Crop Wild Relatives Week with Dr. Stephanie Greene
09/21/18 • 39 min
“An Inventory of Crop Wild Relatives of the United States” with Dr. Stephanie Greene.
Crop Wild Relatives week is September 22 – 29, 2018!
Crops are vital to feeding an expanding world – and like anything incredibly important, they need to be protected from things like disease, environmental disaster, and anything else that can pose a real threat. The key to their protection? Unexpected heroes that could be growing in your back yard– wild varieties of domesticated crops called crop wild relatives.
Crop wild relatives are the close cousins of domesticated crops (think a poodle vs. a wolf). Often, these crops are well-adapted to their environment and can exhibit wild superpowers such as drought or disease resistance. And because they are so closely related to domesticated crops, scientists can cross them with crops that people rely on for food or other uses, such as wheat or blueberries. The result – stronger, healthier crops– and peace of mind that your favorite blueberry muffins will be available for years to come.
Dr. Stephanie Greene and seedbanks around the world have made it their mission to catalog, protect, and educate the public on these wild, unruly cousins of crops and how scientists use them to give our favorite crops super strength.
This year, for Crop Wild Relatives week, tune in to find answers to the following questions and more:
- What’s the point of a gene bank?
- What type of traits are scientists looking for in crop wild relatives?
- How do they determine which ones are important?
- What’s a gap analysis, and how is it done?
- Why is it so important that the public knows about crop wild relatives?
If you would like more information about this topic, please visit our Crop Wild Relatives Week website here: https://www.crops.org/crop-wild-relative/
Today’s paper is available here: https://doi.org/10.2135/cropsci2012.10.0585
This paper is always freely available.
If you would like to find transcripts for this episode or sign up for our newsletter, please visit our website: https://fieldlabearth.libsyn.com/
Contact us at [email protected] or on Twitter @FieldLabEarth if you have comments, questions, or suggestions for show topics, and if you want more content like this don’t forget to subscribe.
If you would like to reach out to Stephanie, you can find her here: [email protected]
Resources
CEU Quiz: http://www.agronomy.org/education/classroom/classes/826
Crop Wild Relative Diversity Site: https://www.cwrdiversity.org
Crop Wild Relatives Site: www.cropwildrelatives.org/
Wild Relatives Resource Site: https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/ethnobotany/wildrelatives.shtml
Crop Wild Relatives of the US Site: https://cwroftheus.wordpress.com/
Field, Lab, Earth is copyrighted to the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America.
“An Inventory of Crop Wild Relatives of the United States” with Dr. Stephanie Greene.
Crop Wild Relatives week is September 22 – 29, 2018!
Crops are vital to feeding an expanding world – and like anything incredibly important, they need to be protected from things like disease, environmental disaster, and anything else that can pose a real threat. The key to their protection? Unexpected heroes that could be growing in your back yard– wild varieties of domesticated crops called crop wild relatives.
Crop wild relatives are the close cousins of domesticated crops (think a poodle vs. a wolf). Often, these crops are well-adapted to their environment and can exhibit wild superpowers such as drought or disease resistance. And because they are so closely related to domesticated crops, scientists can cross them with crops that people rely on for food or other uses, such as wheat or blueberries. The result – stronger, healthier crops– and peace of mind that your favorite blueberry muffins will be available for years to come.
Dr. Stephanie Greene and seedbanks around the world have made it their mission to catalog, protect, and educate the public on these wild, unruly cousins of crops and how scientists use them to give our favorite crops super strength.
This year, for Crop Wild Relatives week, tune in to find answers to the following questions and more:
- What’s the point of a gene bank?
- What type of traits are scientists looking for in crop wild relatives?
- How do they determine which ones are important?
- What’s a gap analysis, and how is it done?
- Why is it so important that the public knows about crop wild relatives?
If you would like more information about this topic, please visit our Crop Wild Relatives Week website here: https://www.crops.org/crop-wild-relative/
Today’s paper is available here: https://doi.org/10.2135/cropsci2012.10.0585
This paper is always freely available.
If you would like to find transcripts for this episode or sign up for our newsletter, please visit our website: https://fieldlabearth.libsyn.com/
Contact us at [email protected] or on Twitter @FieldLabEarth if you have comments, questions, or suggestions for show topics, and if you want more content like this don’t forget to subscribe.
If you would like to reach out to Stephanie, you can find her here: [email protected]
Resources
CEU Quiz: http://www.agronomy.org/education/classroom/classes/826
Crop Wild Relative Diversity Site: https://www.cwrdiversity.org
Crop Wild Relatives Site: www.cropwildrelatives.org/
Wild Relatives Resource Site: https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/ethnobotany/wildrelatives.shtml
Crop Wild Relatives of the US Site: https://cwroftheus.wordpress.com/
Field, Lab, Earth is copyrighted to the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America.
Previous Episode
The Farm Bill with Dr. Julie McClure and Dr. Elizabeth Stulberg
The Farm Bill with Dr. Julie McClure and Dr. Elizabeth Stulberg
If you have ever eaten food in the United States, you’ve been impacted by The Farm Bill, a mega-bill that is due for renewal in Congress this September. Although it heavily affects farmers, the Farm Bill covers a huge swath of topics: wildlife conservation, rural affairs, agriculture research, food stamps, and a lot more. If it seems like a big and overwhelming deal, that is because it is. Luckily, we have Drs. Elizabeth Stulberg and Julie McClure, two ASA-CSSA-SSSA science policy managers that are fluent in scientific research and the ins and outs of Washington politics to be our guides. For our membership, they work as translators between scientists and policymakers. Scientists want to know about relevant happenings in D.C. and new available funding opportunities; policymakers want to know new science that could impact their legislative districts.
