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DTSTART;TZID=Australia/Melbourne:20250930T093000
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DTSTAMP:20260502T091652
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SUMMARY:Experiences of scientists supporting community engagement regarding crop genetic resources and the law: examples from traditionally based maize systems in North America
DESCRIPTION:Presented by Daniela Soleri\, Alma Piñeyro\, and Emmanuel Carlos González Ortega. \nIn situ conserved crop genetic resources (CGRs) occur in the form of native or local crop varieties\, developed and cultivated by peasant/farming communities\, including indigenous communities across North America. The global significance of these CGRs has led to the construction of legal frameworks regarding core issues of access\, use\, benefit sharing\, liability and redress\, and the threats to the integrity and conservation of these crop varieties and the associated ancestral knowledge. Until recently\, most of these frameworks have supported an industrial agriculture and food system paradigm and associated assumptions. As social and biological scientists\, we describe our methods and experiences from work with indigenous maize-growing communities around some of those core issues. Regarding the exploitation of community CGRs – early documentation of community opinions regarding Intellectual Property Rights in seeds\, food and tribal name\, and a recent example of the inadequacy of current protocols intended to prevent inequitable exploitation and eventual privatization of community CGRs. Regarding protecting the integrity of community CGRs\, we summarize previous and ongoing work to uphold a constitutional mandate in Mexico to protect community CGRs of native maize from gene technology contamination\, through a grassroots and bottom-up collaborative approach with peasants and small-scale maize producers that we have called “community biosafety.” We do not speak for these communities\, but rather as scientists and partners testing conventional assumptions about agriculture and food systems\, and alternatives to these. From our standpoints\, we reflect on lessons learned of utility for current and future research and practice around the interface of the legal\, western scientific\, and community perspectives on native and local crop varieties. \n \nBiographies\nDaniela Soleri\nDaniela Soleri has a PhD in ethnoecology with an emphasis in anthropology and participatory research\, and a minor in plant science. She is a Research Scientist\, Department of Geography\, University of California\, Santa Barbara\, USA. As an ethnoecologist Soleri’s research uses theory and methods from social and biological sciences to explore epistemic justice in food systems. With these tools she documents and investigates people’s knowledge and management of their crop plants and foods\, and the implications for improving science practice and public policy. Together with colleagues she has described the informal\, adaptive processes and practices developed by small scale farmers to support desirable\, viable maize and bean populations\, or by transnational migrants to maintain healthy\, culturally significant food systems in new places of residence. She tests assumptions that are fundamental in some food system research such as the function of seed selection\, definitions of a crop variety\, farmers’ attitudes towards new seed technologies and their related risk assessment\, and the homogeneity of the nutrition transition in migrant communities. Her studies of the perceptions and goals of maize farmers viz a vis maize seed technologies – local varieties\, and commercial hybrids and transgenics – are unique in distinguishing these technologies and documenting farmers’ own preferences\, providing evidence of a more nuanced picture of the larger seed technology debate than is typically seen. In different ways\, her research asks: Through respectful collaboration\, how can researchers understand and support communities’ own efforts to construct food systems that reflect valued livelihoods\, foods and cultural traditions while adapting to 21st century challenges including agrobiodiversity loss\, rising social inequity\, noncommunicable diseases\, migration\, and the climate crisis? More here. \nAlma Piñeyro\nAlma Piñeyro-Nelson is a biologist from the Faculty of Sciences at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM; National Autonomous University of Mexico)\, México (2007) and holds a Ph.D. from the Graduate Program in Biomedical Sciences\, also at UNAM (2013). Her professional training includes a postdoctoral stance at the University of California at Berkeley\, USA\, where she was a UC-Mexus postdoctoral fellow (February 2013-April 2015). Since June 2015\, she has been a Full professor at the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (UAM; Metropolitan Autonomous University) at its Xochimilco campus\, where she works in the Department of Agricultural and Animal Production\, teaching undergraduates in the agronomy major. Her areas of expertise are: molecular genetics of plant development\, developmental evolution\, agrobiodiversity conservation\, as well as biosafety and biomonitoring of genetically modified organisms in Mexico\, particularly maize. She has published several research articles related to her research areas and coordinated\, together with Dr. Elena R. Álvarez-Buylla the multi-authored book: “El maíz en peligro ante los transgénicos: un análisis integral sobre el caso de México” (Ed.CEIICH-UNAM/UCCS\, 2013). Piñeyro has worked with small-holder producers and peasants from different parts of Mexico (Oaxaca\, Tlaxcala\, Mexico City\, Chiapas\, Tabasco) throughout her career. Since 2022 she has been PI (Principal Investigator) or co-PI in three research projects funded by the National Council for Science and Technology (Mexico) focused on documenting transgene presence in different maize samples (native seed\, hybrid