Category: Genebanks

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Arctic seed monkeys in publicity storm

Some people have all the fun. Reporter Louise Roug, of the Los Angeles Times, has clearly had a blast writing a major feature on the Global Crop Diversity Trust’s “doomsday vault” on Svalbard, above the Arctic Circle. She has it all: glaciers and frozen wilderness; airlocks, steel-reinforced doors and a video-monitoring system; more aggressive farming methods, environmental degradation and changing weather patterns; quotes from senior science coordinators with the Trust.

She also, this being modern journalism, has contrary opinions. To provide balance. So the director of one NGO is reported as saying that the Arctic seed vault “tends to divert attention, energy and money away from what we consider as much more urgent and sustainable efforts to save biodiversity on the farm”.

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Indian fruit genebank threatened by democracy

NB: Update here.

We interrupt this blog for a public service announcement. The Indian Express is reporting a proposal by the government of Jharkand State in northeast India to bulldoze the field genebanks of the Horticulture and Agro Forestry Research Programme. More than 20 years of work and thousands of fruit varieties are set to be destroyed in order to create bungalows for Members of Parliament.

What to do? This makes the UK’s attempts to dump its apple and pear collection look positively suave. We’ve alerted people who might have some influence. But seriously, what else can be done? Is anyone in Jharkand taking this up? How about the rest of India? We’re rank amateurs at activism. Advise us.

We wouldn’t normally repost an entire item, but this is important enough that we’re making an exception. So here goes.

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Ft Collins genebank in the news

There’s an article about USDA’s long-term genebank at Ft Collins, Colorado in the Denver Post:

Global warming is predicted by some seed-physiology scientists to wipe out as much as 40 percent of the world’s crops, according to Kathryn Kennedy, director of the St. Louis-based Center for Plant Conservation, a longtime user of the seed bank.

Plant breeders and researchers will turn here for the seeds to produce the crops adapted to new climatic conditions.

“We have always tried to stay three steps ahead, but with global warming, we’re concerned three steps may not be enough,” said Christine Walters, a plant physiologist and self-described seed nerd at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Center for Genetic Resource Preservation.

Inevitably, Svalbard gets a name-check, though accompanied by a little bit of a sneer :), I thought:

Unlike the new, attention-getting “doomsday” seed bank dug into the permafrost of Svalbard, Norway, to be the ultimate seed backup, seeds go in and out of the Fort Collins site. About 150,000 seed samples were sent out last year.

It’s a long article, but well worth reading. And check out the slide-show too. The only blemish ((And thanks to Karen Williams for pointing it out.)) is that the genebank is referred to as the “CSU gene bank,” CSU being Colorado State University. Well, it’s undoubtedly on the campus of CSU, but the National Center for Genetic Resource Preservation is a federal facility under USDA.