Policy

May 22, 2020May 22, 2020

Viral Vault vids

I guess people are mainly sitting at home making videos during the lockdown. Here are two on Svalbard which dropped within a couple of days of each other, presumably in time for the International Day for Biodiversity. Which is today, isn’t it?

And you might as well complement them with this nice article from Simran Sethi.

May 21, 2020

The EU gets a new biodiversity strategy

The decline of genetic diversity must also be reversed, including by facilitating the use of traditional varieties of crops and breeds. This would also bring health benefits through more varied and nutritious diets. The Commission is considering the revision of marketing rules for traditional crop varieties in order to contribute to their conservation and sustainable use. The Commission will also take measures to facilitate the registration of seed varieties, including for organic farming, and to ensure easier market access for traditional and locally adapted varieties.

That’s from the EU’s new biodiversity policy. Promising. But I don’t see anything in there about ex situ conservation to back up this conservation-through-use approach, welcome as it is.

May 20, 2020August 18, 2020

Nibbles: 4H, Plague medicine, Maize origins, Rice spread, Seed saving

Plant Health, Animal Health, Human Health and Environmental Health. What’s not to like?
It used to be thought that tobacco and sugar could help with the above. Go figure.
La Cuna del Maíz Mexicano.
The same, but for rice in Asia.
Backyard seed saving, and science.

May 18, 2020May 18, 2020

Brainfood: Red Listing, Name checking, Diversification, New breeding, Seed data, Tea genome, Sampling strategies, Plum diversity, Fruit taste, Enset seeds, Maize & nutrition, Emilian grapes

Caution Needed When Predicting Species Threat Status for Conservation Prioritization on a Global Scale. Automated rapid preliminary assessments are all well and good, but…
WorldFlora: An R package for exact and fuzzy matching of plant names against the World Flora Online Taxonomic Backbone data. Automated rapid taxonomic name checking is all well and good, but…
Diverse approaches to crop diversification in agricultural research. A review. Too diverse.
Reinventing quantitative genetics for plant breeding: something old, something new, something borrowed, something BLUE. Retire additive variance.
Nikolaeva et al.’s reference book on seed dormancy and germination. A treasure trove of data comes to light.
The reference genome of tea plant and resequencing of 81 diverse accessions provide insights into genome evolution and adaptation of tea plants. Three groups, originating in SW China.
Taxonomic similarity does not predict necessary sample size for ex situ conservation: a comparison among five genera. The old rule-of-thumb of 50 individuals was not all that far off after all.
Genetic assessment of the pomological classification of plum Prunus domestica L. accessions sampled across Europe. 93 unique accessions out of 104 across 14 partners. Pretty good, no?
Genome‐wide association of volatiles reveals candidate loci for blueberry flavor. Can predict taste from genetics.
Germination ecology of wild and domesticated Ensete ventricosum: Evidence for maintenance of sexual reproductive capacity in a vegetatively propagated perennial crop. Seeds from domesticated material are not much different from the wild ones, except in germination niche.
Mining maize diversity and improving its nutritional aspects within agro‐food systems. Biofortification is only the beginning.
Genetic Characterization of Grapevine Varieties from Emilia-Romagna (Northern Italy) Discloses Unexplored Genetic Resources. About half (62) of the unique accessions (122) in a collection (178) are hardly known.

May 13, 2020May 13, 2020

Diversify for better and more equitable nutrition

This year’s Global Nutrition Report came out yesterday. It calls for…

…a pro-equity agenda that mainstreams nutrition into food systems and health systems, supported by strong financing and accountability. With only five years left to meet the 2025 global nutrition targets, time is running out. We must focus action where the need is greatest for maximum impact.

That includes actions centred around increasing dietary diversity, especially for kids. Prabhu Pingali’s Spotlight 4.1 section of the report shows that more attention to non-staples crops can be a valuable approach for that.

Spotlight 4.1 shows that virtually all the increase in food energy (calories) from 1970 to 2010 is accounted for by non-staple crops, which are relatively more nutrient-dense. The proportion of calories from sugars and sweeteners has declined since 1970. This positive trend highlights the need for a more balanced policy and research and development focus on non-staple crops, to support producers to diversify. This in turn could improve the diversity of crops contributing to a balanced and healthy dietary composition.

Pity this important insight hasn’t found its way in much of the media coverage.