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Network to rescue livestock breeds in Europe

I continue to be amazed by what’s happening in livestock genetic resources conservation. There is a burgeoning network of in situ conservation sites in Europe, for example, which is more than can be said for crops, really. 1 I’m talking about the European Livestock Breeds Ark and Rescue Net (ELBARN). I particularly like the rescue element:

ELBARN aims to change the status quo by creating a network of existing Ark Farms, by encouraging the development of new ones and by enhancing the system with the missing element: capacity to rescue animals that are both Rare Breeds and face slaughter or other immediate dangers.

Guidelines are available on how to market these Ark & Rescue Centres. There’s a map of the locations of the centres under the Ark Network tab in the menu bar. There’s also a database of breeds on the website.

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Scientia pro publica

GrrlScientist launched Scientia pro Publica a couple of weeks ago, and yesterday saw the second edition. SPP, to save digits, is a carnival of general science blogging that goes some way to replacing Tangled Bank, which seems to have gone extinct in a burst of random inactivity. As its title proclaims, SPP is Science for the People, and as GrrlScientist, who I guess felt the lack of Tangled Bank more acutely than the rest of us slobs, says, it exists to celebrate and “to promote the value of communicating science, nature and medicine with the public”.

There’s not a whole heap of agricultural stuff in there, apart from our recent post on heirloom tomatoes. I’m not going to whinge about that, as I now realize that we’ve got your all day, every day carnival of agricultural biodiversity right here. That said, there are a couple of posts that interested me. There’s Kelsey’s post on what happens to cigarette butts, ideal fodder for quiet moments in an awkward conversation. And there’s Tim’s post on triage in conservation which — wouldn’t you know it? — has nary a word on agriculture or crop wild relatives. (Oh dear, I seem to have whinged.)

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Little cemetery on the prairie

Also in The Economist, news that a little patch of prairie has turned up in the middle of urban St Louis, Missouri. It’s in a graveyard in the north of the city.


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There could be some crop wild relatives in this 25-acre remnant, I suppose: wild sunflowers, maybe? No word on whether there are any bison there, or whether they will be re-introduced as part of the management plan, which at the moment involves controlled burning and weeding.