The Gandantegchinlen (meaning Great Place of Complete Joy) Monastery in Ulaan Baatar features a 25 metre tall statue called Migjid Janraisig, “the Lord who looks in every direction.” The original was built in the early 20th century in an effort to restore the sight of Bogd Javzandamba, the eighth Jebtsundamba, spiritual head of Tibetan Buddhism in Mongolia. The statue was dismantled and taken away by the Soviets in 1938, but it was rebuilt in 1996 with donations from the Mongolian people. The statue is gilded solid copper. Well, almost solid. Precious cultural materials are encased within it. Including seeds of dozens of the country’s wheat landraces, according to my friends at the national genebank in Darkhan.
Nibbles: FAOSTAT, Drought, Seeds, Helianthus, Coffee trade, CePaCT, Figs, Old rice and new pigeonpea, Navajo tea, Cattle diversity, Diabetes, Art, Aurochs, Cocks
- FAO sets data free. About time.
- Presentation on drought risk and preparedness around the world. Nice maps.
- A Facebook for seeds?
- The diversity of Jerusalem artichoke. In France.
- Coffee certification 101.
- Nice plug for SPC’s Centre for Pacific Crops and Trees.
- The fig of choice in San Francisco.
- Back to traditional rice varieties in India. But forward to new pigeonpea varieties in Malawi. Go figure.
- Navajo tea. Would love to try it.
- “The mixed (east-west) affiliation of Mongolian cattle parallels the mixed affiliation of Mongolians themselves.”
- Lancet article mentions Lois Englberger and her Go Local work in the Pacific in context of diabetes epidemic in Asia-Pacific.
- Edible art.
- More on bringing back the aurochs. Does anyone really want one, though?
- Great variety of rare and exotic poultry breeds. Temptation to pun smuttily averted, mostly.
A tale of two genebanks
Both the Svalbard Global Seed Vault and Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank are in the news this weekend. Coincidence? Probably.
Inside Abu Ghraib
We’ve been keeping more than a brief eye on the blog of The Iraqi Seed Project but things have been a little quiet. Not surprising, really; they have better things to do than post their field notes to the internet. Today, though, a wonderful surprise. The filmmakers got to the Iraqi National Genebank at Abu Ghraib and, better yet, got to meet Mrs Sanaa Abdul Wahab. She’s the woman who saved some of the Iraqi accessions during the 2003 invasion. It was our report of her bravery that partly prompted The Iraqi Seed Project to seek her out, so we’re really glad they found her. And their report of progress at Abu Ghraib — complete with great pictures — is mostly reassuring. Sure, they need equipment and infrastructure, but the resources are there and in good hands.
Aren’t the interwebs wonderful?
Greetings from the road
Sorry about the light blogging recently: both Jeremy and I are travelling. But fear not, I for one am working hard for our readers, studying the local agricultural biodiversity. Why, just last night I spent some hours sampling agrobiodiversity products of both the avian and fermented liquid sort. And I am happy to report that both were highly acceptable. For the record, I’m at a meeting of a regional plant genetic resources network.