Russian Court Favors Development Fund in Land Dispute, Rare Fruits and Berries May Be Destroyed

A Russian court has reportedly given the green light to a housing development agency to build houses on a field where thousands of rare berries and other fruits have been preserved since the 1920s. The Pavlovsk Experimental Station, located near St. Petersburg, was apparently developed to serve as an historic gene bank. Scientists over the years have deemed the facility so important that 12 reportedly starved to death during the World War II siege of Leningrad rather than eat the plants they were saving. Some 90 percent of the station’s more than 5,000 plant varieties exist nowhere else and many cannot be grown from seed. The research institute that operates the station reportedly plans to appeal the ruling to the Russian Supreme Arbitration Court. See The Los Angeles Times, August 10, 2010; TheAwl.com, August 11, 2010.