Yes, even Europe has community seed banks, and a website to tell you all about them. Here’s where they are:
A lot more than I thought.
Mapping crop names
A tweet by James Wong a couple of days ago, that reproduced a map from a paper from a few years back showing the spread of the words for sweet potato around the world
had me searching the dark recesses of my brain, and the interwebs, for similar maps. Recently there was one for tea, for example.
Any others? A Reddit post turned up coffee (as well as honey and sugar).
Banana was harder to find.
Any more out there?
Spreading the good news about forages
I know I Nibbled it, but I think it’s worth giving a bit more space to the tropical forages newsletter Forages for the Future, edited by Bruce Pengelly and Brigitte Maass. In Brigitte’s words: “The newsletter is meant to start re-building a community that is interested and engaged in tropical and subtropical forage genetic resources, their conservation and utilization.”
All 6 issues may be found on the website of the journal Tropical Grasslands-Forrajes Tropicales. Let us know if you want to be added to the mailing list. Because, as you’ll remember from a recent Brainfood, forages are not all bad.
Examples of ABS wanted
As part of BGCI’s Darwin Initiative project with the Ethiopian Biodiversity Institute, BGCI is gathering practical examples of measures that ex situ collections, research institutions and their networks are taking to ensure that they acquire, use and transfer plant genetic resources and share benefits in compliance with national and international laws, respecting the rights of provider communities and in accordance with mutually agreed terms… BGCI seeks further examples of institutional and network ABS measures! Please send suggestions to abs@bgci.org.
No sign of the Seed Treaty’s ABS arrangements…
Early warning of crop diseases, and hopefully more
CIAT scientist Monica Carvajal has a great idea. She wants to develop a global crop disease surveillance system:
The system…will go beyond using the smartest tools to detect pathogens, which refer to organisms that harm plants such as viruses, fungi, bacteria, and phytoplasma. It will also include recommendations on how to best communicate the presence of emerging diseases to authorities and prompt necessary actions to avert a massive outbreak.
I hope it will also help to save any crop diversity threatened by the said pathogens, while at the same time identifying diversity that could be used to breed resistant varieties.
LATE: Follow the tweeting!