Art in support of crop preservation at the Global Crop Diversity Trust

When the Global Crop Diversity Trust approached me late last year about using an image of one of my seed artworks for their Festive Season greeting card I was delighted to share an image. This Not-for-profit organisation's role is so central in the global preservation of seeds for food ... they partner on critical projects with Govts, foundations and Institutions such as the Millennium Seedbank at Kew Garden's West Sussex site where I spent a fascinating 3 weeks on residency in 2011. 

This image was used on the card and last week included in the Annual Report of the Crop Trust.

I've followed their work since late 2010... gaining a considerable education by reading the Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog by Luigi Guarino & Jeremy Cherfas where they discuss the diversity of crops, livestock, microbes and food ways. Their blog was a launch-pad to all kinds of information in this vast realm... so it was a cross-roads ... a place to learn of the broadest spectrum of issues around this central theme.

Since launching the Homage to the Seed project in 2010 I've pursued both Agricultural Biodiversity and Habitat Biodiversity in equal measure ... covering seed stories from remote, pristine habitats to what's on our tables and everything in between. Ive realised how unusual this approach is from the fact some attack me now and then over the fact I don't take one single view of seeds and stay neatly in that niche.

I learnt in the first year into this project how easy it was to be misinformed. I posted something here

that brought massive attention from people, bloggers I'd never heard of... so that was the last time I ever posted a story that I had no background or context for.

Even when I did post that controversial story I'd written to a number of individuals asking if they'd heard the story... so it wasn't that I'd been completely naive. I was very grateful for that incident because it gave me the conviction to dig much deeper with my own research and track stories over a long time to see what could be learned in the attempt to sort fact from fiction.  

Last week's ANNUAL REPORT from the Crop Trust featured my artwork on Page 21 

http://www.croptrust.org/sites/default/files/documents/files/Annual%20Report%202013_Desktop.pdf

To read about a 4 min video the Crop Trust made on my work go to my Studio Archive Blog : 

http://sophiemunnsstudio.blogspot.com.au/2014/01/video-homage-to-seed-crop-trust-and.html

I'll close with this piece I added to the post sharing the Annual Report Story on my Facebook page. After the two paragraph overview I'd added some personal thoughts... however ... this morning it occurred to me it was better to post the additional part on this blog so moved that content to this forum. 

Time permitting,  read on:

Thank you to the Global Crop Diversity Trust in Bonn, Germany for featuring Homage to the seed artwork in their visually stunning and informative Annual Report :http://www.croptrust.org/sites/default/files/documents/files/Annual%20Report%202013_Desktop.pdf

This important Not-for-profit was set up in 2004 to help create a global system for the conservation and availability of crop diversity. At this FB page I focus frequently on inspiring work happening to counter Biodiversity loss or gene erosion thus supporting every kind of SMALL LOCAL INITIATIVE as well as STATE + NATIONAL organisations contributing to the increasingly critical task of safe-guarding and preserving seeds and with them food cultures, natural resources and eco-systems.

I've added some personal notes below for you to read, time permitting! 

In the past 5 years I've researched + connected with some key International initiatives and hard-working individuals through my growing understanding of the complex layers of work going on around seeds. 

Profoundly impressed at the diligence and passion many bring to this work... every residency I undertake only serves to strengthen the belief I'm meeting fine people who's commitment extends far beyond self-interest and feathering of nests .... whether they be volunteers at a local habitat nursery or community garden, educators or scientists at esteemed Institutions. 

Passion is powerful YET when research and knowledge are ignored one-track thinking can + does close down crucial public discourse and everyday conversations. 

My third day on recent PLANTBANK residency at the Australian Botanic Garden Mount Annan I received an email on my iPhone from a stranger attacking me for accepting money from transnational corporation Syngenta and a host of other sins. 

NOT HAPPY on this occasion for a number of reasons it wasn't the first and won't be the last foolish email or comment aimed at me... but given my funding comes through patronage of an octogenarian mother who grew up on a farm and understands the importance of this project and a wonderful array of art collectors, academics, schools and organisations who approach me with freelance work I was not amused. A large part of my year I see no income as I am simply way too busy producing content and researching to run an online shop or monetise my solo work. I ADORE the people who support my project... support that includes FB likes, comments and shares, Art sales and work offers... it all counts and I never take it for granted. But no ... Syngenta has not put me on their payroll! 

