Agrobiodiversity is crops, livestock, foodways, microbes, pollinators, wild relatives …
Some great photos of the Genetic Resources Centre Annual Field Day over on IRRI’s Flickr site. IRRI’s breeders are invited to visit the genebank’s seed multiplication plots every year, to see if anything grabs their eye. The chessboard effect is due to sowing early and late varieties in an alternating pattern. I’m assured the contrast “is becoming more pronounced each year as the supporting data improve.” See for yourself by comparing with previous years.
Speaking of Amanda, she also recently went on the Living with the Land boat ride at the Epcot theme park at Walt Disney World in Florida.
A relaxing 13-minute boat ride takes you on an informative journey through a tropical rain forest, an African desert complete with sandstorm, and the windswept plains of a small, turn-of-the-century family farm. Guests experience the struggles of the past and plans for farming in the future including Hydroponics, Aeroponics and Aquaculture. It’s not just about fruits and veggies, fish farms are on display. Since The Land is a Disney restaurant supplier, You could very well be seeing your entree. Wonder where those Mickey shaped cucumbers in your salad came from? This is where they’re grown. The educational content on this ride is geared more towards adults, but younger guests will love the boat ride and spotting the different fruits and vegetables.
Very educational, I’m sure. Anyway, this photo of hers featuring Okinawa Spinach caught my eye, even more than the Mickey shaped cucumbers, because I’d never heard of the stuff. Turns out to be Gynura bicolor, and to have really few accessions in the world’s genebanks. I wonder why Disney World picked on it in preference to any number of better known Asian vegetables. And whether they sell seeds in the gift shop. But it’s certainly one way to stimulate interest in a neglected species.
Many thanks to my colleague Amanda Dobson for this photo (click to embiggen) from the DDR Museum in Berlin. Sometimes one prefers a little less agricultural biodiversity in one’s food — and beverages — doesn’t one?
Probably the biggest cassava you’ve ever seen, weighing in at about 80 kg. No word on what variety it is, alas, nor how long it was in the ground for.
Roel Hoekstra reacts to our suggestion that CGN may want to consider changing the taxonomic determination of a potato accession in its genebank:
In general gene banks should be conservative in renaming accessions and not follow the latest publication, unless there is a clear misclassification … The suggestion on this Weblog, that CGN should rename accessions CGN18108 (from ARG) into S. venturii should probably include all okadae’s from ARG. However, taxonomy is a sensitive issue. So far, CGN was reluctant to rename okadae accessions, in particular as long as Sturgeon Bay does not rename them. Too much renaming may confuse/annoy the users of the germplasm. The discussion on this Weblog at least triggers to take a look into the available data again. Personally, I would not be surprised to once find these two species reunited again.
That ellipsis stands for a pretty lucid summary of the nomenclatural history of the two species involved, very much worth reading in full. Thoughts?