seed\, grain\, processed flour\, food) and has led multidisciplinary efforts focused on the co-construction of communitary biosafety measures in localities in Oaxaca and Tabasco. \nEmmanuel Carlos González Ortega\nDr. Emmanuel González-Ortega currently is a researcher with/for Mexico (“Investigador por México”) at the Autonomous Metropolitan University-Xochimilco in Mexico City. He holds a PhD in Biotechnology from the University of Barcelona\, a MsSC in Plant Biotechnology from the Center for Research and Advanced Studies (Cinvestav) in Mexico\, and has Biotechnology Engineering degree from the Interdisciplinary Professional Unit of Biotechnology of the National Polytechnic Institute (UPIBI-IPN) in Mexico. González-Ortega is an expert in biosecurity of genetically modified organisms (GMO)\, GMO risk assessment\, monitoring and identification of transgenic maize in the field and in foods produced with maize. He has participated in research projects aimed to the construction of bottom-up initiatives on maize biosecurity in indigenous/rural communities in several regions of Mexico. González-Ortega has been nominated by Mexican government to participate in several multilateral discussions in the context of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity such as “Risk assessment and risk management of GMO” and “Monitoring and Identification of GMO” discussions on the Development of the methodology for the second assessment and review of the effectiveness of the Nagoya Protocol. He has been recognized as expert in Synthetic Biology to participate in the Ad hoc Technical Expert Group on Synthetic Biology. He is interested in the biological\, ecological\, social\, and cultural implications of the presence of GMOs. González-Ortega also has scientific expertise in molecular biology\, molecular genetics\, molecular virology. He is a member of the National System of Researchers\, Level I\, of the Secretariat of Science\, Humanities\, Technology\, and Innovation (SECIHTI) in Mexico. \nAbout People\, Plants and the Law Online Lecture Series\nThe People\, Plants\, and the Law lecture series explores the legal and lively entanglements of human and botanical worlds. \nToday people engage with and relate to plants in diverse and sometimes divergent ways. Seeds—and the plants that they produce—may be receptacles of memory\, sacred forms of sustenance\, or sites of resistance in struggles over food sovereignty. Simultaneously\, they may be repositories of gene sequences\, Indigenous knowledge\, bulk commodities\, or key components of economic development projects and food security programs. \nThis lecture series explores the special role of the law in shaping these different engagements\, whether in farmers’ fields\, scientific laboratories\, international markets\, or elsewhere.
URL:https://www.plantsuccess.org/event/experiences-of-scientists-supporting-community-engagement-regarding-crop-genetic-resources-and-the-law-examples-from-traditionally-based-maize-systems-in-north-america/
LOCATION:Zoom
CATEGORIES:People Plants and the Law
ORGANIZER;CN="Plant Success":MAILTO:admin@plantsuccess.org
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Australia/Melbourne:20251007T140000
DTEND;TZID=Australia/Melbourne:20251007T150000
DTSTAMP:20260502T091652
CREATED:20250910T150002Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251006T193144Z
UID:5319-1759845600-1759849200@www.plantsuccess.org
SUMMARY:Talking Plant Science: Junko Kyozuka
DESCRIPTION:The ARC Centre of Excellence for Plant Success in Nature and Agriculture is proud to bring you the next seminar in our Talking Plant Science series\, presented by Distinguished Professor Junko Kyozuka. \nStep by step evolution of strigolactone signalling pathway\nStrigolactones (SLs) serve dual functions as hormones that regulate growth and development and as rhizosphere signalling molecules that promote symbiosis with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in flowering plants. How SLs acquired these dual roles remained unclear. We reported that the ancestral function of SLs was as rhizosphere signals\, which were later co-opted as hormones through the gradual evolution of signalling components. SLs are perceived by DWARF14 (D14)\, which interacts with the F-box protein MAX2 and SMXL repressors; D14 arose via duplication of KARRIKIN INSENSITIVE2 (KAI2)\, a receptor for the unidentified ligand KL\, in the common ancestor of seed plants. KAI2 itself likely originated via horizontal gene transfer prior to streptophyte evolution. Phylogenetic analysis indicates that KL signaling was established in the common ancestor of land plants. \nTo investigate the ancestral role of KL signaling\, we analyzed its function in two bryophytes\, the liverwort Marchantia polymorpha and the moss Physcomitrium patens. In both species\, KL signaling modulates growth by regulating cytokinin accumulation. We propose that the functions of KL signalling in bryophytes may reflect its original role in optimizing growth and development. \n \n  \nDistinguished Professor Junko Kyozuka\nTohoku University
URL:https://www.plantsuccess.org/event/talking-plant-science-junko-kyozuka/
CATEGORIES:Talking Plant Science
ORGANIZER;CN="Plant Success":MAILTO:admin@plantsuccess.org
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Australia/Melbourne:20251028T170000
DTEND;TZID=Australia/Melbourne:20251028T180000
DTSTAMP:20260502T091652
CREATED:20250911T152442Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251028T134037Z
UID:5324-1761670800-1761674400@www.plantsuccess.org
SUMMARY:Re-imagining (Re)production in Intellectual Property Law: Proprietary Fruit and the Making of Botanical Kinds
