Preserving biodiversity: Seed saving and Seed banks

Who preserves and controls crop biodiversity?  

How and why do they do it? 

* Agriculture, biodiversity and markets : livelihoods and agroecology in comparative perspective

* Agrobiodiversity conservation and economic development

* Agrobiodiversity hotspots : access and benefit sharing

* Banishing the biopirates : a new approach to protecting traditional knowledge

* Biodiversity in agricultural production systems

* Biopiracy of biodiversity : global exchange as enclosure

* Confronting biopiracy : Challenges, cases and international debates 

* Conserving plant genetic diversity in protected areas : population management of crop wild relatives

* Crop wild relative conservation and use

* Economics of managing crop diversity on-farm : Case studies from the Genetic Resources Policy Initiative

* Food security, biological diversity and intellectual property rights

* Future control of food : a guide to international negotiations and rules on intellectual property, biodiversity and food security

* Garden seed inventory : an inventory of seed catalogs listing all non-hybrid vegetable seeds available in the United States and Canada

* Gardening with heirloom seeds : tried-and-true flowers, fruits, and vegetables for a new generation

* Gardens of destiny [film]

* Gene flow between crops and their wild relatives

* Genetic resources, traditional knowledge and the law : solutions for access and benefit sharing

* Governing agrobiodiversity : plant genetics and developing countries

* Heirloom tomato : from garden to table : recipes, portraits, and history of the world’s most beautiful fruit

* Heirloom vegetable gardening : a master gardener’s guide to planting, growing, seed saving, and cultural history

* Orchard invisible : a natural history of seeds

* Patenting lives : life patents, culture and development

* Plant conservation genetics

* Saving seeds : the economics of conserving crop genetic resources ex situ in the future harvest centres of the CGIAR

* Seed conservation : turning science into practice

* Seed diversity in the drylands : women and farming in South India

* Seed hunter [film]

* Seed to seed : seed saving and growing techniques for vegetable gardeners

* Seed trade in rural markets : implications for crop diversity and agricultural development

* Seeds, sex and civilization : how the hidden life of plants has shaped our world

* Sowing autonomy : gender and seed politics in semi-arid India

* State-farmer partnerships for seed diversity in Mali

* Vegetable seed production

* Viking in the wheat field : a scientist’s struggle to preserve the world’s harvest

Bio-contamination & Bio-remediation

Toxic contamination of soil, water, air, plants, animals and humans is on my mind lately, as a result of Japan's earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear power plant crisis.

One path to detoxification is "bioremediation" - the application of biological processes to sequester or break down contaminants, either on- or off-site.

Books & E-books:

• Biochemical mechanisms of detoxification in higher plants: basis of phytoremediation
• Biodegradation and bioremediation
• Bioremediation: a critical review
• Bioremediation: applied microbial solutions for real-world environmental cleanup
• Bioremediation of contaminated soils
• Biotransformations: bioremediation technology for health and environmental protection 
• Ecology of industrial pollution
• Environmental biotreatment: technologies for air, water, soil, and waste
• Fungi in bioremediation
• Mycoremediation: fungal bioremediation
• Natural and enhanced remediation systems
• Natural processes and systems for hazardous waste treatment
• Phytoremediation: transformation and control of contaminants
• Produce contamination problem: causes and solutions
• Remediation of contaminated environments
• War and nature: the environmental consequences of war in a globalized world

Conference Proceedings:

• Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Environmental Remediation and Radioactive Waste Management 2009
• Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Environmental Remediation and Radioactive Waste Management 2007
• Mutational analysis of root characters in food plants: proceedings of a final research coordination meeting, organized by the Joint FAO/IAEA Programme of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture and held in Antalya, Turkey 11-15 October 2004
• Scientific basis for nuclear waste management XXVI: symposium held December 2-5, 2002, Boston
• Agricultural aspects of nuclear and/or radiological emergency situations; OECD/NEA Workshop, Fontenay-aux-Roses, France, 12-14 June 1995
• Relative effectiveness of agricultural countermeasure techniques, REACT : proceedings of a workshop organised by the Commission of the European Communities DG XII-D-3 Radiation Protection Research, DG XI-A-I Radiation Protection, Brussels, 1-4 October 1991

Technical Reports & Government Documents:

