May the seeds you've planted bring forth abundance in 2013!

Allocasuarina duncanii germinating on 1% Agar at the Tasmanian Seed Conservation Centre. Allocasuarina do not shed seeds but winged fruits called samara. These usually contain a single seed but occasionally you get two sprouting from a single fruit.

Allocasuarina duncanii twins by Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens on Flickr

what seeds have you planted for 2013?

I've been reflecting hugely on my work on the 'homage to the seed' project as 2012 came to an end and 2013 begins to unfold. Its a project of many parts really. First and foremost I draw, paint and make work out of the musing and research I do on seeds.

Ive been writing about this and weighing up my direction and projects within the project.  More on this in posts to come!

On a different tangent I've been following the Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog for some time, recently posting on their work. Scanning their blog tonight I found articles I wish to share... and this statement under "about" first-off.

"Separated by half a world but united by their passion for agricultural biodiversity and the internet, Luigi Guarino and Jeremy Cherfas decided to create a space that would allow them to indulge their passions and maybe do some good. This blog is it.

Our aim is to collect in one place anything we find on the internet that relates somehow to the notion of agricultural biodiversity (or agrobiodiversity, though we don’t particularly like the word), a big tent but one that the whole of humanity shelters beneath. If that helps others to find things of interest, so much the better."

I noted this new year's resolution at their blog:

New Year Resolution No. 8: Disengage from the whole are-GMOs-good-or-bad? thing. It’s the wrong question, and nobody is listening anyhow.

That took me to the Nature Education KNOWLEDGE PROJECT:

History of Agricultural Biotechnology: How Crop Development has Evolved

By: Wieczorek Ania (Dept of Tropical Plant and Soil Sciences, University of Hi at Manoa) & Wright Mark (Dept of Plant and Env Protection Sciences, University of Hi at Manoa) © 2012 Nature Education 

Citation: Wieczorek, A. M. & Wright, M. G. (2012) History of Agricultural Biotechnology: How Crop Development has Evolved. Nature Education Knowledge 3(10):9

Soil: The Foundation of Agriculture

By: Sanjai J. Parikh (Department of Land, Air and Water Resources, University of California, Davis) & Bruce R. James (Department of Environmental Science and Technology, University of Maryland, College Park.) © 2012 Nature Education 

Citation: Parikh, S. J. & James, B. R. (2012) Soil: The Foundation of Agriculture. Nature Education Knowledge 3(10):2

•  |  Lead Editor:  Sanjai J. Parikh

SOIL, AGRICULTURE, AND AGRICULTURAL BIOTECHNOLOGY

Sustainable Agriculture

By: Brodt Sonja (UC Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program and Agricultural Sustainability Institute), Six Johan (Department of Plant Sciences, UC), Feenstra Gail (UC Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program and Agricultural Sustainability Institute), Ingels Chuck (University of California Cooperative Extension, Sacramento County) & Campbell David (Department of Human and Community Development, UC) © 2011 Nature Education 

Citation: Brodt, S., Six, J., Feenstra, G., Ingels, C. & Campbell, D. (2011) Sustainable Agriculture. Nature Education Knowledge 3(10):1

There's some serious reading in those links... and important things to consider!

I'll finish with this pdf I put together from photos taken straight from the TV screening of David Attenborough's Kingdom of Plants in November last year of ABC TV. Its a 3-part series and during the final show there was a brief overview of the Kew Garden's Millennium Seedbank Partnership.

I was excited to see Attenborough tell the story of a plant I had been fascinated by in the greenhouse during my three week residency in 2011 onsite at the Seedbank. 

Also filmed was Wolfgang Stuppy who'd been my contact person at the MSB. As a seed morphologist he is often called on to talk about the work being done onsite and to explain the world of seeds.

New posts at my Visual Eclectica blog and Studio Archives blog refer to early 2013 plans... its off to a very busy start in terms of prep for an exhibition and other projects to come whilst also traversing a major life change involving selling a home and finding a new residence.

If I'm a bit absent from the blogs in the coming months you'll know why!

cheerio till next time!
Sophie

philanthropy ....but at what cost?

