I could have sworn I had at least Nibbled Our World in Data’s Is organic farming better for the environment than conventional farming? But it doesn’t look like it. Fortunately, Jeremy gets to grips with it in his latest newsletter. Along with that autumnal favourite, the apple, and lots of other interesting stuff.
Brainfood: From data to action
- A three-decade-long analysis shows rising threatened species and responsibility gaps in global supply chains. Data says that we must make responsibility for biodiversity traceable from production to final demand.
- Development of an evidence-based integrated germplasm prioritization framework for conservation and breeding. Data says: here’s how to extract some defensible conservation and breeding priorities from this large collection.
- A methodological framework for the standardised evaluation of olive genetic resources: GEN4OLIVE harmonized protocols. Data says that we should standardise phenotyping across countries to make olive germplasm more useful in breeding.
- High-throughput phenotyping of Bambara groundnut [Vigna subterranea (L.) Verdc.] seed morphometrics using videometer. Data says that we should use multispectral imaging to really speed up seed characterization and breeding in Bambara groundnut.
- Predicting the cross-continental spread of the cassava brown streak disease epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa. Data says that we must strengthen surveillance and delivery systems for clean planting material before cassava brown streak disease reaches Nigeria.
- The Sustainability of Robusta Coffee Under Global Change—A Review. Data says that we must match robusta production to genuinely suitable environments, plus invest in lower-input cultivation and alternative coffee species.
- Borassus Akeassii Facing Societal and Environmental Challenges: Case Study of the Gouin Society of Southwestern Burkina Faso. Data says that we need to conserve this multipurpose palm once central to Gouin livelihoods together with the local knowledge and practices that make it useful.
The tree of life on main street
Looks like all those factsheets came through…
Celebrating the breadfruit in Hawaii
The 2026 ʻUlu Hoʻolauleʻa and Global Breadfruit Summit is taking place in South Kona, Hawaiʻi, from 19-24 September 2026.
The week-long celebration will bring together breadfruit farmers, farmer organisations, scientists, educators, chefs, cultural practitioners, entrepreneurs, policymakers and food-systems leaders from across the Pacific, the Caribbean and other regions. Together, participants will share knowledge, celebrate the cultural importance of breadfruit—known in Hawaiʻi as ʻulu—and explore its potential to support more resilient, healthy and sustainable food systems.
Sounds like great fun. If any readers are going, please tell us about it.
Hope in Iraq
This made me happy. Seventeen years after we first blogged about the sad fate of the Iraqi national genebank at Abu Ghraib, it has re-opened.
It goes together with one in Sulaymaniyah that was opened a few weeks back.
Until now, Iraq’s only conservation facility was the National Gene/Seed Bank in Abu Ghraib, established in 1977, which required rehabilitation to meet modern conservation standards for its collection of around 3,500 accessions. No comparable facility existed in the Kurdistan Region, despite being home to more than 70 percent of Iraq’s plant genetic resources.
The project therefore combined the rehabilitation of the National Seed Bank in Baghdad with the construction of a new Gene/Seed Bank in Sulaymaniyah, creating complementary facilities that together strengthen Iraq’s national capacity to conserve and sustainably use its invaluable plant genetic resources.