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Trouble in Lima?

Is there a Pavlovsk situation brewing in Lima? 1 The Sindicato Único de Trabajadores del Instituto Nacional de Innovación Agraria, which is the labour union representing workers at the national agricultural research institute (INIA), which has its headquarters at La Molina, a suburb of Lima, certainly think so. In an article entitled “Ministry of Agriculture wants to convert 30 thousand square metres of orchards into offices” featuring copies of allegedly relevant documents and even a video, the union suggests that the orchards in question are in fact genebanks, collections of mango, avocado and chirimoya.

Bancos-de-germoplasma-INIAThat would certainly be bad. But is it true? It does seem to be true that the ministry wants to build additional offices on its land in La Molina, and that the land in question holds fruit trees. But are the trees part of a genetic resources collection? That is not so clear. WIEWS confirms that Peru does indeed have multiple collections of mango, avocado and chirimoya, but none of them seems to be on INIA land in La Molina. Admittedly, collections are recorded from La Molina for two of those fruits, but they appear to be on the property of the nearby agricultural university, not INIA. The other collections are in other research stations in different parts of the country.

Of course, the information in WIEWS may be out of date. Discreet enquiries with sources in a position to know suggest that the unions may well be overstating their case, but I have been unable to find an official response from INIA. Meanwhile, the institute is busy setting up more genebanks. No, not in La Molina.

If anyone out there can help us get to the bottom of this, let us know. But while we’re on the subject of fruit tree collections, let me link to what I believe is a new(ish) version of the website of the National Fruit Collection of the U.K., which includes a handy database. You may remember that this collection, at Brogdale, also went through a period of uncertainty. Let us hope that the INIA collection, if indeed it is a collection, emerges from its vicissitudes as strongly as Brogdale has.

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Catching up on all those conferences

A mania for completeness compels me to take note here of two conferences about which we found out way too late. Various stars of the food security firmament met at the First International Conference on Global Food Security, 29 Sept-2 Oct at Noordwijkerhout, The Netherlands. Note for example the presence among keynote speakers of our old pal Jess Fanzo. David Tilman, a diversity guru we have quoted here on occasion, was also in attendance. Meanwhile, over in Oxford, U.K. there was Biosymposium 2013 on 2-3 October, this year with a focus on biodiversity and resilience. Much less of direct interest to us here, apart from the contribution of another old pal, Ehsan Dulloo of Bioversity, tucked away in Session 2. If any of our readers were at either conference, and would like to share their impressions as they relate to agricultural biodiversity, I would hope by now they know what to do.

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Featured: Seed rights

Matthew Dillon, of Seed Matters, starts off gently enough on the subject of saving seeds …

It’s very difficult to tell a complex story to a non-professional audience. I think the question is: is it better to tell a story that lacks nuance and deep facts in order to initiate conversation that might lead to a public more informed on ag policy, or is it better to not tell the story at all and let the same group of professional/advocates be the only ones in the conversation?

But then he sticks the boot in, a splendid sight to behold. So behold it.

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Featured: Cool potatoes

Isabel, possibly wearing a hat marked Policymaker, has this to say about sacred values:

I love Agata, the potato with French accent. In my view, the potatos represent a pretty accurate picture of a major part of the reality in Europe. Olivia, the farmer, doesn’t.

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Facts are not sacred; values are

Scientists, especially young fire-in-the-belly scientists but also many who have grown old making a living at it, are often convinced that if only people understood (or believed?) as they do, those people would come to the “correct” decisions. I know, I was one myself for a long time. Now, Jonathan Swift and Upton Sinclair are my guys. 2 Increasingly, though, it is surely becoming clear that facts alone change few minds. Last week’s New Scientist carried an editorial to that effect, about climate change. Adam Corner wrote:

How did the rational arguments of science and economics fail to win the day? There are many reasons, but an important one concerns human nature.

Through a growing body of psychological research, we know that scaring or shaming people into sustainable behaviour is likely to backfire. We know that it is difficult to overcome the psychological distance between the concept of climate change – not here, not now – and people’s everyday lives. We know that beliefs about the climate are influenced by extreme and even daily weather.

What has that to do with me here? Consider this video (and do, please, watch it through):

To me it is utterly charming; amusing, entertaining, well-executed, high-quality. It pushes all the right buttons. Never mind that a farmer growing spuds for The Man is unlikely to have a Big Red Barn or chickens clucking in the farmyard. It is clearly OUTRAGEOUS that she is not allowed to save her own potato propagating material, or “seeds” as our scientific friends might say. And I’m pretty sure that is how it will be seen, and welcomed, by everybody whose confirmation biases it confirms.

Like me, wearing my hat labelled Communicator.

And hated by everyone wearing a Scientist or Policymaker or Seed Industry hat. And me, wearing my other hats.

There is plenty that I could say about both the content and the assumptions on which that charming film is built, but it would be folly. There is also plenty I could say to the Scientists and Policymakers and Seed Industrialists about making their own case, and that would probably be folly too.

So I’m looking forward to your comments.