations. Genetic resources, Habitat restoration, Post-harvest handling, Long-term storage, Moisture content and Equilibrium relative humidity, Desiccation tolerance and recalcitrance, Seed longevity, Maintaining the seed quality of non-crop species.

It’ll be in Hyderabad, and you can save a bit of money by booking early.

September 17, 2018

Brainfood: Social media, Wheat double, Apple diversity, Land use change theory, Land use change praxis, Intensification, Ag metrics

How Do Young Adults Engage With Science and Research on Social Media? Some Preliminary Findings and an Agenda for Future Research. Facebook, not Twitter. So I’m doing it all wrong? Any young adults reading this and want to tell me how I’m doing?
Genetic dissection of grain zinc concentration in spring wheat for mainstreaming biofortification in CIMMYT wheat breeding. Two interesting regions on different chromosomes.
Harnessing genetic potential of wheat germplasm banks through impact-oriented-prebreeding for future food and nutritional security. Not just Zn.
Genetic analysis of a major international collection of cultivated apple varieties reveals previously unknown historic heteroploid and inbred relationships. The deep history of the justly famous UK collection.
Middle-range theories of land system change. Towards a Grand Unified Theory. But do we need one?
Classifying drivers of global forest loss. Commodities, basically. But what’s the good of that without a theory?
The environmental costs and benefits of high-yield farming. Theory shtheory: measure externalities.
Beyond Calories: A Holistic Assessment of the Global Food System. Micronutrients get lost disproportionately badly along the supply chain. How’s that for a theory?

Brainfood: Campesino maize, DELLA proteins, CC response, Nematodes, Collection duplication, Epidemics (1)
- Dave Wood: Maize in Mexico: This is an odd paper. It claims: `... it is likely that different alleles are being favoured…
Heritage cereals anyone? (1)
- Luigi Guarino: Jeremy is too modest to link to his monumental series of short daily podcasts on wheat and bread, but I…
Nibbles: Lad spuds, Assisi olives, Amazing maize art, Wild tea, Peruvian alpaca, TR4, Seed banks, Space Seed Force, Embrapa sweetpotato, ITPGRFA (1)
- Dave Wood: Seed Treaty Luigi, you say: “ … if you use material from the MLS to create a new crop…