Its simply NOT GOOD ENOUGH to fail to look more deeply. Asking deeper, broader questions is not just polite but its critical! 

I've spent 5 years digging into the questions around seeds and started to realise in 2011 what the general public misses about seeds is extraordinary. One story is discussed ... do I have to mention which story? That is an important story but after 4 years evaluating all that I've been coming across the story of Biodiversity and gene loss is still so ignored, so remote from most people ... yet i'm convinced the biggest risk to the Global Seed inheritance is what is not understood about how species are lost and what small and big things we can do about it. 

What if it wasn't a company that was failing to take care of plant species but our own actions? A story from a fascinating old hippy in Vermont got me thinking. Despite being infamous in the US for his personal seed-saving mission and alternative methods he feels its the easiest thing in the world for people to blame Monsanto and puts genetic erosion down to sometime back in the early C20th when individuals began outsourcing for seeds creating a vacuum that left it to the vagaries of the market-place to supply seeds.

I'm sure that could be argued over endlessly ... but I'm convinced that this the work and knowledge on stalling species loss must be shared ... and it will take effort and initiative at every level of community very much including agencies like the Global Crop Diversity Trust who store the seeds of the country or organisation for that very same country and organisation. What Australia sends to Svarlbad in the Arctic Circle remains the property of the Australian Govt. When the Syrian Genebank was disrupted by war a couple of years ago seed material was sent to Svarlbad and the operation moved to a nearby country. Already extreme weather events have destroyed gene banks around the planet. If you don't know about these matters I urge you to read websites like http://www.croptrust.org/, http://www.seedpartnership.org.au/, http://www.plantbank.org.au/ to name a few!

Australian contributions to the Svarlbad Global Seed Vault

Today I am sharing a story directly from the blog of the Global Crop Diversity Trust. Recently I was pleased to connect with them and participate in a video made by them on Seed Diversity and Homage to the Seed. Click on the image on the top RHS of the sidebar to watch the video!

 Last week they brought out a wonderful new video which is posted at the previous blog post.

And now I am posting this article which involves the Australian partnership found here to share with you... will check I have permission from the Crop Trust to do that right now.

Its well worth a read...

cheers,

Sophie

NEW AUSTRALIAN SEED DEPOSIT

Indigenous crop wild relatives, brassica, oats among seeds that find safe haven in Svalbard Global Seed Vault

It is cold and white outside. The wind blows snowflakes sideways. But the members of the Australian delegation happily brave the weather. On this February 26, 2014 afternoon, they are far from home, at the other end of the globe, 1300 km north of the Artic Circle. They have come to Longyearbyen, Norway, to personally make the latest Australian seed deposit into the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. And with the fail-safe back-up facility as a backdrop, they stand and smile for the cameras. This is a historic moment – for them, for Australia, and the world.

"These seeds could one day hold the key to boosting productivity or solving the challenges of drought, frost and disease," saysAustralian Grains Genebank (AGG) leader Sally Norton.

She is now inside the Vault, wearing the obligatory blue hardhat. She stands behind 16 blue boxes -- Australia’s largest deposit yet, brought from the AGG base in Horsham, western Victoria, and from the Australian Pastures Genebank in Adelaide, South Australia.

Accompanying Dr. Norton are AGG Curator Bob Redden, Australian Pastures Genebank Curator Steve Hughes and Victorian farmer and the Crawford Fund board member Tony Gregson, among others.

Joining them is former Deputy Prime Minister Tim Fischer, who currently is Vice-Chair of the Executive Board of the Crop Trust. Mr. Fischer has personally contributed to the seed collections being deposited today. Ventura wheat and Graza oat seeds come from his farm and have been sealed and saved inside blue box #10, which he personally places inside the cold storage unit that houses more than 820,000 safety duplicates of seeds from all over the world. 

Dr. Norton and the other members of the delegation place the remaining boxes in the cold room shelves. They then separate in small groups and silently walk the long halls that are filled, floor to ceiling, with boxes.

“Seeds from Korea, Canada, Peru, Germany, Mexico – the largest collection of crop diversity from across the globe is safeguarded here,” says Mr. Fischer, who assures his compatriots that "the work carried out by the Global Crop Diversity Trust is vital for food security. In times of climatic chaos, the world needs seed diversity and seed security more than ever before.”

Adding to this diversity, the present shipment includes Australian indigenous wild seed samples, says Dr. Norton.