DESCRIPTION:Presented by Susannah Chapman. \nOver the past several decades\, many fruit breeding programs have begun to commercialize new varieties via the strategic use to two legal techniques: the use of plant variety protection—coupled with contracts to create small “clubs” of select growers—and the use of branding to foster ready consumer demand for the protected fruit that the club would produce. In these highly proprietary supply chains\, the production of new varieties is inextricably tied to the seasonal production of brand-compliant fruit. \nThis talk explores the work that is required to make an already-existing variety grow into to its varietal image year after year. In doing so\, it invites reflection on the distinction between creative production and mundane reproduction that permeate many accounts of plant breeding by exploring the work of “making” that comes after the “creation” of new botanical kinds. Implied in the internal infrastructure through which intellectual property law identifies its object is the idea that crop varieties are produced (bred or “created”)\, after which they are classified and named. Once bred and authored into the world\, the variety is effectively reproduced (cultivated)\, unless and until it is “bred” into something different. Such a distinction maps onto wider genealogical models of reproduction-as-generation. Cultivation here is generally not envisaged as a creative act\, but a reproductive—or copying—one. Rather\, it is only in certain instances of plant reproduction\, where there is a biological shift in the progeny that is deemed sufficient to create a break in botanical kind\, that the copying reproduction of cultivation is reclassified as a creative\, productive act of breeding. \nIn following the creative work of growing brand-compliant crop varieties\, this talk shows how emerging intellectual property arrangements are reworking\, in some ways\, the very distinctions between reproduction and production upon which they depend. Such re-imagining opens up space to consider\, however narrowly\, the ways in which plant reproduction—and reproduction more broadly—is always enmeshed in wider social\, ecological\, and technoscientific relations. \n \nBiography\nSusannah Chapman\nSusannah Chapman is a Lecturer in Sociocultural Anthropology at University College Cork. Trained as an environmental and legal anthropologist\, she has a keen interest in plant-human relations\, food systems\, and environmental governance. Her work asks questions about the signification and care of plants but also the coloniality\, biopolitics\, and translational practices of contemporary efforts to regulate\, conserve\, and transform plant life\, including trees. Her interest in these questions is rooted in her prior experience working on many different kinds of farms\, from diverse polycultures to simplified monocultures\, across the United States and a general love of plants. She has written on the loss and recuperation of apple tree diversity in the United States\, the propertization of horticultural supply chains in Australia\, and the regulation of plant life in The Gambia since the late nineteenth century. \nAbout People\, Plants and the Law Online Lecture Series\nThe People\, Plants\, and the Law lecture series explores the legal and lively entanglements of human and botanical worlds. \nToday people engage with and relate to plants in diverse and sometimes divergent ways. Seeds—and the plants that they produce—may be receptacles of memory\, sacred forms of sustenance\, or sites of resistance in struggles over food sovereignty. Simultaneously\, they may be repositories of gene sequences\, Indigenous knowledge\, bulk commodities\, or key components of economic development projects and food security programs. \nThis lecture series explores the special role of the law in shaping these different engagements\, whether in farmers’ fields\, scientific laboratories\, international markets\, or elsewhere.
URL:https://www.plantsuccess.org/event/re-imagining-reproduction-in-intellectual-property-law-proprietary-fruit-and-the-making-of-botanical-kinds/
LOCATION:Zoom
CATEGORIES:People Plants and the Law
ORGANIZER;CN="Plant Success":MAILTO:admin@plantsuccess.org
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Australia/Melbourne:20251118T050000
DTEND;TZID=Australia/Melbourne:20251118T060000
DTSTAMP:20260502T091652
CREATED:20250911T155426Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251124T133929Z
UID:5331-1763442000-1763445600@www.plantsuccess.org
SUMMARY:Making and Marketing Biocultural Heritage in Agriculture: From the Andean Community to Asia
DESCRIPTION:Presented by Rosemary Coombe and David Jefferson. \nMuch socio-legal research on intellectual property in relation to food and agriculture focuses on the influence of global policy norms on domestic law-making and the expansion of new international trade opportunities for small-scale producers. Other studies have examined controversies and contestations around government actors claiming foods as manifestations of their national heritage. We depart from both mainstream analytical approaches\, employing perspectives from legal anthropology on how ‘policy travels’ to consider new articulations of human rights and sustainability objectives. We evaluate and synthesise a growing body of ethnographic research (much of it done by and with international NGOs) that explores how Indigenous\, ethnic minority\, and other communities living in rural areas in the Global South articulate proprietary claims over seeds\, crops\, agricultural methods\, and culinary knowledge as important forms of biocultural heritage in socioecological initiatives. These novel proprietary claims\, exist inside\, outside\, and often alongside conventional intellectual property vehicles. Influenced by environmental development NGOs\, farmers’ movements\, and food sovereignty aspirations\, communities assert biocultural rights norms to identify goods derived from collective territorial enterprise. Drawing from earlier research focused on Andean Community member states\, we now consider examples from China\, the Philippines\, and Nepal of how biocultural heritage territories are designated\, agroecology principles are asserted\, biocultural goods are made and marketed\, and agritourism initiatives promoted. Together\, these examples demonstrate