- Europe gets a genetic resources strategy at last. Rejoice.
- Book on how international organizations could, should, would transform agriculture.
- Meanwhile, in Cali…
- BBVA and El Celler de Can Roca collaborate on forgotten foods documentary, Seeds for the Future.
- A novel about Vavilov? Well, why not.
- Exhibition on pastoralism.
- Visual essay on floods in South Sudan.
- Why not throw money at food security though? I mean, just see above, right?
- Beyond the EAT-Lancet diet. S. Sudan unavailable for comment.
- The SPC genebank curator waxes lyrical.
- Not far away, New Zealand cryopreserves some of its native plants.
- The latest on the Four Corners potato. I hope it’s in cryo…
- …and that it doesn’t go the way of the peyote.
Nibbles: Archaeobotany, Citrus genebank, Vitellaria, Potato genebank, Pignolo, IK, Atlas of Living Australia,
- Q&A with an archaeobotanist looking into the domestication history of maize and gourds.
- Q&A with the curators of the University of California, Riverside Citrus Variety Collection.
- Q&A on the shea tree genome.
- CIP’s potato cryobank. There’s probably a Q&A somewhere too.
- Snippets of a review of an interesting-sounding book about the almost-forgotten Pignolo grape.
- Snippets of the Indigenous ecological knowledge used by traditional agriculturalists in India.
- A more systematic approach to documenting and protecting Indigenous ecological knowledge from Australia.
Nibbles: China agrobiodiversity, Hedge apple, Maize history, AI and extinction, Mapping pastures, Mapping foodscapes
- China makes progress in its agrobiodiversity census.
- Osage orange history deconstructed: “horse high, hog tight, and bull strong.”
- Maize history deconstructed.
- Using AI to assess the vulnerability of plant species. Vulnerability of landraces next?
- Not sure about landraces, but maybe pasturelands?
- Mapping food systems to save them.
Brainfood: IK, CWR, AnGR valuation double, Open cryo hardware, Seed pathogens, Perennial grains, Tropical forages, Tree breeding, Resurrection, Arabica origins, Fragaria, CIP sweetpotato
- Contributions of Indigenous Knowledge to ecological and evolutionary understanding. The importance of IK is considerable for PGRFA conservation and use too, of course, and the injunction to “enter into a thoughtful social contract with IK holders, foremost working toward partnered research that benefits the communities, governments, and nations of Indigenous peoples” goes double.
- Harnessing Crop Wild Diversity for Climate Change Adaptation.. …needs open data. Genomic data, that is, rather than IK. I wonder if there’s quid pro quo here.
- Genetic Identity, Diversity, and Population Structure of CIP’s Sweetpotato (I. batatas) Germplasm Collection. An entire collection of about 6000 accessions genotyped to reveal 4 ancestral populations, some duplication within and between genebanks, plus possible mistakes in labelling. Ah, data!
- Information use and its effects on the valuation of agricultural genetic resources. Giving the public more data may increase the support for animal genetic resources conservation. But what kind of data? Read on…
- Consumers’ knowledge and perceptions of endangered livestock breeds: How wording influences conservation efforts. Focus on the nice taste rather than the rarity or endangerment of breeds, as it turns out. Accentuate the positive?
- The emerging role of open technologies for community-based improvement of cryopreservation and quality management for repository development in aquatic species. Hardware can be open too.
- Longevity of Plant Pathogens in Dry Agricultural Seeds during 30 Years of Storage. Clean your seeds, genebanks.
- Sustainable agriculture through perennial grains: Wheat, rice, maize, and other species. A review. Promises, promises…
- Tapping Into the Environmental Co-benefits of Improved Tropical Forages for an Agroecological Transformation of Livestock Production Systems. Location, location, location.
- ‘Systems approach’ plant breeding illustrated by trees. Link up different plant breeding approaches in fun ways rather than doubling down on any single one.
- A pragmatic and prudent consensus on the resurrection of extinct plant species using herbarium specimens. I must say I would not have been so prudent.
- Validating South Sudan as a Center of Origin for Coffea arabica: Implications for Conservation and Coffee Crop Improvement. No time for prudence here.
- Diversification, spread, and admixture of octoploid strawberry in the Western Hemisphere. Yes, that’s all very interesting, but tell me more about that Hawaiian strawberry.
Nibbles: OSGC, Satellites, IK, Craft beer, Livestock & CC
- Organic Seed Growers Conference, February 4–11, 2022. Don’t miss it.
- Mapping biodiversity from space. Agrobiodiversity next? I wish.
- How to cite Indigenous knowledge. Including in germplasm databases? I wish.
- An old Czech barley variety from an Austrian genebank makes a comeback in craft brewing. I dunno though, I need to look into this a bit more.
- Demonizing livestock is unjust. But will probably continue.