Category: Mainstream

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Thriller at the Seed Vault

From the description of the just-released German-Norwegian TV series “Die Saat – Tödliche Macht” (English title: The Seed) on ARD (as translated by Google).

Heino Ferch embarks on a dramatic search for missing persons as a police officer on a private foreign mission: in order to find his nephew, an environmental activist played by Jonathan Berlin, on the polar island of Spitsbergen, he pays no attention to his own life. At his side, Ingrid Bolsø Berdal, a Norwegian police officer, tries to overcome her own traumas by rescuing the missing man. Neither of them has any idea what unscrupulous powers and actors they will meet. Over six episodes, series creator Christian Jeltsch and his co-author Axel Hellstenius, and director Alexander Dierbach, create a multi-layered arc of suspense that combines a vividly staged thriller plot with a highly topical business crime thriller. The starting and ending point is the “Svalbard Global Seed Vault”, where valuable seeds from all over the world are stored as genetic backup in the event of a disaster. However, the highly secured mine tunnel also hides a secret that poses deadly dangers for the missing activist – and everyone who has anything to do with him.

Enjoy!

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Nibbles: USDA germplasm plan, Millet CoP, Seed system resources, Kenyan sorghum Scottish crab apples, Heirloom maize, Yak cheese, Indian mangoes

  1. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has a new National Strategic Germplasm and Cultivar Collection Assessment and Utilization Plan. Quite the tour de force. Now to get it funded.
  2. Yes, there’s now a community of practice on millets. Joined!
  3. The Seed System Lab at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences has lots of interesting resources on its new website.
  4. The latest on the Kenyan genebank’s sorghum work.
  5. Why wouldn’t Scotland have a crab apple genebank?
  6. Why Jimmy Red maize is worth saving, despite its faults.
  7. Yak cheese? Yes, please.
  8. And nice pics of Indian mangoes to close.
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Reasons to be cheerful

Just noticed I haven’t posted in over three weeks. Sorry about that. But there is a good reason: work.

First there was the Global Crop Diversity Summit in Berlin.

Then there was the 10th Session of the Governing Body of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture in Rome. The Summit communique was presented to delegates, who welcomed its call for more support to genebanks.

Then there was the Phase 2 meeting of the Vision for Adapted Crops and Soils (VACS) in New York. That vision will arguably depend on the sort of access to genetic diversity that genebanks provide and the Treaty facilitates.

And now of course there is COP28 in Dubai, with its particular focus on the need for transforming agrifood systems.

Which takes us back to the Summit and its call that we need to empower genebanks if that transformation is going to work. And to the Treaty. And indeed to VACS and its focus on less-known crops.

And actually there has been good news already in Dubai bringing all those strands together. Check out the last item on this list of projects that will be supported by Norway.

But don’t worry, normal service will be renewed here soon.

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Nibbles: Seed system, Food system, Coffee infographic, African agroecology, ENRICH, Land Institute citizen science

  1. Do you want to describe and analyze seed systems? Let the Norwegian University of Life Sciences show you how.
  2. Do you think there should be a, well, systemic approach to the food system? So does the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. Hope they include seed systems. And genebanks.
  3. Want a rather beautiful way to remember the complicated history of coffee? Let Chris Kornman sell you one. A time when botanic gardens acted as genebanks.
  4. Looking for an African take on African agricultural development? Million Belay has you covered. Wish he had mentioned African genebanks though.
  5. Would you like to celebrate 20 years of HarvestPlus? IFPRI to the rescue.
  6. Want to grow perennial crops for the Land Institute? Well now you can.
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Nibbles: Fonio beer, ICRISAT seed kits, Dark Emu, China potatoes, 3D genebank, Bioculture, Microbiome genebank, Nutrition, Michigan kiwi

  1. You can make beer from fonio.
  2. ICRISAT providing Niger and Chad with sorghum and pearl millet seed kits. Fonio next?
  3. No, Echinochloa turneriana next. In Australia. I love the Dark Emu Hypothesis, and not least for its name.
  4. CIP is helping China improve its potato crop.
  5. Won’t be long before China’s genebank has 3D images of all its holdings. I’d love to see the potatoes.
  6. Want to see the earliest known site of domestication of teosinte?
  7. UK builds first crop biome cryobank.
  8. How the private sector can help with a more nutrition-sensitive agriculture. Should it want to.
  9. You can grow kiwi in Michigan. Should you want to.