Genebanks

September 18, 2015September 18, 2015

Innovating in the Andes

Transferring the Potato Park’s potato collection to the Svalbard International Seed Vault (collaborative innovation). The transfer to the International Seed Vault in Norway, near the North Pole will protect the varieties in the event of a global crisis. While this is seen as a largely symbolic action, the transfer serves also to strengthen the Potato Park’s membership of the FAO Treaty multilateral system, raise international awareness of the growing concerns of Peru’s potato farmers and promote a balanced relationship between in situ and ex situ conservation strategies. ANDES and CIP have supported the application and the production of botanical seeds by the farmers (as opposed to seed potatoes).

Coudn’t have put it better myself. So I’m glad IIED did, together with lots more on other biocultural innovations coming out of the Parque de la Papa.

September 18, 2015September 18, 2015

Nibbles: Beautiful downtown Burbank, Oz rice weed and nuts, Teff embargo, Kew Gardens, Cherokee seeds, Vegetables semantics, MLN progress, Fishy chart, Inuit fishy diet, Bioversity photo fix, African food security, ICIPE cashes in, Root & tuber congress, Smallholders, EU agroecology, Sackville Hamilton, Kiwifruit history, USDA pathogen collection

Luther Burbank “…was willing to cross just about anything that had leaves…”
No, rice did not originate in northern Australia. Not in the sense those words are usually used.
Aussies to embrace cannabis. But not in the sense those words are usually used.
Australian exporters nuts for more than just macadamia. Ah, interdependence…
Meanwhile, Ethiopian teff exporters licking their lips in anticipation.
Kew is bigger than the sum of its parts.
Cherokee Nation genebanker gets award.
Yes, BBC, vegetables exist, let’s move on.
Maize Lethal Necrosis on its last legs? Well, “progress is being made” at any rate.
The Economist’s daily chart is on declining fish stocks. Why have they gone all warm and fuzzy lately? Something in the zeitgeist?
Inuit are genetically adapted to their fishy diet.
Damn it, I lost! Probably fixed.
Africa sets up a new institution for food security. Which is not the same as hunger, we are told. But is it malnutrition.
ICIPE scales up and out. More impact than any “new institution” is going to achieve.
World Congress on Root & Tuber Crops has a new website.
It’s the smallholders, stupid. Like the ones growing tea in Kenya, frinstance.
The EU to discuss agroecology. Yesterday, alas.
IRRI and Plant Treaty to share an IT-savvy genebank manager.
How kiwifruit became kiwifruit.
Microbes have collections too.

September 16, 2015September 18, 2015

Nibbles: Drought maize, Forage Man, Coffee rescue, Herbarium workflow, Nutrient decline, Hybrid vines, Forest foods, Agrobiodiversity double, Bittman moves on

So, how well did that Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa project do, anyway? Meeting to be held to find out. In the meantime, here’s the infographic.
My friend Bob Reid gets an award for his contribution to forage genetic resources conservation and use.
Finally doing something about arabica’s lack of diversity.
Digitizing herbarium collections? There’s a workflow for that.
Remember the good old days of nutritions veggies? “[A]ny real declines [in nutrient content] are generally most easily explained by changes in cultivated varieties.”
“…what if hybrids were farmed as carefully & conscientiously as the finest vinifera grapes in a historical vineyard?”
Wild foods from dry forests are good for you. Wet forest not totally useless either though.
Bats, earthworms, enough of this biodiversity, we get it already.
Bittman puts his money where his mouth is.

September 15, 2015September 15, 2015

Nibbles: Kew video, Cannabis taxonomy, Diet change, School beer nazis, Pawnee corn, Salicornia, Oz seed forum, Cuban root forum

Really stunning video on plant taxonomy through the ages.
Growers often get cannabis taxonomy wrong. Where’s the video on that?
Kale or steak? Why not both?
Enterprising pupils make beer from oats/sorghum breakfast cereal.
Can always do with more news on Pawnee corn.
Let them eat Salicornia.
Australian Seed Bank Partnership organizing a National Seed Science Forum in March 2016.
The Instituto de Investigaciones de Viandas Tropicales is organizing the Third International Symposium on Roots, Rhizomes, Tubers, Plantains, Bananas and Papayas in Cuba, 20-23 October 2015.

September 14, 2015September 14, 2015

Swings and roundabouts

Much harm has been done. In the past century about three-quarters of global crop genetic diversity is thought to have been lost, and with it many potentially beneficial traits. Preserving what remains is an insurance policy against the effects of climate change: Britain’s Millennium Seed Bank, the world’s largest, cost £73m ($112m) to complete in 2010. The damage from the brown planthopper came to $1 billion in today’s money. Governments should share species and fund seed banks. Their work is a vital safeguard against hunger.

That’s from a leader in The Economist, one of three pieces on the conservation and use of crop diversity in this week’s issue. Which the writers got through without even once mentioning Svalbard, but were not, alas, able to negotiate without resorting to the dreaded 75% number. On balance, though, I’ll take it.