Category: Genebanks

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Happy birthday MSB!!!

It’s the 25th birthday of Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank (MSB) at Wakehurst in West Sussex.

Patche99z, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Understandably, it’s getting a lot of — very well-deserved — coverage. I’ll link to some of the more interesting pieces as they come out over the next few days.

  • There’s a podcast hosted by King Charles, no less.
  • The Guardian’s podcast is shorter and less cool but ok.
  • Cate Blanchett is appearing in that royal podcast, as well as various more plebeian interviews. She’s the MSB’s first ever ambassador. She was recently featured, along with Wakehurst, in House & Garden.
  • The Economist has a long piece about seed collecting for the MSB in Madagascar.
  • RE:TV has produced a cool video.
  • The BBC’s video is shorter and less cool but ok.
  • Samara, the International Newsletter of the Millennium Seed Band Partnership, has a very comprehensive anniversary edition.

Here’s to the next 25!

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Nibbles: Millennium Seed Bank 25th, NPGS, Maize germplasm, Breadfruit genebank, Banana genebank

  1. King Charles III talks about seeds with Dr Elinor Breman of Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank and…
  2. …Cate Blanchett.
  3. Or read about it in The Economist.
  4. Or watch a nice video.
  5. The seed banks of the National Plant Germplasm System in the USA are for farmers, not just researchers.
  6. How to get stuff out of the NPGS.
  7. Laurajean Lewis: from an NPGS genebank to CIMMYT’s.
  8. I’m sure she and Chris Mujjabi will get to know each other soon.
  9. Diane Ragone: Not all genebanks are seed banks.
  10. Not a lot of breadfruits in Belgium but, surprisingly, lots of bananas.
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Nibbles: Fiona Hay, Richard Ellis, FAO exhibition, Peasants, Wheat breeding, Svalbard, Søren Ejlersen, Ephraim Bull, Heirloom apples, Caffeine, Collards history

  1. Dr Fiona Hay, seed scientist, on why we need genebanks, including seed banks.
  2. Prof. Richard Ellis retires. A genebank legend, as Fiona would probably agree.
  3. FAO exhibition goes From Seeds to Foods. By way of genebanks, no doubt.
  4. And peasants, of course. No, it’s not a derogatory word, settle down.
  5. Can Green Revolution breeding approaches (and genebanks) help peasants deal with climate change?
  6. Even genebanks need a back-up plan though.
  7. New Mexico genebank helps out Danish chef.
  8. The history of the Concord grape and its foxiness. Chefs intrigued.
  9. The history of Aport and Amasya apples. No foxiness involved, as far as I know. Genebanks? Probably.
  10. The origin of caffeine. Now do foxiness.
  11. Where did collards come from anyway? No, not genebanks. Bloody historians, always re-writing history.
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Good news from the genebank world?

As you may have noticed, I’ve been on a mission lately to document in Brainfood the progress that genebanks are making. Because I needed some good vibes, you know? So last week there was a post on how the “software” of genebanks — that is, how they function and are managed — is being upgraded. The week before there was a round-up of core collections, one of the main things genebanks do to get their contents used more, showing that this oldish technology is still up and running, and even occasionally making a difference. And then this week I did a Brainfood on the new “hardware” some genebanks are using — or could be using. Meaning cool modern tools of different kinds to help out at difference stages of the conservation-to-use workflow. But I’m sure I missed some things. Surely I missed some things? Let me know in the comments. Please. For the vibes, you understand.