Category: Nibbles

Little bits of link goodness not worth a whole post

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Nibbles: Community seedbanks everywhere, USDA genebanks, Public sector plant breeding, Salinity tolerance, Food systems transformation

  1. Community seedbanks are so big in Zimbabwe that international NGOs are jumping on the bandwagon.
  2. More from the Cherokee Nation Seed Bank, very much a friend of the blog. International NGOs unavailable for comment.
  3. Community seedbanks are also in the news in Mexico.
  4. And in Peru, of course. Oh, here’s a nice video from Peru on Andean roots and tubers, courtesy of CIP, since we’re here.
  5. Indonesia too, you say? Yeah, why not.
  6. How to protect genebank collections from climate change, courtesy of USDA. Community seedbanks please take note.
  7. Who’s going to use all that diversity? Well public sector plant breeders of course.
  8. Yes, even plant breeders working on Salicornia.
  9. But how much of the 6 trillion dollars needed for food systems transformation is going to go to genebanks and plant breeding?
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Nibbles: China seeds, Dixie apples, USDA genebanks, ASU dates, IPR, IFG grapes, Pick-a-mix, Coffee ESG, French heirlooms, Belgian brewing, Tanzanian sorghum, Horse-bread, Roots & tubers, Guyana cassava, SDG indicators

  1. China announces a slew of seed-related measures.
  2. A slew of seeds kept apples diverse in the US South, but not so much any more.
  3. Fortunately there’s a slew of apples, among many other things, in the USDA genebank system.
  4. Dates too, probably, but this article is actually about the (complementary?) collection at Arizona State University.
  5. A slew of intellectual protections has been good for seed companies. But consumers?
  6. IFG no doubts benefits mightily from intellectual property protection of its grape varieties. The diversity of which you can peruse on this nice website.
  7. Speaking of nice websites, this one helps farmers pick-a-mix of crops. Intercropping is diversity too.
  8. How the coffee industry is trying to cope with a slew of sustainability rules. Yeah, sometimes IP protection is not enough.
  9. But who owns heritage varieties?
  10. Including heritage varieties of Belgian malting barley and other cereals.
  11. Speaking of malting, they use sorghum in Tanzania.
  12. It’s unclear what heritage varieties went into making horse-bread, but I’d like to taste the stuff.
  13. But who needs bread (or beer?) anyway? There’s a slew of root and tuber crops in Africa and elsewhere just waiting to solve hunger…
  14. …as Guyana knows well.
  15. Wanna keep track of (most of) the above? FAO has you (sorta) covered via a slew of indicators.
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Nibbles: Heirloom pean, Genebanks, Students, Community seedbanks, Kunming fund, Kenyan sorghum, Italian grapes, Wild tomatoes, Mouflon, Coffee poster, Early modern watermelons, Korean language, Farmers’ rights

  1. Why heirloom seeds matter.
  2. Why genebanks full of heirloom seeds matter. Even to kids.
  3. Why community seedbanks full of heirloom seeds matter.
  4. Just how much agrobiodiversity matters, according to FAO.
  5. Why heirloom seeds of neglected crops matter.
  6. Why heirloom seeds of sorghum matter in Kenya. No, really.
  7. Why heirloom grapes matter in Italy.
  8. Why seeds of wild tomatoes matter.
  9. Even wild sheep matter.
  10. Why visualizing coffee diversity matters.
  11. Why watermelons mattered in the 17th century.
  12. Why bottle gourds mattered to Koreans.
  13. Why farmers’ rights matter.
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Nibbles: Kenyan maize, Plant ID, Ames genebank, Eating grass, Californian seeds

  1. The hidden history of ugali in Kenya. Unnecessary spoiler alert: colonialism is involved.
  2. An app for taxonomic identification. Unnecessary spoiler alert: AI is involved.
  3. The not-so-hidden history of the North Central Regional Plant Introduction Station at Ames, Iowa.
  4. Let them eat grass. No, man, species of the Poaceae. Possibly unnecessary spoiler alert: New Zealand is taking the lead.
  5. The silver lining of Californian storm clouds. Spoiler alert: seeds.
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Nibbles: Ukraine genebank, Inequality, Olive breeding, Colorado apples, Indian rice diversity, Edible trees, Australian Grains Genebank

  1. Spanish-language article about the effort to save Ukraine’s genebank.
  2. Report on “Reducing inequalities for food security and nutrition” from the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE-FSN) of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS). They don’t say so explicitly, but genebanks can help with that.
  3. They can certainly help with breeding new olive varieties, which are much needed.
  4. Genebanks come in all shapes and sizes. Sometimes an apple orchard is also a genebank.
  5. Sometimes rice farmers are genebanks.
  6. I wonder how many genebanks conserve trees with edible leaves. This book doesn’t say, alas.
  7. The Australian Grains Genebank (AGG) gets a boost. No word on whether it will start conserving edible trees.