Category: Policy

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‘Cima di cola’ reaches a milestone, apparently

So it seems the first vegetable variety from Puglia has been added to Italy’s Registro nazionale delle varietà da conservazione, or National Register of Conservation Varieties.

The ‘Cima di cola’, a cauliflower variety historically linked to the agricultural tradition of Bari, received official recognition by Ministerial Decree of 9 September 2025, published in the Official Gazette No. 216 of 17 September 2025, which will allow its conservation and promotion also at the commercial level.

I know this because of a post on Facebook from an outfit called Biodiversità delle specie orticole della Puglia (BiodiverSO), translated above. Which unfortunately doesn’t include a link, but does provide this screenshot of Italy’s Official Gazette to prove its point.

Here’s more from the BiodiverSO post.

The inclusion of the ‘Cima di cola’ among conservation varieties is not only an institutional achievement, but also an act of recognition toward those who have preserved its seeds and traditions over the years; a milestone that opens new opportunities for scientific, educational, and gastronomic promotion, which we look forward to sharing with you.

Doubtless.

Which is why I was pretty disappointed to find that the Registro nazionale delle varietà di specie agrarie ed ortive is not actually up to date, so doesn’t yet include ‘Cima di cola’.

Quite apart from not being exactly easy to find. And there was also nothing in the relevant news section, which is actually on a different website, but nevermind.

Anyway, there are 135 “Varietà da Conservazione” registered therein. It’s unclear how to obtain seeds.

LATER: Thanks to Filippo Guzzon for advising me that ‘Cima di cola’ is indeed on the list. I was looking for it under the wrong crop name :(

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A concerted effort to conserve edible plants kicks off

Do you remember a Nibble from a few days back on how wild food ingredients are making their way into school meals in India? You may have wondered at the time if there was some kind of global initiative to conserve such wild edible plants. Because they can fall between the two stools1 of crop genebanks on one side and botanical gardens on the other.

Well, there wasn’t then, but there is now. Say hello the Global Conservation Consortium for Food Plants. Just launched, with the NY Botanical Garden hosting the secretariat.

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Nibbles: Ancient Mexican seedbank, Indian millets, Foraged foods, Soybean breeding, Apple breeding, Albanian heirlooms, Bangladesh fish genebank

  1. People in the Nejapan Sierra Sur in Oaxaca, Mexico had a seed bank 400-700 years ago so they could re-create their complex cuisine after disruptions.
  2. How MSSRF revived millets in Odisha, India. You think a seed bank was involved?
  3. Meanwhile, in Meghalaya (also India), foraged foods are helping to diversify state-provided school lunches and address chronic malnutrition. Talk about complex cuisine. Are all these species in a seed bank somewhere, though? Do they need to be?
  4. How the National Soybean Germplasm Collection at the Agricultural Research Service lab in Urbana, Illinois helped save soybeans in Iowa.
  5. University breeding programmes are keeping the apple afloat in the USA. That and genebanks.
  6. Farmers and agrotourism are bringing back some cool flavors in Albania. Well, that and the Albanian Gene Bank.
  7. Fish need genebanks too, and Bangladesh is on it. Did ancient Bangladeshis have them, I wonder?
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Brainfood: Genebank metrics, Genebank reviews, Botanic gardens ABS, Genebank practical guides, Germplasm User Groups

Want to know what AI makes of the above? “Genebanks are sharpening their tools: new metrics set benchmarks for performance, peer reviews foster collaboration, and the Plant Treaty offers clearer rules for sharing, FAO’s practical guides make standards easier to apply, while Germplasm User Groups show how farmers benefit when genebanks open their doors.” Sounds good to me. But to what extent will also this be adopted around the world, and will it last?

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Nibbles: Supermarkets, Cate Blanchett, ABS, Transformation, Medieval haymaking, Aurochs rewilding, Breed concept

  1. What’s wrong with supermarkets.
  2. Cate Blanchett on the Millennium Seed Bank. Attitude to supermarkets unknown.
  3. Access & Benefit Sharing 101. Cate Blanchett unavailable for comment.
  4. Experts weigh in on how we should change how we eat. Nobody but Cate Blanchett will listen, but supermarkets and seeds feature, for what it’s worth.
  5. How they ate in the Middle Ages without supermarkets. Or at least harvested.
  6. After we’re done with medieval haymaking, let’s bring back the aurochs too. And put it in a supermarket?
  7. Yeah but what is a breed anyway? Or an aurochs, for that matter.