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From cutting-edge research to work saving seeds in communities, even our small actions can have a big impact on saving crop diversity and putting it to good use. Read the latest news highlighting these efforts and more.
Latest Article
Colombia Chooses Its Opportunity Crops
In the final hours of the two-day workshop, the discussion really heated up. More than 40 stakeholders from all over Colombia had gathered at the event to select the best opportunity crops to promote out of a long list of 48....
23 Jul 2025
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The Genebank Pushover
Luigi Guarino
The Copenhagen Consensus sounds like a minor Robert Ludlum novel – perhaps something from his unjustly neglected, more sedate late period – but it’s actually far scarier. The consensus is that of economists, about...
23 May 2012
23 May 2012
A Crop on Both Your Houses
Luigi Guarino
Good vs Evil. East vs West. Capulets vs Montagues. Barça vs Real. We like to deal in such binary choices. It makes life so much easier. None of that groping around in the grey shadows of doubt. Love it or leave it....
30 Apr 2012
30 Apr 2012
A Clockwork Orange: Apocalypse Not Yet
Luigi Guarino
Californians flipping through the news over their organic, high-fibre muesli must have spluttered orange juice all over their shiny new iPad3s. Huanglongbing has come to their state. This nasty disease -- also known...
25 Apr 2012
25 Apr 2012
This Crazy World
Luigi Guarino
What you – and they – are looking at is a small fraction of the world’s largest collection of bean diversity. You can admire it, like these guys are doing, at the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture, whose...
13 Apr 2012
13 Apr 2012
Latin American Crop Collections Rescue Effort
SAN JOSÉ, COSTA RICA (7 April 2011)—Crop specialists in Central America announced today that a major rescue effort is underway in one of the heartlands of ancient agriculture to regenerate thousands of unique varieties of coffee,...
7 Apr 2012
7 Apr 2012
A Modest Proposal
Luigi Guarino
The financial woes of Ireland are regularly in the news these days, though a respectful respite seems thankfully to have been observed recently, perhaps in honour of St Patrick’s Day. But the country has gone through...
21 Mar 2012
21 Mar 2012
Helping Genebanks and Their Users Get Along
Luigi Guarino
Genebanks: what are they good for? While the answer is rarely the emphatic “Absolutely nothing!” of the anti-war song, ambivalence – or worse – about the usefulness of genebanks is expressed more often than one...
20 Mar 2012
20 Mar 2012
Coalition to Rescue Indigenous Pacific Island Crops
SYDNEY (22 October 2010)—Hoping to save the vulnerable varieties of bananas painted by the artist Paul Gauguin, rare coconuts, and 1,000 other unique varieties of staple fruit and vegetable crops across the Pacific, crop...
22 Oct 2010
22 Oct 2010
50,000 Petitioners Support Russian Genebank
ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA (21 September 2010)—A global social media campaign to save Europe’s most important collection of fruits and berries has collected over 50,000 petition signatures worldwide. The campaign is part of a massive...
21 Sep 2010
21 Sep 2010
Arctic Seed Vault Inventory Passes Half-Million
LONGYEARBYEN, NORWAY (11 March 2010)—Days after celebrating its second anniversary, the Svalbard “Doomsday” Global Seed Vault is receiving this week thousands of new seeds that will push its collection to more than half a million...
11 Mar 2010
11 Mar 2010
TED Talks: Cary Fowler
This fantastic TED talk brings people closer to understanding the importance of crop diversity.
Tucked away under the snows of the Arctic...
1 Jul 2009
1 Jul 2009
Arctic Seed Vault Opens Doors for 100 Million Seeds
Longyearbyen, Norway (26 February 2008) The first seeds will be placed in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault at an opening ceremony on Tuesday, 26 February 2008. During the ceremony, thousands of crop varieties from countries around...
26 Feb 2008
26 Feb 2008