interlinkages between Andean and Asian communities as global policy norms of biodiversity conservation\, traditional knowledge protection\, climate change mitigation\, and food security and sovereignty are interpreted through articulations of collective rights to heritage. \n \nBiographies\nRosemary Coombe\nRosemary J. Coombe is a Full Professor in the Departments of Anthropology and Social Science. She held the Tier One Canada Research Chair in Law\, Communication and Culture at York University from 2001- 2022. She supervises graduate students in Anthropology and Socio-Legal Studies. Prior to becoming a CRC at York\, she was a Full Professor of Law at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law. She holds doctoral degrees in law and anthropology and publishes widely in anthropology\, cultural studies\, law and society and food and heritage studies. \nHer early work addressed the cultural\, political\, and social implications of intellectual property laws. Her book\, The Cultural Life of Intellectual Properties (1998\, reprinted in 2008) is a legal ethnography of the ways in which intellectual property law shapes cultural politics in consumer societies. She now does research on ‘the work of culture’ in an era of informational capital. Topics include the protection of biological diversity and its relation to cultural diversity\, and the emergence of ‘biocultural heritage’ protections. Generally\, she explores the ‘culturalisation’ of claims\, entitlements\, and social justice aspirations under conditions of neoliberalism\, sustainable development objectives\, and evolving and emerging fields of human rights\, particularly Peasants’ Rights. \nDavid Jefferson\nDr David J Jefferson (he/him) is an Associate Professor at the University of Canterbury Faculty of Law\, where he teaches Environmental Law\, Land Law\, and Intellectual Property. David is a legal anthropologist whose research covers a range of issues related to biodiversity conservation\, biotechnology regulation\, intellectual property in the agricultural and food sectors\, ecosystem rights laws\, and the protection of Indigenous knowledge systems. The field sites where David works are in Aotearoa New Zealand\, Australia\, and the Andean Community of South America. He holds a PhD in Law from the University of Queensland\, a JD from the University of California\, Davis\, and an MA in Psychology from Suffolk University. David has been the recipient of several competitive research awards\, including a United States Fulbright fellowship for work in Ecuador. His first book\, Towards an Ecological Intellectual Property: Reconfiguring Relationships Between People and Plants in Ecuador was published in 2020 \nAbout People\, Plants and the Law Online Lecture Series\nThe People\, Plants\, and the Law lecture series explores the legal and lively entanglements of human and botanical worlds. \nToday people engage with and relate to plants in diverse and sometimes divergent ways. Seeds—and the plants that they produce—may be receptacles of memory\, sacred forms of sustenance\, or sites of resistance in struggles over food sovereignty. Simultaneously\, they may be repositories of gene sequences\, Indigenous knowledge\, bulk commodities\, or key components of economic development projects and food security programs. \nThis lecture series explores the special role of the law in shaping these different engagements\, whether in farmers’ fields\, scientific laboratories\, international markets\, or elsewhere. \nThis People\, Plants and the Law lecture is brought to you in collaboration with The International Society for the History and Theory of Intellectual Property (ISHTIP).
URL:https://www.plantsuccess.org/event/making-and-marketing-biocultural-heritage-in-agriculture-from-the-andean-community-to-asia/
LOCATION:Zoom
CATEGORIES:People Plants and the Law
ORGANIZER;CN="Plant Success":MAILTO:admin@plantsuccess.org
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Australia/Melbourne:20251202T100000
DTEND;TZID=Australia/Melbourne:20251202T110000
DTSTAMP:20260502T091652
CREATED:20251119T192354Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251201T154201Z
UID:5506-1764669600-1764673200@www.plantsuccess.org
SUMMARY:Talking Plant Science: Lizzie Wandrag
DESCRIPTION:The ARC Centre of Excellence for Plant Success in Nature and Agriculture is proud to bring you the next seminar in our Talking Plant Science series\, presented by Dr Lizzie Wandrag. \nSpecies interactions as drivers of plant community dynamics under global change\nSpecies interactions\, including mutualisms\, competition and plant-soil feedbacks\, govern patterns of coexistence\, community assembly\, and ecosystem resilience. Yet these interactions are often the first components of ecosystems to be disrupted under global change. I will explore how species interactions shape plant performance and community composition\, drawing on empirical examples from both native and invaded systems. I will highlight how species interactions mediate invasion success and impact\, and how altered disturbance regimes amplify or suppress these processes. Together\, these perspectives underscore the central role of species interactions in shaping plant community dynamics in a rapidly changing world\, and highlight the need to integrate species interactions into community ecology to improve predictions of community change. \n \nDr Lizzie Wandrag\nUniversity of Tasmania \nLizzie a plant community ecologist with a focus on examining how biotic interactions affect and are affected by plant species’ and community response to global change. She is increasingly interested in the role of the soil microbiome in driving plant community composition and recovery from perturbation\, \nLizzie often works with weedy and invasive plant species. Examining the factors that allows some plant species to dominate in some locations provides opportunities to understand the ecological and evolutionary processes that govern plant community composition more generally.