“Relatives of sorghum, rice and beans were included, along with the canola, oats, lupins and both temperate and tropical pastures.” She further explains “as Australia is a net importer of crop species, this represents the first deposit of truly Australian indigenous seed material, and is a valuable resource for global food production".

After a few minutes, the delegation exits the storage unit and slowly makes it s way up the long tunnel that six years ago was carved out of one of the many mountains in Svalbard to create the Vault.  

Outside the wind is still. Night has fallen. And the Australian shipment has reached its final destination. It is also the last the 20,000+ samples originating from over 100 countries that were deposited in the Vault this past February.

AUSTRALIA: EARLY SUPPORTER OF THE CROP TRUST

The Global Crop Diversity Trust works with partners around the world to ensure the conservation and availability of crop diversity for global food security. In 2003 funding from the Australian Government and the Grains Research and Development Corporation helped support the Crop Trust Endowment Fund.

“We have been successful in raising $170 million for the endowment so far”, says Marie Haga, Executive Director of the Crop Trust. “It is a good beginning, but we need roughly three times as much to safeguard the world’s major collections forever.”

AUSTRALIA – HOME TO COUNTLESS CROP WILD RELATIVES

Though it is relatively close to the Siam-Malaya-Javan region, home to crops such as banana, sugar cane, coconut, breadfruit and mangosteen, Australia has no native crops aside from Macadamia nut. All other foods grown there originally came from elsewhere. Wheat is a good example: with more than 29 millions tons produced in 2012, Australia is one of the world’s largest producers, but the crop was domesticated in the Middle East. The same concept is true for all of Australia’s most important crops, including barley, sugar cane, rapeseed, cotton, sorghum, grapes, and potatoes.

It therefore may be surprising to realize that Australia contains a wealth of wild relatives of a number of important crops. “Cousins” to the major foods we eat, crop wild relatives contain a diversity of important traits for disease resistance and yield improvement, and may provide critical contributions to breeding for adaptation to climate change.

The crop wild relatives of Australia include over 150 taxa related to more than 10 crops of major significance -- from the world's most important oil crop (soybean), and one of the world's most important cereals (rice), to crops of major importance for food security in Sub-Saharan Africa (sorghum) and South Asia (pigeon pea).

In Australia, the greatest wealth of these wild genetic resources occurs in the northern, tropical region, from Western Australia, Northern Territory, and Queensland. And although crop wild relatives are found in all states, this northern region is also where the highest priorities for further collecting are to be found.

Australia has a high number of priority species that still need to be collected.  The map above shows hotspots for collecting needs for crop wild relatives in Australia that are in the greatest need of collecting.

Some of these crop wild relatives have already served as important donors of traits for crop improvement, such as wild riceOryza rufipogon, which has proved extremely important to rice for traits such as pest and disease resistance. Others await discovery of their particular value for crop breeding.

Included in the 16 boxes that were recently deposited in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault are indigenous Australian native plants. “Australia's first contribution to the global genepool of genetic resources being truly Australian material”, says Australian Grains Genebank (AGG) leader Sally Norton.

This is a major step for Australia in the conservation of wild relatives, which will undoubtedly influence the future of the country’s – and the world’s – agriculture.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

The International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) has carried out a gap analysis that helps prioritize the species and locations of crop wild relatives that are in most need of collection. 
The work is part of a project led by the Global Crop Diversity Trust in partnership with the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and is supported by the Government of Norway. This 10-year project focuses on the wild species in the genepools of 26 crops of major importance to food security that fall under Annex 1 of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture.

• Developed under the project “Adapting Agriculture to Climate Change: Collecting, Protecting, and Preparing Crop Wild Relatives” and building upon its activities, the Crop Wild Relatives website is dedicated to compiling and providing information on the taxonomy, distribution, conservation status and breeding potential of the wild relatives of major crops.
• A “Prioritized crop wild relative inventory to help underpin global food security” was published last October in Biological Conservation. The study brings together critical primary information on crop wild relatives’ species identities—distributions and relatedness information— on a global scale in order to inform conservation efforts.

For More Information on Australia’s work on the conservation of crop diversity:

SARDI

Crawford Fund

Crawford Fund on Crop Diversity

ABC News Story on Australian Deposit

Looking at things from all angles... and a NEW VIDEO!

