On 16th October 2008 the Linnean Society of London was pleased to hold a day meeting entitled "Darwin and Domsetication".
This most interesting meeting was inspired by Darwin’s least known book The Variation of Animals and Plants under domestication. The papers presented covered a broad range of topics, from the advantageous genetic changes that have occurred to produce various crop plants, most lucidly explained by Barbara Pickersgill, to Phillip Sponenberg’s illustrations of varieties of domestic animals that have survived across America since the earliest settlers arrived from Spain and Portugal, and attempts to avoid a downward spiral in the range of breeds and diversity.
In the first paper, Stephen Hall discussed the possible origins of domestic breeds and how they evolved alongside human migration, right up to the present day when some animals are selectively bred for factory farming, also giving evidence that the higher the human population the larger the number of domestic breeds. Geoffrey Simon explained the genetic variation in modern livestock and how it is managed, and how older breeds should be protected, not just for historical sentiment but in order to maintain the availability of diverse genetic strains. Genetics was also used by Mark Nesbitt to explain the complex origins of domesticated strains of modern wheat and similar crops and to compare modern knowledge with Darwin's ideas on this topic. Finally, the organiser, Andrew Sheppey, illustrated how the breeds of chickens and pigeons illustrated in Darwin’s book are still extant in the highly competitive world of breeders of specimens for show.
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