URL:https://www.plantsuccess.org/event/talking-plant-science-lizzie-wandrag/
CATEGORIES:Talking Plant Science
ORGANIZER;CN="Plant Success":MAILTO:admin@plantsuccess.org
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Australia/Melbourne:20260218T090000
DTEND;TZID=Australia/Melbourne:20260218T100000
DTSTAMP:20260502T091652
CREATED:20251207T152648Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260218T013905Z
UID:5554-1771405200-1771408800@www.plantsuccess.org
SUMMARY:Honoring the Gift: A Share-Alike Approach to Free Access to Seeds and Collaborative Futures
DESCRIPTION:Presented by Claudia Irene Calderón\, Jean-Michel Ané and Jorge L. Contreras. \nSeeds represent more than just genetic material. They are gifts that embody community stories\, cultural memory\, and ecological adaptation\, serving as the foundation of our food systems. This talk will delve into how we can honor these gifts through ethical frameworks and collaborative practices that safeguard free access and reciprocity. We will begin by sharing lessons from the MaSE project\, which promotes mutual learning between Indigenous communities and academic institutions to develop culturally grounded guidelines for seed sovereignty collaboratively. Next\, we will explore the scientific and ethical dimensions surrounding research on nitrogen-fixing maize landraces from Oaxaca. This case exemplifies both the promise of agroecological innovation and the risks of biopiracy when Indigenous contributions are overlooked. Lastly\, we will examine legal approaches to open seed germplasm transfers\, such as Bioleft (in Argentina) or the Open Source Seed Initiative (OSSI)\, which seek to challenge restrictive intellectual property regimes and foster commons-based stewardship. Together\, these perspectives encourage us to envision collaborative futures where diverse forms of knowledge\, cultural commitments\, scientific advancements\, and legal frameworks converge to safeguard biodiversity and promote ethical sharing. \n \nBiographies\nProfessor Jean-Michel Ané is a Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor in both the Department of Bacteriology and the Department of Plant and Agroecosystem Sciences at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His primary research focuses on elucidating the molecular mechanisms that drive efficient symbiotic relationships between plants and microbes. The ultimate aim of his work is to leverage this understanding to improve agricultural productivity and sustainability for the production of food\, feed\, and biofuels. \n  \n  \n  \n  \n \nProfessor Jorge Contreras is a Distinguished University Professor\, the James T. Jensen Endowed Professor for Transactional Law and Director of the Program on Intellectual Property and Technology Law and the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law in Salt Lake City\, Utah\, USA. His research focuses on intellectual property and innovation law\, and he has written extensively on patent pledges and other forms of open innovation in the life sciences. \n  \n  \n  \nDr Calderón is an Affiliated Professor at Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala and a Teaching Faculty in the Department of Plant and Agroecosystem Sciences at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Her work uses participatory and transdisciplinary approaches to advance just agroecological transitions. With extensive experience at the intersections of gender\, indigeneity\, health\, and agroecology\, she is committed to re-centering ancestral knowledge and fostering respectful collaborations that value different ways of knowing. Through initiatives such as MaSE “Maize Sovereignty for Everyone\, Mutual Learning for the Defense and Culturally Acceptable Use of Indigenous Biodiversity”\, she promotes mutual learning between Indigenous communities and academic institutions to co-create ethical frameworks for seed sovereignty that safeguard biodiversity and strengthen sustainable food systems. \n  \n  \nAbout People\, Plants and the Law Online Lecture Series\nThe People\, Plants\, and the Law lecture series explores the legal and lively entanglements of human and botanical worlds. \nToday people engage with and relate to plants in diverse and sometimes divergent ways. Seeds—and the plants that they produce—may be receptacles of memory\, sacred forms of sustenance\, or sites of resistance in struggles over food sovereignty. Simultaneously\, they may be repositories of gene sequences\, Indigenous knowledge\, bulk commodities\, or key components of economic development projects and food security programs. \nThis lecture series explores the special role of the law in shaping these different engagements\, whether in farmers’ fields\, scientific laboratories\, international markets\, or elsewhere.