The other day I was handed this small branch with a cluster of pods at its head. Passed on by a friend of my mother's to me there was no name offered and I was simply told it had yellow flowers and grew at her house. 

Tonight I thought I might draw it but when picking it up, the seeds kept on falling out. That distracted me somewhat so I took out my i-phone to see if I could take some shots that might prove helpful to draw from. As the results from the iPhone are so variable I was unsure if I'd get what I wanted.

 

Too yellow... too unclear... too rough... too everything really!

I persisted in order to see the seeds from various angles and appreciate both the form of the pods and the seeds.

This one was quite natural in appearance

Trying to get closer was hard.

Some of the shapes really appealed as I looked closer.

Tonal qualities accentuated

Closer

I liked the seeds in this one

Photos taken under a light

I'll come back and draw these this week.

A poor image looked slightly better in black and white.

This colour was quite true to life really.

Textural pods on the lower half of this one

were in high contrast to this one above

seeds

interesting to see the details in form... at first glance they seem all the same

I'd like to see these under a microscope

back to the pods

pods via Instagram

Close up of seed capsule and pods after photo-shop.

Last week a video of my artwork with audio of recorded thoughts about the Homage to the Seed project was released and I've written about it at my STUDIO blog and added links to related sites. This was the result of a collaboration with a leading Seed Not-for-profit organisation in Germany.

TO WATCH THE VIDEO CLICK ON THE HYPER-

LINKED TEXT UNDER THE LOGO/IMAGE

CLICK HERE:    VIDEO _ HOMAGE TO THE SEED

Click and watch this 3 minute video of Cary Fowler discussing one of the Global Crop Diversity Trust's key partnership projects in Norway ... the well-known Seed Vault at Svarlbard in the Arctic Circle.

                                      

Cary Fowler talks about the Svarlbard Seed Vault in Norway

Wishing all a very good week!
Sophie

'Perennial Symbols of the Botanical Realm I'

This artwork 'Perennial Symbols of the Botanical Realm I', 60 x 120 cm, was originally a Dyptich and began its life in the studio I occupied in Paddington in the second half of 2010. 

After a few days of working on this painting following Xmas, 2010 a full month of intense, drenching rains led to the first major flooding Brisbane had seen in decades. Although the studio was high up on a hilly ridge it was a bit wet when I returned to find how things were. All was fine though. During the flood I was forced to stay put at home in Clayfield. Roads had been cut off everywhere so it didn't even bear thinking about trying to get in to the studio to work. Most of Queensland had gone under water, flooding had devastated some areas and loss of life was serious.

As I'd grown up in a river town in Northern NSW flooding brought back stark memories. Summer was swallowed up by rains and grey skies and difficult stories of how it had been for others. This painting languished for a couple of weeks and I moved out of the studio soon after. It was months later I started work on it again... but in my small studio at home it was a bit crowded working on such a large canvas and I never was sure where this was going.

Getting started at the Paddington Studio... painting on the right

was a Dyptich that eventually evolved into something complete.

For ages there was something very heavy, very stuck 

 about this work ... I was unable to lighten it up in any way.

to say I worked and reworked this canvas is an understatement.

And yet...

... this other work in the blue green palette never presented 

that problem and instead, just came gradually to life! 

If you look at this section of the finished artwork below you'll note I was eventually able to find a way into this work but not before I took a paintbrush to it and radically altered it by whiting over areas of the painting in order to start building up colour dynamics and layers from scratch again.

This time around the eye had space to rest and areas of the work acted like pathways, breathing spaces between intense sections of colour and pattern.

Here is a small section which highlights the interplay of colour and form, patterns and motif.

Recently I put this work in my Online Shop as a print... making the image above this one available as an archival Limited Edition print. 

The original artwork was shown as two separate artworks at my February Exhibition and both works sold on Opening night which was interesting given I'd separated them. The owner of this work kindly indulged me when I decided I needed to tinker slightly with the work before she collected it after the exhibition was over. I'm very glad for that extra bit of time to add some layering after I'd had the chance during the exhibition to ponder the work. When I finally parted with it I felt it was fine... even if it took a little over two years.

Given that rather involved story its been interesting to find this work being chosen ( a section of the work that is) for use on a christmas card for an organisation based in Bonn, in Germany.

The organisation's agenda happens aligns surprisingly well with the artwork's essential message... referring as it does to the perpetual cycles of the Seed inheritance from around the globe, through layers and laters of small seed forms. 

