Genebanks

March 9, 2012March 9, 2012

Vavilov varieties repatriated to Sardinia

It has come to my attention ((Don’t you hate it when people do that?)) that the University of Sassari in Sardinia recently celebrated its 450th anniversary. And among the gifts it received were some seeds of oat and barley varieties collected by NI Vavilov on his 1926 expedition to the island. Fresh ones, I hope. A silver pin of Vavilov and two books — Five Continents and Vavilov and his Institute — rounded out the package. Igor Loskutov, author of the second book, gave a lecture on “Plant genetic resources collections heritage of the humankind”.

We’re trying to find out more about the repatriated varieties.

March 9, 2012March 9, 2012

Nibbles: Gene, Database, Climate Change, Nutrition, Archaeology, Website, Prices, Svalbard

Today’s maybe we’ll get some coverage if we link it to hunger and famine press release. Petunia gene.
Today’s there’s a database for that announcement. FAO’s Horticulture Cultivars Performance Database.
Today’s impact of climate change on X report. Forest resources in the Caribbean.
Today’s debunking a crappy piece of nutrition research killjoys. Experts respond to nutrition claims.
The Archaeobotanist has been going great guns; new book on domestication and millet domestication. We’ll pass on the museum post till we can firm it up.
IFPRI says let two flowers bloom. Here’s the super-groovy new policy kid on the block for non-policy wonks.
I’ll see your evil speculators and raise you a rising secular trend in food prices. (See what I did there?)
With a heavy clunk, The Economist gave Svalbard’s Doomsday Seed Vault a fine 4th birthday present.

March 6, 2012June 8, 2020

Nibbles: African seeds, African needs, Egyptian seed preservation, Archaeocandy, Conservation, Seed swap site, Water buffalo genome, Anti-striga films, Entomophagy, Black sigatoka, Pavlovsk, Cannabis genome

Gates just gave AGRA $56 million to make new seed varieties available. PASS still not collecting the diversity it hopes to displace.
Hang on though. Africa needs a “Green renaissance, not revolution”.
Saving seeds the ancient Egyptian way.
Eating sweets the ancient Papuan (and others) way.
Odd to hear an agrobiodiversity dude talking about silver bullets – even with a question mark.
SeedZoo site offers a space to give and to receive “traditional and indigenous food plants from around the world”.
Today’s forthcoming genome of agricultural interest: water buffalo.
Farmer to farmer films – gender sensitive, natch – “fight against striga”.
Assessing the Potential of Insects as Food and Feed in assuring Food Security, from the FAO document repository.
Much sound, less light, on black Sigatoka disease, from the BBC (natch).
Vaviblog rounds up the latest skinny on Pavlovsk.
And speaking of Vavilov, the latest genome to be sequenced has a VIR connection.

March 5, 2012November 20, 2017

Nibbles: Commons, Tom Wagner, CGIAR, Domestication presentation, Sophisticated urbanites, Vavilov’s potatoes in the news, Perennial crops, African drought, Aegean lathyrism, Heirlooms

The vocabulary of the commons.
An interview with Tom Wagner, a great tomato and potato breeder.
The CGIAR Consortium has a newsletter, with bits in it about what they’re doing on agrobiodiversity, genebanks (such as this one), all that stuff. But I guess news of this big Africa-wide food security project came in too late. Oh, here’s another one, on ICRISAT’s new chickpea.
Pat Heslop-Harrison on domestication. I am reliably informed he once extracted DNA from a fruit smoothie using nothing but household utensils and cleaning chemicals. Pat, is there a video?
Urban ag in the Philippines. For some reason, there’s been a ton of this sort of urban food stuff on the tubes lately. Like this for instance. And this (compare current orchards in London with historical ones). I may just have to blog about it. Oh dear, I just have.
The Glasgow Herald heralds the importance of Vavilov’s potatoes.
Long post with lots of different bits of info on lots of perennial crops.
Monitoring drought in Africa via pretty maps. And more pretty maps in search of a use.
Ancient Aegean lathyrism? Dirk alerted.
A keeper of seeds does his stuff near Pittsburgh.

March 4, 2012May 11, 2018

Nibbles: Erna Bennett film, Phytophilosophy, Agroecology, Lawsuit, Sesame, Prize, Svalbard

GRAIN found and shared a 1986 Canadian documentary that includes interviews with Erna Bennett.
“Critical minds and ‘vegetal life’.” Plants and philosophy. Wacky, yes. But perhaps of interest.
Are you near Port Townsend, WA? Go hear a lecture on “Farming with Nature: Agroecology for the Olympic Peninsula” on Monday at 7.30.
While the EU potentially gives diversity a break, the US judge rejects organic suit against Monsanto.
Open sesame (yeah, I know). Oxfam documents how best to use sesame to lift Ethiopians out of poverty.
Nominate someone who has “made outstanding contributions for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity at global, regional or local levels” for the Midori Prize. We’re available.
The Atlantic and NPR do the Svalbard thing. Gotta hand it to the Trust.