URL:https://www.plantsuccess.org/event/honoring-the-gift-a-share-alike-approach-to-free-access-to-seeds-and-collaborative-futures/
LOCATION:Zoom
CATEGORIES:People Plants and the Law
ORGANIZER;CN="Plant Success":MAILTO:admin@plantsuccess.org
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Australia/Melbourne:20260303T100000
DTEND;TZID=Australia/Melbourne:20260303T110000
DTSTAMP:20260502T091652
CREATED:20260216T054815Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260303T013537Z
UID:5747-1772532000-1772535600@www.plantsuccess.org
SUMMARY:Talking Plant Science: Frank Sainsbury
DESCRIPTION:The ARC Centre of Excellence for Plant Success in Nature and Agriculture is proud to bring you the next seminar in our Talking Plant Science series\, presented by Dr Frank Sainsbury. \nReprogramming Viruses to Protect Plants from the Inside and Out\nViruses are deceptively simple and remarkably potent. They infect all forms of cellular life and while viruses are known for disease\, they exist as partners in different types of symbiotic relationships with their hosts\, ranging from parasitic to mutualistic. Thanks to modern biotechnology they have also been harnessed for bespoke benefits in medicine and agriculture. My research group uses recombinant virus-like particle expression to understand the structure-function relationship of virus capsids and to rebuild viruses as containers for proteins and non-native nucleic acids. Using these approaches\, we are exploiting some of the unique properties of viruses to devise ways to prevent the spread of plant pests and pathogens\, including nematodes and disease-causing viruses. The environmental stability of bacteriophage capsids makes for long-lived carriers of RNA-based pesticides to soil. The ability of persistent plant viruses to exist relatively unchanged for millennia inside their hosts provides an opportunity to bestow crop resistance to herbivores and parasitic plant viruses via enduring extrachromosomal transcription in plants. Both projects support our goal to use reconstructed and reprogrammed virus-like particles as delivery vehicles in challenging environments where stability and/or transfer of sensitive cargos are current bottlenecks. \n \nDr Frank Sainsbury\nGriffith University \nDr Frank Sainsbury leads a physical virology lab at Griffith University. His research group is primarily interested in virus capsids\, pushing the boundaries of how they assemble\, and what can be learned from using them as biochemical reaction vessels and delivery vehicles. Dr Sainsbury trained as a plant virologist at the John Innes Centre in the UK and was hooked by the deceptive simplicity of viruses and by their potential for use in biotechnology. His PhD work included the invention of protein expression systems in plants that have supported Phase III clinical trials of influenza vaccines and led to a major UK innovation award. Since taking up an ARC DECRA at the University of Queensland in 2014\, he has developed a program of research into the assembly\, engineering\, and uses of virus-like particles. In 2018 he was awarded a CSIRO Fellowship in Synthetic Biology to explore the directed assembly of virus coat proteins into protein cages with non-natural geometries. He subsequently moved to Griffith University and in 2023\, he was awarded an ARC Future Fellowship to evolve virus capsids for applied uses in agriculture and health.
URL:https://www.plantsuccess.org/event/talking-plant-science-frank-sainsbury/
CATEGORIES:Talking Plant Science
ORGANIZER;CN="Plant Success":MAILTO:admin@plantsuccess.org
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Australia/Melbourne:20260311T093000
DTEND;TZID=Australia/Melbourne:20260311T103000
DTSTAMP:20260502T091652
CREATED:20251207T152928Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260311T012614Z
UID:5560-1773221400-1773225000@www.plantsuccess.org
SUMMARY:Do Sacred Plants Have Standing? Religious Freedom of Expression & Biocultural Recovery of Sacred & Ceremonial Plants
DESCRIPTION:Presented by Gary Nabhan. \nIndigenous communities and other traditional ethnic enclaves have long integrated sacred and ceremonial plants into their spiritual traditions\, but the affirmation of their legal rights to protect and maintain cultural access to such plants has been fraught with outdated conceptions of what “religion” and “legitimate practice of spiritual traditions” entails\, especially with respect to plants and animals used in ceremonies and their legal status as “sacred persons”. Case studies from the contested U.S.-Mexico border and war-torn Middle East will suggest some ways that public perception and case law are evolving to accommodate these Indigenous rights more fully. \n \nBiography\nGary Nabhan PhD is a contemplative desert ecologist and Franciscan Brother. He founded the Sacred Plants Biocultural Recovery Initiative and worked with indigenous spiritual leaders and elected officials to declare the saguaro cactus as a sacred sentient being with legal protection on 100\,000 ha of Sonoran Desert lands. He is author\, Coauthor or editor of 35 books in 6 languages and over 150 scholarly articles and book chapters. \n  \n  \n  \n  \nAbout People\, Plants and the Law Online Lecture Series\nThe People\, Plants\, and the Law lecture series explores the legal and lively entanglements of human and botanical worlds. \nToday people engage with and relate to plants in diverse and sometimes divergent ways. Seeds—and the plants that they produce—may be receptacles of memory\, sacred forms of sustenance\, or sites of resistance in struggles over food sovereignty. Simultaneously\, they may be repositories of gene sequences\, Indigenous knowledge\, bulk commodities\, or key components of economic development projects and food security programs. \nThis lecture series explores the special role of the law in shaping these different engagements\, whether in farmers’ fields\, scientific laboratories\, international markets\, or elsewhere.
