- A three-decade-long analysis shows rising threatened species and responsibility gaps in global supply chains. Data says that we must make responsibility for biodiversity traceable from production to final demand.
- Development of an evidence-based integrated germplasm prioritization framework for conservation and breeding. Data says: here’s how to extract some defensible conservation and breeding priorities from this large collection.
- A methodological framework for the standardised evaluation of olive genetic resources: GEN4OLIVE harmonized protocols. Data says that we should standardise phenotyping across countries to make olive germplasm more useful in breeding.
- High-throughput phenotyping of Bambara groundnut [Vigna subterranea (L.) Verdc.] seed morphometrics using videometer. Data says that we should use multispectral imaging to really speed up seed characterization and breeding in Bambara groundnut.
- Predicting the cross-continental spread of the cassava brown streak disease epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa. Data says that we must strengthen surveillance and delivery systems for clean planting material before cassava brown streak disease reaches Nigeria.
- The Sustainability of Robusta Coffee Under Global Change—A Review. Data says that we must match robusta production to genuinely suitable environments, plus invest in lower-input cultivation and alternative coffee species.
- Borassus Akeassii Facing Societal and Environmental Challenges: Case Study of the Gouin Society of Southwestern Burkina Faso. Data says that we need to conserve this multipurpose palm once central to Gouin livelihoods together with the local knowledge and practices that make it useful.
The tree of life on main street
Looks like all those factsheets came through…
Celebrating the breadfruit in Hawaii
The 2026 ʻUlu Hoʻolauleʻa and Global Breadfruit Summit is taking place in South Kona, Hawaiʻi, from 19-24 September 2026.
The week-long celebration will bring together breadfruit farmers, farmer organisations, scientists, educators, chefs, cultural practitioners, entrepreneurs, policymakers and food-systems leaders from across the Pacific, the Caribbean and other regions. Together, participants will share knowledge, celebrate the cultural importance of breadfruit—known in Hawaiʻi as ʻulu—and explore its potential to support more resilient, healthy and sustainable food systems.
Sounds like great fun. If any readers are going, please tell us about it.
Nibbles: Pasiega cow, Goat-cow, Badri cow, Zimbabwe festival, Heirloom apples, South Korea genebank, Marmottier, Radiation breeding
- Cantabria is putting the Pasiega cow in the bank. Just in case.
- Spain’s “goat-cows” are fighting wildfires the old-fashioned way: by eating the fuel. I hope they’re in the bank too.
- India has made a Badri calf in a lab. Conservation meets IVF.
- Old apples are having a revival. Turns out forgotten apple varieties can taste pretty good. Well I never, is it that time of year already?
- Zimbabwe’s Mbire district celebrates seed, food and culture with a festival. What, no cows? Or apples?
- South Korea is looking for partners to save climate-resilient plants. A seed vault is better with friends.
- The marmottier can’t decide whether it’s a plum or an apricot. Botanists sympathise.
- In the atomic age, gardeners irradiated seeds and waited for something interesting to grow. Sometimes it did.
Nibbles: Frafra, Seed multiplication, Quality seeds, Balearic genebank, Indigenous trees double, Bruno cart, Belgian wild yeast
- Frafra potato is having a moment: an indigenous West African tuber, adored locally and mostly ignored by science, out looking for its big commercial break.
- Speaking of breakthroughs, this bus driver found his own, swapping the wheel for seed multiplication and turning five acres into a livelihood, proof that sometimes the missing link in a seed system is just someone willing to do the unglamorous middle bit well.
- Which is, per Farming First, precisely Africa’s problem at scale: only 2.5% of smallholder seed in Sub-Saharan Africa comes from formal seed companies, so a few million more bus-driver-style multipliers wouldn’t hurt.
- Meanwhile in the Balearics, the opposite direction of travel: the local seed bank is expanding to rescue tomatoes, onions and broad beans, and is looking for farmers willing to take them back.
- Indigenous fruit trees in Malawi turn out to fight malnutrition and biodiversity loss at once. Happy coincidence?
- Getting those trees into the ground well needs the same unglamorous groundwork as any good crop seed system: a Mongabay commentary argues that restoration campaigns skipping Indigenous and local seed knowledge are optimising for trees planted, not trees that survive.
- And once you’ve got the saplings in the ground, you might want to monitor how they’re doing: enter Bruno, a pushcart rigged with mobile phones that can collect field data. And not just for breeders.
- Finally, proof that not all genetic-resource hunting needs a genebank: Brussels brewers are getting people to comb the city for wild yeast, because the raw materials for a proper lambic turns is hanging around in urban trees.