Preserving Crop Diversity

I just returned from my trip to Colorado. The meeting I attended with the other Crop Germplasm Committee Chairs was quite enlightening...much more so than the previous one I attended two years ago. Considerable emphasis was placed on maintaining crop germplasm in collections around the country, and making the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN) system that describes all of this germplasm more user friendly to those who have a vested interest in it. The GRIN system will be completely overhauled over the next few years, and will become the gold standard for describing germplasm in collections throughout the world. When the overhaul is completed, GRIN will become "GRIN Global." In the USA, within the National Plant Germplasm System, there are several locations where the USDA-ARS maintains collections, each location emphasizing those crop species that make the most sense for that particular location. The National Seed Storage Laboratory that we had the opportunity to take a tour of, which is located on the CSU Campus in Ft. Collins, is all about long-term storage at very cold temperatures. You may be aware of an ambitious effort to preserve germplasm in the event of a doomsday scenerio in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault located in a remote part of Norway above the Artic Circle. This project, which is under the auspices of the Global Crop Diversity Fund, was recently reported on by CBS (60 Minutes, see expandable 12-minute video which the Global Crop Diversity Fund website links to). The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation contributed to this project in a substantial way, as did some other organizations. As a side note, it is actually rather startling how much money this Foundation has contributed toward agricultural research, such as the $26.8 million it is giving Cornell University to find resistance to a very threatening wheat rust disease that has potentially devastating consequences on the world food supply, considering wheat's amazingly large role toward feeding mankind. It was pointed out at the meeting that the USDA-ARS often does not get the recognition it deserves in preserving the wide diversity of seed that it has historically preserved. We probably need to make ourselves more visible. If we feel we are underfunded, we have a responsibility to make the public more aware of what we have accomplished in the way of preserving germplasm, and communicating our needs to those who can make a difference.