Mainstream

June 12, 2018June 12, 2018

Where is Utrecht blue wheat from?

We have this beautiful wheat in our collection, received from Sharon Rempel. However, we cannot trace it coming from the NLD. Utrecht area was not a wheatgrowing area. In the early 1900s durum and emmer was not grown in NLD. If any one knows its origin, please let us know!

— Centre for Genetic Resources, the Netherlands (@CGN_Wageningen) June 12, 2018

Can you help our friends at CGN? There is a wheat of this name in Genesys whose origin is given as Canada, but I can find no Utrecht in that country.

June 11, 2018June 12, 2018

Botany schooled about crop genebanks

So, thanks to an invitation from graduate students, I was able to give a lecture in the University of Cambridge Botany School (as was) auditorium about 35 years after last listening to one there. A somewhat emotional experience. Here’s the talk, minus a cute though entirely superfluous Google Earth zoom into the Svalbard Vault because that made it too big for SlideShare.

Building a Global System for Conserving Crop Diversity from Luigi Guarino

June 11, 2018June 11, 2018

Where to plant chokeberry

Readers who were excited by the announcement of a new Plant Hardiness Zone Map from USDA will probably like the interactive version we’ve just been pointed to. Have fun!

May 31, 2018June 1, 2018

99% genebanks

Svalbard is a remote Norwegian archipelago with reindeer, Arctic foxes and only around 2,500 humans — but it is also home to a vault containing seeds for virtually every edible plant one can imagine. The mountainside Crop Trust facility has thousands of varieties of corn, rice and more, serving as a seed backup for humanity. For each crop, there’s an envelope with 500 seeds.

Nice podcast, as ever, and glad they removed the reference to coconuts in the text, originally in there with rice and corn.

May 26, 2018May 31, 2018

Food Forever opportunity

The Crop Trust, as a provider of the Food Forever Initiative’s secretariat function, is seeking a Campaign Manager to coordinate the Initiative’s activities aimed at driving the changes needed to make our food systems more sustainable and prosperous. This multi-stakeholder effort is focused on raising awareness for the importance of protecting agricultural biodiversity worldwide, and build support for SDG Target 2.5.

Do you have what it takes or know someone who does? Share the Food Forever vacancy announcement with those who might be qualified and interested! The deadline to submit applications is 8 June 2018.