Genebanks

May 2, 2014May 3, 2014

Embrapa’s new genebank illustrated

If we missed reporting the opening of Embrapa’s new genebank, ((Embrapa’s last new genebank dated to 2006.)) it’s because the news seems only to have come out in the Brazilian press.

A modern building of over two thousand square feet, divided into two floors, will house one of the largest collections of genetic resources and is the third largest facility in the world in terms of storage capacity. Opened on the morning of April 24, the new genebank started the celebrations of 41 years of Embrapa.

If you search around, you’ll find various photos of the interior of the new building, but I could not find a single one of the outside. So here goes. It was taken a couple of months ago. I expect it’s all tidied up now.

For completeness, the green building in this last shot is the old genebank, which is next door to the new one.

May 1, 2014May 1, 2014

Nibbles: Extreme aquaculture, GMO ver. 2.0, Wheat genebank, Infrared coffee spectroscopy, Farmer photos, Land grab, Reindeer herder photos, Mapping blight, Food security software, Fragaria moschata

Farming cobia off Panama. Look it up.
Gene editing is the future. But is it GM?
More on the CIMMYT genebank from the Australian press. Get a room already.
Fancy machine can tell fancy Yemeni coffee from lesser stuff. No, not DNA. Producers of lesser stuff unavailable for comment.
Some of them may end up being photographed by National Geographic though.
Before being forced off their land.
Different sort of land grab in the Gran Chaco. Pity those poor wild Arachis. And here’s a meta-analysis of the drivers of the problem.
Feeling left out, herders get fancy photos too.
“The data indicates a broad distribution of this clone from Spain to Russia and Scotland to Cypress.” Good grief. Potato blight, if you’re still interested.
From household survey data to food security assessment: The software.
The bubbleberry is increasingly a thing.

April 30, 2014May 5, 2014

South Pacific genebank overture

Can’t resist posting this video from my old colleagues at SPC. ~~It ends a bit abruptly, but Centre for Pacific Crops and Trees, and a nice overview of its work.~~

LATER: This is the full version of the video, without that weird abrupt ending. Some problem with the uploading, apparently.

April 30, 2014

Nibbles: New plant journal, Randomized trials under fire, WB to the rescue, Spirit in the sky, Please sir may I have some more, Flour powerless, Tom Payneless, Collecting for CIP, Regen redux, Cultivating my garden, Animal Crackers, Ethnomycology

Nature has new Plants journal. With blog.
More from the randomized trials backlash frontlines.
World Bank sets up internal task force on climate smart agriculture. Oh good.
No word on whether spiritual values on agenda.
Hacking the school lunch.
Indian flour mills winding down. Implications for crop diversity unknown.
Big Australian writeup of CIMMYT genebank.
Big CIP writeup of CIP genebank. And other collections, to be fair.
It’s the regeneration, stupid.
Gardens save plants.
Sustainable diets defined to within an inch of their lives. Common factor is less animal products. But, as Susan McMillan of ILRI points out, for whom, and where?
Traditional Maori use of weird fungus.

April 22, 2014April 23, 2014

ICARDA seeds safe

As we again hear about fighting in and around the headquarters of ICARDA near Aleppo, ((Though note that other versions omit mention of ICARDA. It’s understandably difficult to know exactly what’s going on.)) it is at least some measure of consolation that a further consignment of seeds from the genebank has made it to Svalbard. Our thoughts are with the staff that remain, and that managed, in the face of incredible odds, to make this latest shipment.