Category: Genebanks

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A breed is a breed is a breed?

I feel maybe yesterday’s Nibble on the definition of a “breed” may have been a bit too laconic, even for me. So let me give a bit more context.

A ram and ewe of the South Down and Norfolk breeds of sheep. Etching, ca 1822. Created 1 June 1822. Cattle. Livestock – Breeding. Domestic animals. Livestock breeds. Rams. Ewes. Work ID: ytvy3rzq.

The link was to a YouTube playlist, which was described thus (link added):

The presentations in this playlist are from the webinar on “Genomic assessment of genetic variation and the future of the breed concept”, originally held on 12.12.2024 under the umbrella of the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO). This represents the culmination of collaborative work by a diverse group of experts from institutions from all around the world to prepare materials for a sub-chapter in the upcoming 3rd Report on the State of the World’s Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture.

It amounts to over an hour of talks, but if I had to summarize the point the playlist is making, it is that genomics is redefining a breed as a fluid, porous, genotypically-characterized population rather than a fixed, pedigree-based, phenotypic entity. Thus, it is shifting livestock conservation from saving labels (“Breed A”) to preserving genetic options.

Here’s a handy table I came up with to describe the change:

Interesting to juxtapose this to the post a few days ago on how to value and use Indigenous knowledge to solve today’s problems. Would Indigenous livestock keepers necessarily care about those genetic options more than their traditional breed?

It would be great to hear from people engaged in livestock conservation on this. It’s unfortunately not a community I interact with much.

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Nibbles: Supermarkets, Cate Blanchett, ABS, Transformation, Medieval haymaking, Aurochs rewilding, Breed concept

  1. What’s wrong with supermarkets.
  2. Cate Blanchett on the Millennium Seed Bank. Attitude to supermarkets unknown.
  3. Access & Benefit Sharing 101. Cate Blanchett unavailable for comment.
  4. Experts weigh in on how we should change how we eat. Nobody but Cate Blanchett will listen, but supermarkets and seeds feature, for what it’s worth.
  5. How they ate in the Middle Ages without supermarkets. Or at least harvested.
  6. After we’re done with medieval haymaking, let’s bring back the aurochs too. And put it in a supermarket?
  7. Yeah but what is a breed anyway? Or an aurochs, for that matter.
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Brainfood: Core collections of…durum, deulkkae, barnyard millet, durian, sesame, flax, Fendler’s horsenettle, jute mallow, barley

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The Kunming Manifesto surfaces

Readers with a long memory will remember that I promised I would keep an eye on the manifesto that was supposed to come out of the 3rd International Agrobiodiversity Congress, held back in May. Well, it has arrived, the 2025 Kunming Manifesto: Agrobiodiversity for People and Planet. Here’s a taster:

The agrobiodiversity conservation, use, and success stories are largely the domain of women, who are often the most marginalized in marginalized groups. In tandem with greater inclusion, unlocking agrobiodiversity’s potential to help solve the world’s greatest challenges requires transformative intervention by governments around the world. This includes repurposing agricultural subsidies, enacting policies to support the seed production and distribution systems and embedding agrobiodiversity in the global fora that work to mitigate climate change, reverse biodiversity loss, control desertification, and eliminate hunger.

There are “actionable recommendations” on each of the topics of the Congress…

  1. Agrobiodiversity for Economic Growth
  2. Agrobiodiversity for Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation
  3. Agrobiodiversity for Improved Environmental Health and Biodiversity
  4. Agrobiodiversity for Healthy Diets
  5. Agrobiodiversity for Gender and Social Inclusion
  6. Agrobiodiversity Conservation and Management Strategies

…followed by suggested “next steps” for farmers and practitioners, policy makers, scientists, and the private sector.

Anything on genebanks? Well, lots on community seed banks, that’s for sure. But also this:

Because community seed banks are vital platforms for action learning and seed system strengthening, incentives and rights-based policies should be implemented to reward the contributions of custodian farmers. Additionally, increased support is needed for local and national genebanks, enhanced documentation and conservation of wild PGRFA and landraces, and greater investment in participatory plant breeding. Stronger national policies that enable farmers to commercialize seeds of farmer varieties need to be in place.

I have to say that, given some the people involved, I would have expected at least a passing reference to international genebanks, but I guess this particular Congress wasn’t the right place for that.