URL:https://www.plantsuccess.org/event/do-sacred-plants-have-standing-religious-freedom-of-expression-biocultural-recovery-of-sacred-ceremonial-plants/
LOCATION:Zoom
CATEGORIES:People Plants and the Law
ORGANIZER;CN="Plant Success":MAILTO:admin@plantsuccess.org
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Australia/Melbourne:20260428T160000
DTEND;TZID=Australia/Melbourne:20260428T170000
DTSTAMP:20260502T091652
CREATED:20251207T153106Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260429T001856Z
UID:5562-1777392000-1777395600@www.plantsuccess.org
SUMMARY:Bad to Think With: Plants and Property Relations
DESCRIPTION:Presented by Veit Braun. \nAnimals\, Claude Lévi-Strauss famously said\, are not just good to eat but good to think with: they elucidate the structure of social relations. But what about plants? In this talk I argue that the ways we relate to plants on the one hand and the matrix of people and things on the other offered by property thought are a bad match. Much of what plants are and do does not neatly fit into the categories of subject and object or body and idea; nor can the problems caused by intellectual and tangible property in plants easily be addressed by the critique of property. To elaborate this point\, I want to sketch the trajectories on which plants go astray and slip through our matrices of property (including my own) by exploring some of what has happened in the legal landscape of especially European plant breeding over the last 20 or so years. Whether we should run after plants and leave property behind or\, conversely\, try to patch up the structure of property relations depends on what we care about more: saving plants or saving property. \n \nBiography\nVeit Braun is a sociologist and Research Associate at the University of Augsburg\, Germany. His work is situated at the intersection of law\, economics and biology. Veit has studied the contemporary crises of property in plant breeding and the organisational and temporal logics of animal biobanks. He is currently leading the research project ‘More and Less’ on the mutable identity of nitrogen in society. His book At the End of Property: Patents\, Plants and the Crisis of Propertization was published by Bristol University Press in 2024. \n  \n  \n  \nAbout People\, Plants and the Law Online Lecture Series\nThe People\, Plants\, and the Law lecture series explores the legal and lively entanglements of human and botanical worlds. \nToday people engage with and relate to plants in diverse and sometimes divergent ways. Seeds—and the plants that they produce—may be receptacles of memory\, sacred forms of sustenance\, or sites of resistance in struggles over food sovereignty. Simultaneously\, they may be repositories of gene sequences\, Indigenous knowledge\, bulk commodities\, or key components of economic development projects and food security programs. \nThis lecture series explores the special role of the law in shaping these different engagements\, whether in farmers’ fields\, scientific laboratories\, international markets\, or elsewhere.
URL:https://www.plantsuccess.org/event/bad-to-think-with-plants-and-property-relations/
LOCATION:Zoom
CATEGORIES:People Plants and the Law
ORGANIZER;CN="Plant Success":MAILTO:admin@plantsuccess.org
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260622
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260627
DTSTAMP:20260502T091652
CREATED:20251002T154654Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251002T154654Z
UID:5406-1782086400-1782518399@www.plantsuccess.org
SUMMARY:Plant Success Research Retreat 2026
DESCRIPTION:The sixth annual Plant Success Research Retreat will occur in the week beginning 22 June 2026. The retreat is open to all Centre Members to attend in person and virtual attendance will also be available. \nMore details to come.
URL:https://www.plantsuccess.org/event/plant-success-research-retreat-2026/
ORGANIZER;CN="Plant Success":MAILTO:admin@plantsuccess.org
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Australia/Melbourne:20260713T080000
DTEND;TZID=Australia/Melbourne:20260715T170000
DTSTAMP:20260502T091652
CREATED:20260223T040740Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260430T041655Z
UID:5779-1783929600-1784134800@www.plantsuccess.org
SUMMARY:Winter School in AI and Predictive Agriculture
DESCRIPTION:The Winter School in AI and Predictive Agriculture is a free event to share the collective learnings of experts from The University of Queensland in the use of AI and predictive analytics in Agriculture and Sustainability. The event will be held on 13-15 July 2026 at The University of Queensland St Lucia Campus\, Brisbane and will feature seminars\, case studies and hands-on workshops. \nThe Winter School aims to: \n\nBuild capacity in applied AI for agriculture\, especially amongst PhD students\, EMCRs and industry participants;\nProvide participants with practical skills\, not just knowledge;\nDemonstrate AI as an enabler to make standard agricultural technologies more accessible.\n\nWe are currently seeking registrations for this event\, please complete the form here if you would like to participate > \nMonday 13 July: AI Toolkit and Foundations\nAll day: Lecture\, online or in person. Morning tea and lunch will be provided for in person attendees.\nAttendees will learn the foundations of AI in an accessible way to support the applied case studies and hands‑on workshops in the following days. Topics will include: \n\nIntro to Neural Networks\nAI Models and Embeddings\nTransformers and LLMs\nAgentic AI\nAI tools deployment\n\n\nTuesday 14 July: Phenotyping\nAM: Lecture\, online or in person. Morning tea will be provided for in person attendees.\nAttendees will explore how the AI Toolkit can be applied to advanced predictive phenotyping through expert seminars and real-world case studies. Topics will include: \n\nSensors and point clouds\nMachine learning for phenotyping\nFoundation models for crops\nHigh throughput platforms and 3D digital twins\nUAV image data processing\n\nPM: Hands-on workshop\, in person only (spaces limited). Lunch will be provided.