• Arrangements for preparedness for a nuclear or radiological emergency: safety guide
• Bioremediation of munitions contaminated soil: annual report
• Citizen’s guide to bioremediation
• Classification of soil systems on the basis of transfer factors of radionuclides from soil to reference plants
• Comparison of the models and assumptions used in the DandD 1.0, RESRAD 5.61, and RESRAD-Build 1.50 computer codes with respect to the residential farmer and industrial occupant scenarios provided in NUREG/CR-5512
• Environmental consequences of the Chernobyl accident and their remediation: twenty years of experience
• Management of waste from the use of radioactive material in medicine, industry, agriculture, research and education: safety guide
• Nuclear waste: DOE’s environmental management initiatives report is incomplete
• Preparedness and response for a nuclear or radiological emergency : safety requirements
• Probabilistic accident consequence uncertainty analysis: food chain uncertainty assessment 
• Soil-to-plant concentration ratios for assessing food-chain pathways in biosphere models
• Technical basis for assessing uranium bioremediation performance
• Use of bioremediation at Superfund sites
• Use of plants for the removal of toxic metals from contaminated soils

Grant for gardens on public land

Grant: "Growing Community: The Library Food Garden"

Available to Ohio libraries

The State Library of Ohio has announced the availability of Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) funds for a special grant program entitled "Growing Community: the Library Food Garden."

This special grant program was developed in recognition of the 2010 National Library Week theme, "Communities Thrive @ Your Library," and the water theme of the 2010 Summer Reading Program. Growing Community encourages libraries to partner with other community entities to establish food gardens on library or school property, or other public land, during the 2010 growing season. In order to be funded projects must demonstrate community partnerships as well as include library-based activities in the areas of "Health and nutrition," "Sustainability and ecology" and/or "Hunger/poverty issues."

Funds may be used to purchase seeds and plants, gardening tools and supplies, copies of materials and titles on gardening in various formats, marketing and promotion of the program, and speaker fees and other costs associated with program activities. All types of Ohio libraries are eligible for this grant program which has a federal request limit of $7,500. A local cash match of 25% of the total project cost is required. Electronic proposals are due at the State Library midnight on March 1, 2010. Approved proposals will run from May 1, 2010 through September 30, 2010. For RFP, see http://oh.webjunction.org/ohlstagrowcomm

Gardens designed to produce vegetables, fruit, nuts, and/or herbs provide a living lesson in the origins of our food. They promote appreciation for the agricultural heritage of Ohio. They give communities the opportunity to thrive by literally feeding community members. Through direct involvement in the work of the garden, and through educational programming and books and other media, food gardens engage residents of all ages and of different abilities in learning about plant life, gardening practices, life cycles, ecology, nutrition, hunger, and more.

[Text source: Press release, State Library of Ohio, 1/14/2010]

[Photo source: © UW-Madison University Communications]

"In Defense of Food" picked for Go Big Read

Madison area residents are invited to participate in the "Go Big Read" common book project this upcoming Fall.

The first book picked is "In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto" by Michael Pollan, who is scheduled to visit campus September 24-26.

Books by Michael Pollan:

• In defense of food: an eater's manifesto (also known as In defence of food: The myth of nutrition and the pleasures of eating)
• The omnivore's dilemma: a natural history of four meals
• The botany of desire: a plant's eye view of the world
• Second nature: a gardener's education
• A place of my own: the education of an amateur builder

Related books:

• America's food: What you don't know about what you eat
• Animal, vegetable, miracle: A year of food life
• Art of simple food: Notes, lessons, and recipes from a delicious revolution
• Fast food nation: the dark side of the all-American meal
• Food chains: From farmyard to shopping cart
• Food matters: A guide to conscious eating with more than 75 Recipes
• Food policy: Integrating health, environment and society
• Food politics: How the food industry influences nutrition and health
• Hope's edge: The next Diet for a Small Planet
• Real food: What to eat and why
• Righteous porkchop: Finding a life and good food beyond factory farms
• Six arguments for a greener diet: how a more plant-based diet could save your health and the environment
• Slow food nation: Why our food should be good, clean, and fair
• Slow food: the case for taste
• What to eat
• Where our food comes from: retracing Nikolay Vavilov's quest to end famine

Impact factors: Food science journals

Food science & technology journals
ranked by 2007 impact factor:

1. Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition


2. Trends in Food Science and Technology


3. Molecular Nutrition and Food Research (was Die Nahrung / Food)


4. Food Chemistry


5. Foodborne Pathogens and Disease


6. International Journal of Food Microbiology


7. Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry


8. Food Hydrocolloids


9. Journal of Dairy Science


10. Food Research International

"The 2007 impact factor is calculated by taking the number of all current citations to source items published in a journal over the previous two years and dividing by the number of articles published in the journal during the same period--in other words, a ratio between citations and recent citable items published."

[Source: ScienceWatch, 2/1/09]