Genebanks

February 13, 2016February 12, 2016

The hipster future of coffee starts with a genebank

I started a post a few days ago with a quote suggesting that all that commercial farmers are interested in is yield. So let’s balance that today with this:

Geisha in undoubtedly a luxury, but in one important way, it deserves the hype. It is the first coffee to be grown commercially just because it tastes good.

coffee 002 We blogged about the journey of the remarkable coffee landrace called Geisha (or Gesha) a few years ago: from Ethiopia’s forests to the CATIE genebank in Costa Rica to the Peterson family farm in Panama to all over the world, or, more specifically, a hipster coffee shop in Taiwan. But Hanna Neuschwander‘s Coffee in the New Millennium tells the story at much greater length, not to mention with much greater skill. For example, I wish I had thought to describe hillside coffee plantations, with their neat, undulating rows of bushes, as “living corduroy.”

The piece ends with a neat juxtaposition between World Coffee Research’s monumental International Multi-location Variety Trials and the more geographically focussed, but no less ambitious, in its own way, effort by the Peterson family. They’re looking for a new Geisha among hundreds of other Ethiopian landraces they are now testing on their Panamanian farm. I only have one bone to pick with Ms Neuschwander: why not fully acknowledge the role of the genebank at CATIE in all this, rather than just referring, anonymously, to “a research facility in Costa Rica”?

February 12, 2016February 12, 2016

Nibbles: Spinifex industry, Tsiperifery pepper, Pacific taro, Coffee double, Guadeloupe genebanks, Cucumber history, Gourmet maize, Peruvian cuisine, Heirloom rice

Spinifex fibres for ultra-thin condoms, with indigenous approval.
Piper borbonense getting its 15 minutes.
Cook Islands shares taros with Samoa. Fingers crossed they’re TLB resistant.
A couple of videos you may only be able to get on Facebook, or at least I can’t find other sources: Ethiopian coffee ceremony, and INRA/CIRAD’s banana and yam collections in Guadeloupe.
Speaking of coffee, drink it while you can. And yes, it’s China’s fault.
The cucumber in England through the ages.
Gourmet maize in Oaxaca right now.
All kinds of gourmet food in Peru right now too.
Ok, ok, a Filipina chef on gourmet heirloom rice too.

February 9, 2016February 11, 2016

GRIN-Global hitting its stride

A couple of months ago we announced that USDA had adopted a new genebank data management system, GRIN-Global. There was some question at that time about whether Portugal was on board as well, but that seems now to be the case. So the ever-growing list of GRIN-Global users is now as follows:

CIMMYT, Maize Genebank
CIMMYT, Wheat Genebank
Crop Research Institute, Czech Republic
INIAF, Bolivia
ICRISAT (test phase)
National Plant Germplasm System, USA
Banco Portugues de Germoplasma Vegetal (BPGV)

A number of other CGIAR genebanks are also looking at the software. I feel a momentum building up…

LATER: This clinches it: it’s on Facebook.

February 9, 2016February 9, 2016

Nibbles: Poleward migration, Pulse infographic, Vodka, Ancient horse DNA, Old fish, Certified cacao, On farm book, Coarse millets, Banana diversity, Pearl millet demo

Species flying poleward.
FAO unveils pulse infographic. No word on whether any are harvestable by machine.
Potato farmer adds value the old-fashioned way.
Talking of old, here’s a really old horse.
And the oldest evidence of fermentation for food preservation. But you’ll need a strong stomach.
KitKat is certified crap.
How (and Why) Farmers Maintain Crop Diversity: The Book. Some reviews.
And here’s a specific example from India.
And here, courtesy of Bioversity’s Ann Tutwiler, is why farmers need some help sometimes.
Oh and here’s another one. People visit ICRISAT genebank in Niger, see stuff they like.

February 8, 2016February 8, 2016

The cider apple rules

I really didn’t give the short piece on the conservation of cider apple varieties in England a second thought when it first came out on the BBC a few days ago.

Hundreds of varieties of rare cider apples are being planted across England after being donated to the National Trust by a collector.
…
They were grown over 25 years by Henry May, who wanted to save old apple varieties in danger of disappearing.

Sure, I shared it, because it’s always nice to see names like Netherton Late Blower and Slack-ma-Girdle make it to prime time, but that’s about it.

I should have paid more attention, and I’m grateful to Julian Jackson for making some good points on LinkedIn.

Nice to see the National Fruit Collection’s image credited — even if their overarching work to support UK apple genetic resources conservation didn’t get a mention!! (The article should have highlighted the complementary role these new gardens could have to the existing cider collection at the National Fruit Collection ¹ rather than suggesting these will be primary resources!!)

Julian looks after the British national germplasm collections for DEFRA, and should know. Here’s hoping these new collections and that at Brogdale get properly integrated.