We discuss the amazing history of the Farm Bill, how the bill will move through Congress this September, and what happens to the $1 trillion that is slated to be budgeted for this next Farm Bill. As it turns out, passing an important bill (especially a bill that affects so many) is hard! Put your learning caps on, because we’re about to take a deep dive into the process of how a concept grows from idea into a large-scale part of our daily lives.
Tune in to learn:
- Why is the Farm Bill so huge?
- What does the Farm Bill have to do with The Dust Bowl?
- What’s a congressional committee and what do the different committees do? How are committee assignments made?
- What’s an authorization, and how is that different from an appropriation?
- What’s mandatory funding, and why would a bill need it?
- Where are we are with the Farm Bill today?
Please note: At around 32:00 Dr. McClure says FFAR funds have to be matched by public funding, but in fact they must be matched by private (non-federal) funding.
If you would like more information about the Farm Bill, check out the Farm Bill Policy webpage or check out these articles from CSA News:
June 2017: https://doi.org/10.2134/csa2017.62.0622
March 2018: https://doi.org/10.2134/csa2018.63.0321
July 2018: https://doi.org/10.2134/csa2018.63.0732
These articles will be freely available from 7 September to 21 September, 2018.
If you would like to find transcripts for this episode or sign up for our newsletter, please visit our website: https://fieldlabearth.libsyn.com/
Contact us at [email protected] or on Twitter @FieldLabEarth if you have comments, questions, or suggestions for show topics, and if you want more content like this don’t forget to subscribe.
If you would like to reach out to Julie or Elizabeth, you can find them here: https://crops.org/science-policy/about-us
Julie: @McClurePhD [email protected]
Elizabeth: [email protected]
Resources
CEU Quiz: http://www.agronomy.org/education/classroom/classes/825
Legislative Action Network: https://www.crops.org/science-policy/get-involved/lan
Farm Bill Pages: https://agronomy.org/science-policy/farm-bill-policy https://crops.org/science-policy/farm-bill-policy https://soils.org/science-policy/farm-bill-policy
Society Policy Pages: https://agronomy.org/science-policy/ https://crops.org/science-policy/ https://soils.org/science-policy/
USDA Leadership Opportunities: ACS-NIFA Internship https://agronomy.org/undergrads/awards-scholarships https://crops.org/undergrads/awards-scholarships https://soils.org/undergrads/awards-scholarships
Congressional Fellowship https://agronomy.org/science-policy/fellowship https://crops.org/science-policy/fe...
Next Episode
Wildland Fire, Mercury, and Perch with Dr. Randy Kolka and Trent Wickman
“Yellow Perch (Perca flavescens) Mercury Unaffected by Wildland Fires in Northern Minnesota” with Dr. Randy Kolka and Trent Wickman.
We often hear of the dangers of mercury to pregnant women and children that require them to restrict fish consumption. For good reason – even at low concentrations, mercury can do serious damage to neural networks and reproductive systems. However, we talk little of how the mercury gets in these fish in the first place.
The most common way mercury enters the ecosystem is through the burning of coal; however, it can also volatilize via prescribed and wild fires in forests. From there, it can redistribute into other parts of the ecosystem, such as lakes, and work its way into the food chain. This can hurt the animals that rely on lakes or the fish that live in them to survive. It can also hurt people. For Dr. Randy Kolka and Trent Wickman of the USDA Forest Service, who love the people and wildlife of Northern Minnesota – they had to know more.
They set up a study on two lakes – one that hadn’t seen a fire in over 100 years and one that had a serious fire that covered over 99% of the watershed – and sampled soil, water, and fish to compare mercury levels.
In this episode, they discuss their experimental design, along with a breakdown of the realities of fieldwork. It can be tough carrying heavy equipment or samples of lakewater, let alone camping gear and food; they discuss how they made choices on what to bring, how samples were collected, and how they managed the logistics of the trips.
Tune in to learn this and more:
- How does one collect a water sample from a deep lake?
- What’s a “crown fire” and why is it so dangerous?
- How is fire severity judged?
- Why perch?
If you would like more information about this topic, this episode’s paper is available here: https://doi.org/10.2134/jeq2016.10.0418
It will be freely available from 19 October to 2 November, 2018.
If you would like to find transcripts for this episode or sign up for our newsletter, please visit our website: https://fieldlabearth.libsyn.com/
Contact us at [email protected] or on Twitter @FieldLabEarth if you have comments, questions, or suggestions for show topics, and if you want more content like this don’t forget to subscribe.
If you would like to reach out to Randy, you can find him here: https://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/people/Kolka [email protected]
If you would like to reach out to Trent, you can find him here: [email protected]
Resources
CEU Quiz: http://www.agronomy.org/education/classroom/classes/827
No Mercury Accumulation in Fish after Fire: https://www.soils.org/discover-soils/story/burn-without-concern
BWCWA: https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/superior/specialplaces/?cid=fseprd555184
Randy’s additional fire and mercury publications: https://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/people/Kolka
MN Department of Health fish consumption advisories: http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/eh/fish/index.html
USDA Forest Service Northern Research Station: https://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/
USDA Forest Service, Air Resource Management R8 & 9: https://webcam.srs.fs.fed.us/
Field, Lab, Earth is copyrighted to the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America.
If you like this episode you’ll love
Episode Comments
Generate a badge
Get a badge for your website that links back to this episode
<a href="https://goodpods.com/podcasts/field-lab-earth-384543/crop-wild-relatives-week-with-dr-stephanie-greene-54768597"> <img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/goodpods-images-bucket/badges/generic-badge-1.svg" alt="listen to crop wild relatives week with dr. stephanie greene on goodpods" style="width: 225px" /> </a>
Copy