Biotechnology

August 23, 2022August 24, 2022

So are soybeans sorted or not?

Readers may have seen press coverage of a paper in Science suggesting that a biotech tweak to photosynthesis has led to significant yield boosts in soybeans. The tweak involves getting leaves to respond more nimbly to changes in light intensity, including due to shading by other leaves. It has successfully increased biomass production in tobacco in the past: would it also increase seed yield in a food crop under field conditions?

Yes, by up to a third, said the headlines. Not so fast, said Merritt Khaipho-Burch on Twitter: we’re going to need many more and much better field trials before we’re convinced.

That got some push-back, basically saying those kinds of trials are too expensive to be a precondition of publication. But now one of the authors of the original study, Steven Burgess, has weighed in, also on Twitter, saying the criticism is valid, it’s all very complicated, and the paper is just a proof of principle at this stage.

Now to get the press to explain all that.

August 8, 2022August 16, 2022

Brainfood: Convivial conservation, Resilient forests, Traditional industries, Wheat supplies, Food system transformation, Micronutrient security, Biotech promise, Ultra-processed food impacts, Sub-Saharan agriculture, Farmer risk management, Afro-Brazilian agriculture, Biodiversity funding

Exploring Convivial Conservation in Theory and Practice: Possibilities and Challenges for a Transformative Approach to Biodiversity Conservation. Conservation should be integrative, democratic and redistributive. Hard row to hoe.
Emerging signals of declining forest resilience under climate change. Convivially or not, better conserve forests quickly.
Adapting traditional industries to national park management: A conceptual framework and insights from two Chinese cases. Integrative and redistributive, but I’m not sure how democratic.
Near- to long-term measures to stabilize global wheat supplies and food security. There’s a bunch of stuff that we can do in the short term, but in the end we’re going to need diverse, gender-equitable agro-ecosystems which are properly supported by investment in research. Sort of integrative, democratic and redistributive then, perhaps?
From food price crisis to an equitable food system. Looks like the food system needs to be as convivial as conservation. If not more so.
Trade and dietary preferences can determine micronutrient security in the United Kingdom. Going to be difficult to take back control of micronutrient security.
Turning promise into practice: Crop biotechnology for increasing genetic diversity and climate resilience. Maybe biotech needs to be more convivial too.
A conceptual framework for understanding the environmental impacts of ultra-processed foods and implications for sustainable food systems. Nothing convivial about ultra-processed foods, alas.
Why food insecurity persists in sub-Saharan Africa: A review of existing evidence. Exports, basically. Looks like exports are really not very convivial.
Crops in crises: Shocks shape smallholders’ diversification in rural Ethiopia. Farmers need continual access to both the informal and formal seed systems to mitigate risk, but poor farmers need more money to do so. Maybe link them up to export markets? No, wait…
Traditional Agriculture and Food Sovereignty: Quilombola Knowledge and Management of Food Crops. Lots of conviviality, but not enough to fully mitigate risk.
The role of international cooperative initiatives in financing biodiversity. Partnerships between state and a variety of non-state actors may just be an opportunity for more convivial conservation and food systems. But then I would say that.

July 19, 2022July 19, 2022

Nibbles: Algal genebank, Baking, Distilling, Ft Collins genebank, Community genebanks, Trinidad genebank, Agriculture & climate change, Nigerian coconuts, Organic agriculture

Saving an algal germplasm collection in the US.
Saving ancient grains via baking in Israel and distilling in Minnesota.
Saving seeds (and more) in a famous genebank in Ft Collins, Colorado.
Saving seeds in community genebanks in Nepal.
Saving seeds for the community in Trinidad & Tobago.
Saving agriculture from climate change in Hainan. Someone tell India.
Saving the Nigerian coconut sector.
Saving organic agriculture from politicians.

July 12, 2022July 12, 2022

Nibbles: Pacific genebank, IPBES report, New mangoes, British apples, Greek landraces, Fonio, Space seeds, Macadamia cryo

New Zealand supports SPC regional crops and trees genebank in a big way.
Some of those trees are wild species that contribute to food security, and more must be done to conserve them.
Some trees are crops of course, like mangoes, and scientists are doing their bit for them in the Philippines.
Wait, isn’t it too early for the usual BBC saving-the-apple story? Usually comes in the autumn.
Who needs genebanks when you can inscribe landraces in a National Inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage.
Maybe try it with fonio next?
Or just send seeds into space?
Maybe including macadamia, or is space not cold enough for them?

June 20, 2022

Nibbles: Livestock genebank, Purple grain, Traditional Hawaiian farming

Call to set up a sheep genebank in Australia. Kinda surprised there isn’t one already, frankly.
Bringing back purple wheat in the US. Spoiler alert: genebanks were involved.
Going back to “organized chaos” in Hawaiian farming. There’s probably room for genebanks too, though.