Some of you will have been reading about Africa and philanthropy for agricultural projects. Looks like the plots thickens...and it isn't good reading ...to my mind!

Photo by vredeseilanden, Creative Commons

The following article was written by an academic and agroecologist Eric Holt Gimenez and posted at Civil Eats. All articles at this site are available to share.

Paula Crossfield is the managing editor of Civil Eats. She is also a regular contributor to the Huffington Postand is a contributing producer at The Leonard Lopate Show on New York Public Radio where she focuses on food issues. An avid cook and gardener, she currently tends a vegetable garden on her roof in the Lower East Side. You can follow her on Twitter for the latest food policy news.

Paula is one of 40 + who contribute material to Civil eats.

Monsanto in Gates’ Clothing? The Emperor’s New GMOs

• FOOD POLICY

September 2nd, 2010  By Eric Holt Gimenez

If you had any doubts about where the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is really placing its bets, AGRA Watch’s recent announcement of the Foundation’s investment of $23.1 million in 500,000 shares of Monsanto stock should put them to rest. Genetic engineering: full speed ahead.
If you are one of those people who believes the axiom that Monsanto is the farmer’s friend (and the corollary, that its climate-ready, bio-fortified GMOs can save the world from hunger) you will not be surprised, disappointed, or find any conflict of interest in this investment.
But if you are part of the growing population who gets their information about GMOs fromscientists who are not beholden to corporate funding, has a problem with anti-trust issues, or is getting queasy about the increasing monopoly power of philanthropy capital… it’s time to say the Emperor has no clothes.
Under the guise of “sustainability” the Foundation has been spearheading a multi-billion dollar effort to transform African into a GMO-friendly continent. The public relations flagship for this effort is the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), a massive Green Revolution project. Up to now AGRA spokespeople have been slippery, and frankly, contradictory about their stance on GMOs.
The first Director of AGRA was Gary Toenniessen, a career program officer for Rockefeller Foundation. He said AGRA was not ruling out GMOs and if and when they were introduced it would be with all the appropriate “safeguards.” After AGRA was criticized for not having any Africans, Kofi Anan was named Chairman in 2007. He first said GMOs were out of the picture, the next day he recapitulated. Last Spring, Joe DeVries, who runs the AGRA seed program was asked by a Worldwatch blogger if they were engaging in genetic engineering. “Read our lips,” said Joe DeVries. “We are not promoting or funding research for GMOs (genetically modified organisms)…” In fact, in Kenya alone AGRA has used funds from the Gates Foundation to write grants for research in genetically modified agriculture. Nearly 80% of Gates’ funding in Kenya involves biotech and there have been over $100 million in grants to organizations connected to Monsanto. In 2008, some 30% of the Foundation’s agricultural development funds went to promoting or developing genetically modified seeds (See Ending Africa’s Hunger)..
More to the point is that–as Monsanto and Gates are fully aware–to establish a healthy GMO industry one first needs a strong conventional breeding program in place: labs, experiment stations, agronomists, extensionists, molecular biologists… and farmer’s seeds. All of which Gates, Rockefeller, Monsanto and AGRA are actively lining up.
They also need the power of U.S. government funding. That is where the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Casey-Lugar come in. USAID is now headed up by former Gates employee Rajiv Shah. The Casey-Lugar Global Food Security act ties foreign aid to GMOs. When the Gates Foundation places a bet, they like to hold all the cards.
Africa’s seeds are a potential windfall investment for Monsanto. Regardless of the philanthropic side of its intentions, cloaked in the sheep’s clothing of AGRA, the Gates Foundation is moving stealthily opening African seed market to global corporations. When the research, extension, and U.S. foreign aid is all in place Monsanto will swoop in for the feast.


The text is from CIVIL EATS and was written by:

Eric Holt Gimenez, Ph.D. is the Executive Director of Food First/Institute for Food and Development Policy. A university lecturer and agroecologist with 30 years experience in Latin America, Africa and Asia, he is the main author of a new book on the world food crisis: “Food Rebellions: Crisis and the Hunger for Justice” from Food First

By Richard Jonasse, Food First