It's because cocoa and its diseases won't grow in Reading
August 7, 2017 8:31 AM   Subscribe

The exchange of germplasm is important for cocoa breeding and many related activities. The International Cocoa Quarantine Centre (ICQC) at the University of Reading operates to ensure that this vital need can be satisfied without transferring pests and diseases from one cocoa growing region to another.
via No Such Thing As A Fish, the QI podcast

The ICQC also serves as an "ark" of sorts for cocoa in case of disaster in its usual haunts. Other such arks include particular crops (such as the Bioversity International Musa Germplasm Transit Centre for bananas), regions (such as the Australian PlantBank), and even everything (such as the Millennium Seed Bank, which is about a sixth of the way to getting some of everything; and the Svalbard Global Seed Vault for when shit really hits the fan).
posted by Etrigan (5 comments total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
30% of global cocoa production is lost through major pests and diseases.

Sounds like a tough business, good that there is international support -- chocolate too is expensive as it is. ;-)
posted by sammyo at 9:10 AM on August 7, 2017


Speaking of seedbanks, a picture gallery from the Guardian, Eden on ice: seed banks - in pictures by Dornith Doherty. Images from their book Archiving Eden, published by Schilt. I love the picture with the heading best and have it saved on my laptop.
posted by glasseyes at 11:21 AM on August 7, 2017 [1 favorite]


(Lived in Reading for a while, can attest to the title's veracity.)
posted by wenestvedt at 12:06 PM on August 7, 2017


Ok thank you wenestvdt I started a comment about how odd it was for ag research in tropical crops in suburban London but clearly what was needed was a captain obvious for it to click, building hermetically sealed greenhouses would be really cost prohibitive.

This would actually be a great case for a moon base to be used for dangerous biological research. A little gas escapes and the worst nastys would be zapped automatically.
posted by sammyo at 12:52 PM on August 7, 2017


That reminds me how much I want a third season of No Such Thing as the News. BBC2 have got to renew that sometime, right?
posted by Eleven at 5:07 AM on August 8, 2017


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