USDA had a nice press release out yesterday about the importance of conserving crop diversity. The example used is the Russian wheat aphid threat to the United States back in 1986. But why do this just now? In preparation for the Third Session of the Governing Body of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture? But that’s two weeks away. Maybe for the International Day of Biodiversity? That’s still a week away, though. I don’t get it. I like it: the time is always right to bang on about plant genetic resources conservation. But I don’t get it.
Finnish genebank attacked
Something else to add to the long list of problems that can afflict field genebanks:
Hordes of moles have penetrated into the MTT Agrifood Research Finland plant gene bank in Laukaa during the winter.
A lot of damage was done to fruit tree saplings in particular. Fortunately, there is a back-up site, but not all material is safety duplicated. More protective measures are to be introduced. Also, there seems to be a lot of cryopreservation work going on at Laukaa, so maybe in time there will be an added level of protection. MTT Agrifood research have a nice pamphlet on Finnish agrobiodiversity and its conservation.
Agricultural biodiversity weblogger awarded prize
Our friend, colleague and occasional contributor Andy Jarvis has just won GBIF’s prestigious Ebbe Nielsen Prize for 2009 for “combining biosystematics and biodiversity informatics research in an exciting and novel way”. A lot of his work has been on the spatial analysis of the geographic distributions of crop wild relatives, with a view to developing strategies and priorities for their conservation, in particular in the context of climate change. A lot, but far from all: Andy is nothing if not versatile, and his interests extend to the whole of agrobiodiversity. A recent interview with Andy, and others, tries to answer the question “why maps?”. Congratulations to Andy!
US readies itself for Roquefort flood
The iniquitous 300% tariffs imposed by the last administration on Roquefort cheese are to go. The sterling campaigning efforts of the Société Roquefort have thus been deservedly rewarded. Good news for American cheese lovers. And Occitan shepherds. Let agrobiodiversity and its products be free!
What gives wine its taste
It’s good practice to throw garbage into your vineyard, apparently. Always has been. Don’t believe me? Read the article, watch the video.