Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog
Agrobiodiversity is crops, livestock, foodways, microbes, pollinators, wild relatives …
Regular readers will remember last year’s flap over the UK’s National Fruit Collection, which is looked after by the Brogdale Horticultural Trust and managed by the University of Reading at Brogdale, Kent. I won’t rehearse the details again, but suffice to say there was some doubt about the collection’s future. There’s now news from the …
One of the bits of news we missed while we were resting and relaxing as hard as we were: the UK’s collection of apples and other fruits is staying at Brogdale. This may strike you as no-news news. It isn’t. Long-standing readers will remember that the UK government put management of the site out to …
Yesterday was Apple Day in the UK. Started ages ago ((We don’t need no stinkin’ research.)) by Common Ground to draw attention to the diversity of apples and the threats to their existence, it has grown in a great bowlful of treats around this time. Of course, it’s a bit late now, but here’s a …
NB: Update here. We interrupt this blog for a public service announcement. The Indian Express is reporting a proposal by the government of Jharkand State in northeast India to bulldoze the field genebanks of the Horticulture and Agro Forestry Research Programme. More than 20 years of work and thousands of fruit varieties are set to …
Continue reading “Indian fruit genebank threatened by democracy”
I guess it’s the season. More apples today, again from both sides of the Atlantic. From Britain, an invitation to Apple Days at East Malling, a celebration which will feature the (troubled?) National Fruit Collection. ((Thanks to Danny for the tip.)) And from the Minneapolis-St Paul Star Tribune, more news of American apple breeding, featuring …