- 17 years of data confirm fears of bee decline.
- Slideshow on Egyptian Deserts Genebank; prepare to be astounded.
- Slideshow on US National Plant Germplasm System; prepare to be even more astounded.
- Livestock and climate change, a background paper from ILRI.
- “Most new farmland comes from cutting tropical forest.” The good news: it’s corporate, so can be pressured to stop.
The not so boring B-301 cowpea
Have a look at the comments to this post of ours from a few days back and then tell me that germplasm documentation doesn’t need a social networking makeover.
Anarchist demo at Pavlovsk
August 31 Pavlovskaia experimental station, the commission came from the Chamber to the closed doors to determine whether it is a unique collection of plants Vavilov retained, or to land occupied by the collection, sold by luxury villas. In response, the anarchists staged an unauthorized picket.
A demonstration? By anarchists? In the Russian Federation? Seems to be an alternative view on the news we reported last night. But please, someone, somewhere, do us a better translation of this.
Daniel Debouck honoured
Daniel Debouck, a world expert on Phaseolus and the manager of CIAT’s genebank, ((Which didn’t make this list yesterday, but should have.)) is to be awarded the Frank N. Meyer Medal for Plant Genetic Resources. This is well-deserved recognition of three decades of painstaking work on the conservation and use of agrobiodiversity. Daniel’s latest paper in on Lima beans.
Medvedev buys Pavlovsk some time?
On 31st of August 2010 Pavlovsk Experiment Station of VIR had an unscheduled inspection. The station was visited by representatives of the Public Chamber, the Accounts Chamber as well as representatives of the Russian Housing Development Foundation. This inspection was a result of instruction given by Dmitry Medvedev for this situation to be scrutinized. After visiting two plots the commission was convinced that, indeed, the disputed plots harbor plants that make a part of the Vavilov collection of plant genetic resources. As a result of field inspection — Nadezhda Shkolkina reports — representatives of the RZhS Fund stated they will postpone an auction for an uncertain period.
Hot off the press. A light at the end of the tunnel? Fingers crossed. But let’s keep up the pressure!