The Global Crop Diversity Trust is 'an independent international organization working to guarantee the conservation of crop diversity. Forever.' 

This excerpt below is quoted directly from their page WHO ARE WE?

Crop diversity is one of the world’s least recognized but most valuable resources.  Individual crop varieties, such as the 200,000 varieties of wheat, have different traits for drought or heat tolerance, nutritional quality, disease resistance and every other possible characteristic. 

Crop diversity is therefore the raw material for improving and adapting crops to meet all future challenges.  Yet at the moment much of the world’s crop diversity is neither safely conserved, nor readily available to scientists and farmers who rely on it to safeguard agricultural productivity.  Diversity is being lost, and with it the biological basis of our food supply.

The Global Crop Diversity Trust is the only worldwide response to this funding crisis.  In a world where there are many important, and apparently overwhelming, issues demanding attention, it is important to note how the Trust differs from other organizations competing for donations

Its mission is achievable. It is rare that the world faces a major problem which has highly disturbing implications but an identifiable and achievable solution. This is preciselywhat the Trust offers; a costed, measurable plan, relying on existing institutions and simple proven technologies.

It is the only solution. Crop diversity is disappearing, and the Trust is the sole dedicated worldwide funding organization for its conservation. The Trust itself is operating in a unique political "window of opportunity", following the entering into force of the new International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources, and has partnered with all the important organisations in this field. The Trust offers a unique opportunity to put in place a rational and cost-effective system for the conservation of the resources which underpin all agriculture and the world's future food supplies.

This is one of the organisations I began visiting online as I researched for the residency at Mt Coot-tha in 2010. Investigating Biodiversity initially was through the website of the UN International Year of Biodiversity in 2010 and also  Kew Gardens and the Millennium Seedbank. This had been a springboard to Bioversity International and the Global Crop Diversity Trust.

Hence, I've posted frequently here at this blog on these organisations. You might to read their website to consider the work being carried out in connection with numerous countries, organisations and individuals. My Scoop-it site Bio-cultural Diversity when I get time is one of the places where I get feeds from the Crop Trust. 

I've often rescooped posts by Luigi Guarino, senior scientist at the Crop Trust. Click to visit his sites.

Luigi Guarino

Luigi Guarino & Jeremy Cherfas discuss the diversity of crops, livestock, microbes and foodways at the Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog... and here.

I was contacted by Luis Salazar from Bonn who arranged for this Xmas card to feature my work and a follow up later in January with promo on the Homage to the Seed Project.

I'm very pleased to have been able to share this work with this very unique and fascinating Not-for-Profit organisation, especially knowing the enormous value  of the work they do and are connected with. I've often started my day trawling through sites like their website, Luigi's Scoops or similar. Before I'm up and into the day I've often spent two hours reading current news from around the world on seeds, biodiversity and so on. Its a pattern that has become somewhat fixed over several years now.

I used to trawl art and design websites most days when I could, and spend hours blogging per week. But as the climate shifts and life on this globe of ours is ever more pressured I find it is of utmost relevance to have a sense of where I am, and where we all are, through these stories. 

My language remains very visual although I'm prompter at times to need to write.  I paint for intense periods when I can. However, the painting is very often a meditation... a stilling of the mind as all the reading and thinking settles into a place where I can feel my response and make choices about how to proceed and think my way to the next thing.

Its late now but I did want to make this post tonight so I can share it as this year is winding down fast. My intern Jane, a 17 yr old student is coming in the morning. I haven't packed to go up the range on Boxing day for 5 days of painting in the Springbrook National Park. Xmas day I guess I can do that. 

This painting of Perennial Symbols which started in the big rains of late 2010 into 2011 is alive and well in spirit. Now more than ever it seems we must find ways to celebrate our natural heritage and care for it. Our way may not be the same as another's. And perhaps conversations are a really good starting point.

During the last five years of this project on seeds I've had to deal with moments of interrogation or angry monologues from the odd person who needed to point out to me that Scientists were evil and why was I working with them ... and Seed banks were very evil. At first I wondered what they knew that I didn't. I was prepared to admit my knowledge was poor. In the end I realised that if it wasn't a two way, mutual conversation they maybe didn't know terribly much ...  but neither did they seem to have the desire to be open or learn either.

Don't forget ... you can enter my intern Sam's Competition Survey. I will draw the winner on my return at New years... so get your answers in! Its the previous post where she wrote about entering the survey.

