Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog

January 15, 2019January 15, 2019

Seed sector consolidation and innovation deconstructed

Long story short, I don’t think there is sufficient evidence so far to support the claim that increasing concentration in seed markets reduces innovation. I’m not saying it is impossible; just that the evidence so far does not show it…

Well, that’s a turn up for the books. Koen Deconinck’s OECD study explaining why the recent Civil Eats story making that claim may be wrong is just out, but that quote comes from a Twitter thread which starts with this

Our @OECDagriculture study on concentration in seed markets contradicts several of the points made in this @CivilEats article. I'd like to pick on one argument in particular – that mergers lead to less innovation. This has not been shown. 1/ https://t.co/jwb7j584AV

— Koen Deconinck (@DeconinckKoen) January 14, 2019

and that you can see conveniently unspooled here.

January 14, 2019

PAGXXVII in the air

The self-styled “Largest Ag-Genomics Meeting in the World” is on again. It’s not really my thing, but I don’t mind following the proceedings at a distance: the hashtag is #PAGXXVII. I particularly recommend Zoë Migicovsky’s live-tweeting, but there are others who are doing a fine job too.

Top #PAGXXVII Tweeters:
1 @pop_gen_JED 155
2 @zoemig 113
3 @JChrisPires 109
4 @Campbell_JD_PhD 68
5 @So_it_flows 49
6 @khanmather 48
7 @isugif 43
8 @mossMatters 42
9 @TroyNRowan 40
10 @JasonWilliamsNY 38

— Jared Decker (@pop_gen_JED) January 14, 2019

January 14, 2019January 12, 2019

Brainfood: Coca phylogeny, Potato taste & nutrition & resistance, CC & nutrition, Light & nutrition, Remote poverty, Spicy toms, Input subsidies, Broilerocene, European livestock then & now, Bean domestication, Peach domestication, Machine conservation, Habitat fragmentation, Conservation planning, Taxidermy, Wheat diversity, Livestock GS

Phylogenetic inference in section Archerythroxylum informs taxonomy, biogeography, and the domestication of coca (Erythroxylum species). Morphology is not enough.
Improving Flavor to Increase Consumption. Yield is not enough.
The Nutritional Contribution of Potato Varietal Diversity in Andean Food Systems: a Case Study. Yield is not enough.
Stacking three late blight resistance genes from wild species directly into African highland potato varieties confers complete field resistance to local blight races. One resistance gene is not enough.
Income growth and climate change effects on global nutrition security to mid-century. Calories will not be enough.
Urbanization and Child Nutritional Outcomes. Urbanization is enough.
Socioecologically informed use of remote sensing data to predict rural household poverty. Night light is not enough.
Capsaicinoids: Pungency beyond Capsicum. Peppers and tomatoes are not enough.
The impact of agricultural input subsidies on food and nutrition security: a systematic review. The data are not enough.
The broiler chicken as a signal of a human reconfigured biosphere. The broiler is enough.
Pre-Roman improvements to agricultural production: Evidence from livestock husbandry in late prehistoric Italy. The Romans were not enough.
Optimizing ex situ genetic resource collections for European livestock conservation. One genebank is not enough.
Does the Genomic Landscape of Species Divergence in Phaseolus Beans Coerce Parallel Signatures of Adaptation and Domestication? One genome is enough.
Genome re-sequencing reveals the evolutionary history of peach fruit edibility. Human selection was not enough.
Predicting plant conservation priorities on a global scale. This black box is enough.
Is habitat fragmentation bad for biodiversity? Small patches may be enough.
Synergies between the key biodiversity area and systematic conservation planning approaches. One conservation approach is not enough.
Capturing goats: documenting two hundred years of mitochondrial DNA diversity among goat populations from Britain and Ireland. Stuffed goats are enough.
Decline in climate resilience of European wheat. The current varieties are not enough.
Harnessing genomic information for livestock improvement. Genomic selection was going to be enough.

January 12, 2019January 14, 2019

Genebanks on social media

Are you interested in genebanks? In particular, the international genebanks of CGIAR? If so, you probably already know about their webpage. And you’ve no doubt signed up for their newsletter. But do you know about their Facebook group? “Like” it, you’ll like it.

January 11, 2019January 11, 2019

The multifarious origins of food

Could it be that we neglected to say anything at all back in the summer of 2016 about our friend Colin Khoury’s paper Origins of food crops connect countries worldwide? I can hardly believe it, but I can’t find anything at all in the blog’s archives. Weird in the extreme. ((Maybe I thought the work blog would be enough?)) We were very good about Colin’s Increasing homogeneity in global food supplies and the implications for food security, but we seem to have dropped the ball on the follow-up. Anyway, here’s the money quote from the abstract:

Countries are highly interconnected with regard to primary regions of diversity of the crops they cultivate and/or consume. Foreign crops are extensively used in food supplies (68.7% of national food supplies as a global mean are derived from foreign crops) and production systems (69.3% of crops grown are foreign). Foreign crop usage has increased significantly over the past 50 years, including in countries with high indigenous crop diversity.

You can explore the data on CIAT’s wonderful companion interactive website.

I bring this up now because Colin has come up with neat infographics illustrating how even nationally iconic foods like pizza can trace the origins of their ingredients to multiple regions of the world.

Now to do it for Mseto wa Maharagwe.