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Crowdsourcing money for Dutch heirloom pigs

Among the 2012 Arca-Deli® Awards for Prestige and Marketing Value (announced in October but only coming across my radar screen now, via Facebook), this one particularly caught my eye:

Extraordinary Pigs! 100’000 Euro raised through crowdfunding for rearing rare breed pigs in the Netherlands, producing good tasting pork and for increasing animal welfare. An innovative project which combines conservation of the old with modern methods. “Like” their Facebook page to keep up with their news or visit their website.

Alas, both seem to be exclusively in Dutch, which is a pity as I’d really like to know more about how they managed to raise all that cash.

LATER: And thanks to Twitter, here’s the secret revealed:

Thanks, @dsmnutrition!

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CIMMYT genebank ISO certified at last

The CIMMYT Maize and Wheat Germplasm Bank achieved ISO9001:2008 certification this week, after nearly two years of data gathering, intensive analysis, and assessment of processes and best practices. The ISO standards relate to quality management systems and are designed to help organizations ensure that they meet the needs of customers and other stakeholders, while meeting statutory and regulatory requirements. The CIMMYT Maize and Wheat Germplasm Bank is the first CGIAR germplasm bank to achieve ISO9001 certification, and is now one of only three genebanks globally to achieve certification (and the first outside of Europe). CIMMYT staff and areas involved in this certification included both the germplasm banks, human resources, purchasing, risk management, security, maintenance, and ICT departments. A special thanks is extended to Bibiana Espinosa and Paulina Gonzalez, both of whom sheparded the lengthy process to this noteworthy conclusion.

That’s from CIMMYT’s Informa newsletter, No. 1823, dated 23 November-7 December 2012. I got it as a pdf but have not been able to find it online. Maybe someone at CIMMYT can help me out. Anyway, congratulations to everyone at the genebank. Meanwhile, if you have strong ideas about ISO for genebanks, either way, you can leave them here.

LATER: And here is the online announcement.

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Compliments of the season

The movers are packing up my office as I type this, and I don’t know how long I have before the computer is taken away from me, so let me quickly link to the (2018 PDF of the) Storify thing I did for the crop wild relatives genomics meeting last week, and also say that blogging might be a bit slow this week from my part, and non-existent next week as I take some well-deserved vacat…

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Featured: Next generation sequencing

Luigi is using a page here to solicit comments on a document: Technical appraisal of strategic approaches to large-scale germplasm evaluation. And some of the commenters are less than enthralled. Here’s Major Goodman:

[T]he glaring failure here is not running almost any of these ideas past private plant breeders who have tried to make use of these technologies, mostly to no avail. Nor do I see input from folks who have tried to maintain and study germplasm accessions, who could at least comment on some of the fieldwork feasibility. This seems to be an in-house, pat yourself on the back effort by and for NGS-enthralled scientists. In fact, I see almost no input by any real plant breeder or germplasm expert.

Will that stop the project dead? Let us know what you think.

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Help researchers get their priorities right

Would you like to influence the future direction of research on roots, tubers and bananas? Course you would. And now you can, thanks to a priority setting exercise being carried out by the CGIAR Research Program on Roots, Tubers and Bananas. The ProMusa website has the full details: researchers

are … looking beyond yields to estimate the impact on poverty, health, gender equity and environmental sustainability.

It starts with mapping to locate the places where “research has the greatest potential to alleviate poverty and increase food security”.

The top constraints in these target areas will then be matched with research options. The impact, over the next 20 years, of these research options will be assessed using different methods, depending on the indicator, and the findings will be used to guide research investment decisions.

So now you know, and you have no excuse.

If your interest is bananas and plantains, then head on over to the ProMusa page that will guide you to a survey in English, French and Spanish. For other crops – but inexplicably not bananas nor the “minor” roots and tubers – the RTB website is the place to go.

Anyone for taro?