Mainstream

August 1, 2020August 5, 2020

Seeds: the good, the bad, the ugly

Ah, seeds.

You can’t live without them.

But, as the weird, unsolicited packets that have been sent to numerous recipients in the US (and elsewhere) prove, you can have too much of a good thing.

#APHIS is working closely with @CBP and State Depts of Ag re: unrequested seeds. If received, pls contact State Dept of Ag https://t.co/g0WhR57Wv3 or the #APHIS State Plant Health Office https://t.co/CdHtWghDbC. Keep packaging and do not plant seeds from an unknown origin! pic.twitter.com/LORKeTh4Tc

— USDA APHIS (@USDA_APHIS) July 27, 2020

At least they are fairly diverse.

LATER: Diverse or not, India is on alert.

LATER STILL: Ok, so it’s just a brushing scam? How boring.

July 30, 2020July 30, 2020

Seeds installation in Berlin

From August 1 to 31, 2020, the Education for Sustainable Development (SBNE) department will present the open-air installation SEEDS by the artists Taina Guedes and Uli Westphal. Photographs and images on the subject will be on display on large banners that will take a seed format. In addition, informative texts with pictograms by Phina Hansen accompany the installation, which revolves around three central questions:
Why does crop- and biodiversity disappear?
What is it threatened by?
How can we protect it?

Interested? Let us know here if you go.

July 20, 2020January 18, 2021

Brainfood: SDGs, Ancient sustainability, Phenomics, Wheat phenotyping, Public breeding, Almond breeding, Ethiopian sorghum, Methane mitigation, Reindeer games, Raised fields, #ArtGenetics

Living Links Connecting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: Small-Scale Farmers and Agricultural Biodiversity. Want to address a whole bunch of SDGs at once? Here’s a tip…
Archaeology for Sustainable Agriculture. Sustainability is not forever.
A Congo Basin ethnographic analogue of pre-Columbian Amazonian raised fields shows the ephemeral legacy of organic matter management. Another example of the above?
Genebank Phenomics: A Strategic Approach to Enhance Value and Utilization of Crop Germplasm. A lot of useful phenotyping can be done fast and cheap, and genebanks should do it.
LeafMachine: Using machine learning to automate leaf trait extraction from digitized herbarium specimens. This might help with the above.
Affordable Phenotyping of Winter Wheat under Field and Controlled Conditions for Drought Tolerance. This certainly could. Basically a supermarket cart with a drone mounted on top of it.
Plant Breeding Capacity in U.S. Public Institutions. It’s in trouble.
Redomesticating Almond to Meet Emerging Food Safety Needs. Turning to peach, wild and cultivated, to reduce immunoreactivity and control aflatoxin and Salmonella. Somebody say public breeding is in trouble?
Genetic variability among Ethiopian sorghum landrace accessions for major agro-morphological traits and anthracnose resistance. From 360 accessions to 10. Let’s hope at least the public sector can get hold of them.
Review: Genetic and genomic selection as a methane mitigation strategy in dairy cattle. Gotta measure emissions on individual animals.
Genome sequence and comparative analysis of reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) in northern Eurasia. Two domestications, affecting at least a dozen genes. No word on methane.
Genomes on Canvas: Artist’s Perspective on Evolution of Plant-Based Foods. Crowdsourcing historical images to trace crop evolution.

July 18, 2020July 17, 2020

Zac does CIP

My off-the cuff take on Episode 5 of Down to Earth with Zac Efron, featuring our hero’s visit to the CIP genebank.

July 16, 2020July 15, 2020

Nibbles: Genebank manual, ABS UK, Mad veggies, Trad oysters, Egyptian diets, Cotton politics, #ArtGenetics

How to run the Nepal genebank.
UK government advice on ABS.
Traditional vegetables in Madagascar get some help at last.
Traditional, sustainable oyster management. Unfortunately the people who knew about it are now in Oklahoma.
Eat like an (ancient) Egyptian.
Pakistan and China make a very big thing of exchanging some cotton germplasm.
Tracking crop evolution through paintings.