Best wishes to all for a very peaceful festive season, wherever you are.

Sophie

A Global timeline for agricultural developments

Its been fascinating over the past few years working on this Homage to the Seed project how many times I've seen disputed the origins of agriculture. Perhaps its fair to say that new data is being found all the time and also methods of checking data have become profoundly more accurate ... plus the global sharing of information is also likely to contribute significantly.

wheat

Despite the fact that this Wiki information below comes with a disclaimer suggesting they are quite aware of flaws in their documentation of this material I am nevertheless posting it here as a considerably worthwhile way to look into this subject ... a subject now constantly in the news.

Threshing; Tacuinum Sanitatis, 14th century.

Use of winnowing forks

Wiki: Overview map of the ancient Near East
.... early sites for domestication of grain.

Timeline of agriculture and food technology

Neolithic Revolution

• 12,000 BC – Neolithic Revolution, the first agricultural revolution, begins in the ancient Near East
• 12,000 BC – Natufians in the Levant begin harvesting wild grasses.
• 9800 BC – Earliest evidence for domesticated wheat at PPNA sites in the Levant.
• 8500 BC – PPNB sites across the Fertile Crescent growing domestic wheat, barley, chickpeas, peas, beans, flax and bitter vetch. Sheep and goatdomesticated.
• 7000 BC – agriculture had reached southern Europe with evidence of emmer and einkorn wheat, barley, sheep, goats, and pigs suggest that a food producing economy is adopted in Greece and the Aegean.
• 7000 BC – Cultivation of wheat, sesame, barley, and eggplant in Mehrgarh (Pakistan÷÷÷).
• 7000 BC – Domestication of cattle and chicken in Mehrgarh, Pakistan.
• 6800 BC – Rice domesticated in southeast Asia.
• 6500 BC – Evidence of cattle domestication in Turkey.^{[citation needed]} Some sources say this happened earlier in other parts of the world.
• 6000 BC Archaeological evidence from various sites on the Iberian peninsula suggest the domestication of plants and animals.
• 6000 BC – Granary built in Mehrgarh for storage of excess food.
• 5500 BC^{[citation needed]} Céide Fields in Ireland are the oldest known field systems in the world, this landscape consists of extensive tracts of land enclosed by brick walls.^[1]
• 5000 BC – Domestication of the horse in Ukraine.^{[citation needed]}
• 4000 BC – In Mehrgarh, the domestication of numerous crops, including peas, sesame seeds, dates, and cotton, as well as a wide range of domestic animals, including the Domestic Asian Water Buffalo, an animal that remains essential to intensive agricultural production throughout Asia today.
• 4000 BC – Egyptians discover how to make bread using yeast
• 4000 BC – Evidence for rice domestication in the Korat plateau area of northwestern Thailand.^{[citation needed]}
• 4000 BC – First use of light wooden ploughs in Mesopotamia (Modern day Iraq)
• 3500 BC – Irrigation was being used in Mesopotamia (Modern day Iraq)
• 3500 BC – First agriculture in the Americas, around Central Amazonia or Ecuador
• 3000 BC – Turmeric, cardamom, pepper and mustard are harvested in the Indus Valley Civilization.
• 3000 BC – Fermentation of dough, grain, and fruit juices is in practice.
• 3000 BC – Sugar produced in India

[edit]Antiquity

• 2600 BC – Large scale commercial timbering of cedars in Phoenicia (Lebanon) for export to Egypt and Sumeria. Similar commercial timbering in South India.
• 1700 BC – Wind powered machine developed by Babylonians
• 1300 BC – Creation of canal linking the Nile delta to the Red Sea
• 691 BC – First aqueduct (approx. 50 miles long) constructed to bring water to Nineveh.
• 530 BC – Tunnel of Eupalinos first underground aqueduct
• 500 BC – The moldboard iron plough is invented in China
• 500 BC – Row cultivation of crops using intensive hoeing to weed and conserve moisture practised in China
• 300 BC – Efficient trace harness for plowing invented in China
• 200 BC – Efficient collar harness for plowing invented in China
• 100 BC – Rotary winnowing fan invented in China
• 100 BC – The multi-tube seed drill is invented in China
• AD 200 – The fishing reel invented in China
• 600 – The distillation of alcohol in China
• 607 – The Chinese begin constructing a massive canal system to connect the Yellow and Yangtze rivers

