Featured

February 4, 2011February 4, 2011

Featured: Egyptian genebank

Less bad news from the genebank at the Desert Research Centre in North Sinai, Egypt.

ElSayed ElAzazi, a PhD student there, has left a string of comments assuring us that the seeds are safe for now, even though a lot of equipment has been looted. Including, alas, his PhD data. All we can do is wish him, and the genebank, good luck in getting back on track.

February 1, 2011

Featured: Endangered genebanks

Michiel van Slageren of Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank has some good news regarding (some of) the material in Egypt’s looted Deserts Gene Bank:

…I can report that the collections made under our joint work are duplicated at the Millennium Seed Bank in the UK, illustrating the usefulness of this principle for all the wrong reasons. They are safe and not lost for the Egyptian nation.

January 22, 2011January 22, 2011

Featured: Economics

Kevin Mayes has been thinking about ecological economics in light of capital intensive farming:

Nature recognises only thermodynamic efficiency. Economic efficiency is merely a human artifice.

Not sure about that “merely,” but it is a provocative thought.

January 20, 2011January 20, 2011

Featured: Rice in Mozambique

Robert lays it on the line:

What a shameful misrepresentation to say that the new [rice] variety “boosts yields nearly six-fold”.

And he explains why.

January 7, 2011January 7, 2011

Featured: Genebank history

Dave corrects what he sees as a mistake:

IBPGR (founded in 1974) had nothing to do with the recommendation by the CGIAR TAC in 1972 to establish or amplify a global network of genebanks.

Plus lots more exciting insights!

1. Ancient farmers didn’t have to invent the genetic diversity that made domestication possible. They selected from variation already present in wild plants, including the ancestors of rice and maize. Domestication was as much about spotting (or happening upon) useful differences as creating new ones.
2. English colonists in America called Indigenous dogs “wolves,” revealing as much about colonial perceptions as about the animals themselves. This history of Indigenous dogs shows how unfamiliar animals were classified through peculiarly European ideas about wildness.
3. Austria is bringing forgotten apple varieties back to life. Saving old varieties is one thing: getting people to grow, sell and eat them is another, but it can be done. Or at least tried.
4. Jordanian olive oil has a story of its own, with traditional varieties such as Nabali and Rumi at the heart of local production. This account of Jordanian olives and export markets raises the question of how much local diversity survives when oil has to compete internationally. Compare and contrast with apples.
5. Small island developing states have distinctive food cultures and ingredients, but face particular challenges in building sustainable and resilient food systems. FAO’s A Taste of SIDS explores the connections between island food, biodiversity and culinary heritage. Nice to see diversity within crops considered, though a few local variety names would have been nice.
Published on October 21, 2026