\nParticipants will apply the methods introduced on real-world problems. \n\nWednesday 15 July: Genomic prediction\nAM: Lecture\, online or in person. Morning tea will be provided for in person attendees.\nAttendees will learn how AI methods can be leveraged for genomic prediction via expert seminars and applied case studies. Topics will include: \n\nFundamentals of Genotype-to-Phenotype models\nEnsemble models\nGraph Neural Networks applied to genomic prediction\nMarker selection using biological priors and networks\nAgentic coding to build a genomic prediction pipeline\n\nPM: Hands-on workshop\, in person only (spaces limited). Lunch will be provided.\nParticipants will apply the methods introduced on real-world problems. \nSpaces for hands-on workshops are strictly limited. \n  \nScientific and Technical Committee\nDavid Kainer\nSenior Research Fellow\, The University of Queensland\, ARC Centre of Excellence for Plant Success \nGenomic prediction and graphs. \n  \nAlex Wu\nSenior Research Fellow\, Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation \nField-level design/prediction\, optimisation and machine learning with crop models to explore G×E×M interactions and design optimal crop ideotypes. \nLiqi Han\nResearch Fellow\, Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation \nCrop Digital Twins\, High Performance Computing\, Artificial Intelligence\, High Throughput Phenotyping. \n  \nBrodie Lawson\nPostdoctoral Researcher\, Queensland University of Technology\, ARC Centre of Excellence for Plant Success \nCrop growth modelling across scales\, including plant signalling\, cell-growth and physiology. Gaussian process regression as a surrogate to true modelling to create fast models for crop simulators. \n  \nChristos Mitsanis\nPhD Student\, The University of Queensland\, ARC Centre of Excellence for Plant Success \nAgentic AI\, mechanistic networks and CGMs. \n  \nSophie (Qiaomin) Chen\nResearch Fellow\, The University of Queensland \nMulti-scale precision agriculture. Integrates crop modelling with machine learning. modelling of crop traits using simulation-generated data sets. \n  \nSebastian Lopez-Marcano\nSenior Manager Analytics\, The University of Queensland \nData analytics\, workflows. \n  \nJavier Fernandez\nResearch Fellow\, The University of Queensland \nCrop and agronomic modelling. \n  \nEric Dinglasan\nSenior Research Fellow\, Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation \nOptimisation strategies for QTL stacking models. Adapts methods proven in animal breeding to crops. \n  \n 
URL:https://www.plantsuccess.org/event/winter-school-in-ai-and-predictive-agriculture/
ORGANIZER;CN="Plant Success":MAILTO:admin@plantsuccess.org
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20261105
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20261107
DTSTAMP:20260502T091652
CREATED:20251106T231906Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260224T050231Z
UID:5496-1793836800-1794009599@www.plantsuccess.org
SUMMARY:Genotype by Environment by Management (GxExM) Symposium IV
DESCRIPTION:Event information\nThe ARC Centre of Excellence for Plant Success is coordinating the next Genotype by Environment by Management (GxExM) symposium in November 2026 in Brisbane\, Queensland. The symposium will focus on a range of topics related to the study of GxExM interactions and their importance for crop improvement. \nThe symposium will be conducted to stimulate new approaches\, building on a foundation of sharing understanding and insights from case studies\, leading to discussion of ideas that will advance experimental\, modelling and prediction methods to enhance crop improvement strategies. \nThe presentations and discussions during the symposium will be recorded (whenever permission is granted) and made available online\, to improve accessibility for all participants. If you have any questions about the format of the meeting or your potential for involvement\, please contact plantsuccess@uq.edu.au. \nExpressions of interest have closed. The event will be held on Thursday 5 and Friday 6 November 2026 in Australia\, more information and registration instructions will be circulated soon. \nGxExM Background\nThe potential importance of GxExM interactions has been considered for many performance properties of agricultural systems. There are complex and growing pressures acting upon the global crop systems on which we depend for our livelihoods. \nUniversally\, significant yield gaps have been identified between potential and realised on-farm crop productivity for most crop systems. Further\, the sustainability of the current and required levels of crop productivity to meet the expectations of future needs are continually questioned. \nThe challenges are diverse\, complex and multi-faceted. Crop breeders seek to utilise available genetic resources to develop improved cultivars. \nCrop agronomists seek to define agronomic management practices that will work for the improved cultivars. \nFarmers seek to combine the improved cultivars with appropriate agronomic practices to achieve a target on-farm productivity while balancing short and long-term risks and rewards. \nThere have been and continue to be many calls for integrated efforts. \nThere are successful examples of integrated efforts between breeders\, agronomists in partnership with farmers. A number of such efforts have emphasised the importance of considering the potential influences of GxExM interactions at multiple levels within the crop systems.
URL:https://www.plantsuccess.org/event/genotype-by-environment-by-management-gxexm-symposium-iv/
ORGANIZER;CN="Plant Success":MAILTO:admin@plantsuccess.org
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