[edit]Arab Agricultural Revolution

This section's factual accuracy is disputed. (June 2010)

• 644 – Muslim inventors develop a windmill, used to pump water for irrigation;^[2][3] this is a more advanced wind powered machine than that developed by theBabylonians
• 8th century – Arab Agricultural Revolution begins in the rapidly-expanding Arab Empire
• 800 – Arabic chemists produce purified water^[4]
• 800 – Alcohol (ethanol) as a pure compound is distilled by Arabic chemists such as Jābir ibn Hayyān and Alkindus^[5]
• 850 – Use of coffee is known in Arabia
• 900 – First wind powered gristmills built in present-day Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran^[6]
• 900 – Geared gristmills with trip hammers developed in the Arab Empire^[7]
• 900 – First sugar refineries, driven by both water mills and windmills, invented in present-day Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran^[6]
• 1000 – Sherbet, the first juiced and carbonated soft drink, is developed by Arabic chemists.^[8][9]
• 1000 – Cash cropping^[10] and a crop rotation system in which land was cropped four or more times in a two-year period is introduced in the Arab Empire^[11]
• 1000 – The Arab Empire introduced agricultural innovations such as new forms of land tenure, improvements in irrigation, a variety of sophisticated irrigation methods,^[12] the introduction of fertilizers and widespread artificial irrigation systems, the development of gravity-flow irrigation systems from rivers andsprings,^[13] the use of noria and chain pumps for irrigation purposes^{[citation needed]}, the establishment of the sugar cane industry in the Mediterranean, andexperimentation in sugar cultivation^[14]
• 1000 – Earliest factory milling installations built in Baghdad, Iraq^[15]
• 1000 – Milling dam (Pul-i-Bulaiti), used to provide additional power for milling, built at Karun, Iran^[16]
• 1050 – Flywheel-driven saqiya chain pump and noria developed by Ibn Bassal (fl. 1038-1075) of Al-Andalus^[17]
• 1100 – Bridge mill (water mill built as part of the superstructure of a bridge) developed in Cordoba, Al-Andalus^[18]
• 1100 – Spiral scoop waterwheel, a device which efficiently raises large quantities of water to ground level invented in Baghdad, Iraq^[19]
• 1100 – Finery forge invented in Al-Andalus^[6]
• 1100 – First European factory milling installations built in Al-Andalus^[6]
• 1206 – Al-Jazari employs the crankshaft and connecting rod in a piston pump which, for the first time, demonstrates the use of a suction pipe.^[20]
• 1250 – Crank-driven screw and screwpump developed in the Arab world using Al-Jazari's crankshaft^[21]
• 1282 − First paper mill in the Spanish Xàtiva (Kingdom of Aragon)^[22]
• 1559 – Taqi al-Din invents a six-cylinder 'Monobloc' pump, a hydropowered water-raising machine incorporating valves, suction and delivery pipes, pistonrods with lead weights, trip levers with pin joints, and cams on the axle of a water-driven scoop-wheel^[23]

[edit]British Agricultural Revolution

• 1700 – British Agricultural Revolution begins in the United Kingdom
• 1809 – French confectioner Nicolas Appert invents canning
• 1837 – John Deere invents steel plough
• 1863 – International "Corn Show" in Paris with corn varieties from different countries
• 1866 – Gregor Mendel publishes his paper describing Mendelian inheritance
• 1871 – Louis Pasteur invents pasteurization
• 1895 – Refrigeration for domestic and commercial food preservation introduced in the United States and the United Kingdom, respectively.
• 1930 – First use of aerial photos in Earth sciences and agriculture.

[edit]Green Revolution

• 1944 – Green Revolution begins in Mexico
• 1974 – China creates the first hybrid rice,^[24] thus starting a food revolution that has benefited tens of millions around the world. See Yuan Longping.
• 2000 – Genetically modified plants cultivated around the world.
• 2005 – Lasers used to replace stickers by writing on food to "track and trace" and identify individual pieces of fresh fruit.^[25]

[edit]See also

• Agricultural revolutions
• Agriculture
• Broad spectrum revolution
• Electrical energy efficiency on United States farms
• Fertile Crescent
• History of agriculture
• Neolithic founder crops
• New World Crops
• Timeline of genetically modified organisms
• Timeline of historic inventions

[edit]References : read source at Wiki.