plant geneticist A plant geneticist is a scientist involved with the study of genetics in botany. Typical work is done with genes in order to isolate and then develop certain plant traits. Once a certain trait, such as plant height, fruit sweetness, or tolerance to ...
and one of the early pioneers of genetic conservation (biodiversity conservation). She was one of the first to raise the issue of
biodiversity loss
Biodiversity loss includes the worldwide extinction of different species, as well as the local reduction or loss of species in a certain habitat, resulting in a loss of biological diversity. The latter phenomenon can be temporary or permanent, de ...
at the
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...
.
Work on plant genetic diversity
During the 1960s Bennett worked at the (now-defunct) Scottish Plant Breeding Station, where she studied micro-evolution and the origins of genetic diversity, with a focus on forage and seed crops. Her work included expeditions around the world to collect plant samples.
In 1964 she wrote the internationally influential paper “Plant Introduction and Genetic Conservation: Genecological aspects of an urgent world problem”. In it, she coined the term "
genetic resources
Genetic resources are genetic material of actual or potential value, where genetic material means any material of plant, animal, microbial or other origin containing functional units of heredity.
Genetic resources is one of the three levels of biod ...
" to express the idea that genes themselves are a resource - one that has been disappearing rapidly, as diverse traditional peasant seeds have been replaced by uniform modern, elite seeds.
In traditional, peasant crop varieties, or
landraces
A landrace is a domesticated, locally adapted, often traditional variety of a species of animal or plant that has developed over time, through adaptation to its natural and cultural environment of agriculture and pastoralism, and due to isolation ...
, each plant is a bit different from the others, and this genetic diversity means that when new plant diseases or pests appear, at least some of the plants will likely be resistant. By contrast, in modern pedigree or elite crop varieties each plant is the same, and while these elite crops are often high-yielding, their lack of genetic diversity makes them particularly vulnerable to attacks by new strains of disease. When an elite variety stops giving acceptably high yields due to disease, or some other factor, the plant breeders turn to the traditional varieties, or even to wild relatives, in search of genes that can confer the necessary resistance.
Work at the FAO on the conservation of plant genetic resources, 1967-1982
Bennett worked at the United Nations
Food and Agriculture Organization
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)french: link=no, Organisation des Nations unies pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture; it, Organizzazione delle Nazioni Unite per l'Alimentazione e l'Agricoltura is an intern ...
from 1967 to 1982. During this time she coordinated various programmes of exploration and genetic conservation around the world, and created the world's first survey of crop germplasm collections.
In 1970 she co-wrote with
Otto Frankel
Sir Otto Herzberg Frankel FRS FAA FRSNZ (4 November 1900, Vienna – 21 November 1998, Canberra) was an Austrian-born Australian geneticist.
Bennett was one of the founding board members of RAFI, which later became the ETC Group.