Merge branch 'main' into pippa

content/01.abstract.md

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 ## Abstract {.page_break_before}
 
-The Breeding API (BrAPI) project is an effort to enable interoperability among plant breeding databases.
-BrAPI is a standardized RESTful web service API specification for communicating plant breeding data.
-This community driven standard is free to be used by anyone interested in plant breeding data management.
-This manuscript describes updates and outlook for the current version of BrAPI.
+Population growth and climate change require extraordinary efforts to increase efficiency in breeding programs around the world. In the last few years, genomics technologies and genomic prediction approaches have provided a boost in genetic gain in breeding, but has also created a flood of data that needs careful management to be fully harnessed.
+The Breeding API (BrAPI) project is an international, grass-roots effort to enable more efficient data management by enabling interoperability among plant breeding databases and tools, using a standardized RESTful web service API specification for communicating plant breeding data.
+This community driven standard is free to be used by anyone interested in plant breeding data management, including trial data, phenotypic data and genotyping data management.
+This manuscript describes advances in implementations of BrAPI in different breeding tools, and outlook for the current version of BrAPI. 

content/02.introduction.md

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 * Standardization of endpoints across objects - said in a non-tech way
 -->
 
-<!-- Pete S: This opening paragraph is hot garbage and should be rewritten, but I needed to start somewhere to get the creative writing process flowing.  -->
-Plant and animal breeding is an incredibly important part of today's society. Almost every country in the world has some kind of breeding program supporting the agricultural community to produce bigger, better, healthier, and more sustainable crops. Modern breeding techniques require large amounts of high quality data to be effective. In the digital age, that breeding data is being collected, managed, and analyzed with computer software. Interoperability between breeding software tools, systems, and databases can substantially increase the efficiency of a breeding program. The ability to share tools gives each program a boost in computational power. The ability to share data allows the community to leverage access to larger, more complete, datasets; similarly, the community can build more accurate computational models and produce more accurate predictions.
+To address consequences of climate change and population growth, plant and animal breeding need to become more efficient and data driven to produce bigger, better, healthier, more sustainable crops. Modern breeding techniques require large amounts of high quality data to be effective, requiring digital methods for data collection, management, and analysis. Interoperability between breeding software tools, systems, and databases can substantially increase the efficiency of a breeding program. The ability to efficiently share data means access to larger and more complete datasets, enabling to build more accurate computational models and produce more accurate predictions and improved selections.
 
-The Breeding API (BrAPI) project is an effort to enable interoperability among breeding tools, systems, and databases. BrAPI is a standardized Representational State Transfer (REST), web service, Application Programming Interface (API), specification for breeding and related agricultural data. [@doi:10.1093/bioinformatics/btz190] By using the BrAPI standard, breeding software can more easily become interoperable, allowing groups to more easily share data and software tools.
+Plant and animal breeding is an incredibly important part of today's society. Almost every country in the world has some kind of breeding program supporting the agricultural community to produce bigger, better, healthier, and more sustainable crops. Climate change, population growth, disease mitigation, and nutritional health are all major challenges facing humanity, and the ability to breed better crops is a critical part of the solution. Modern breeding techniques require large amounts of high quality data to be effective. In the digital age, that breeding data is being collected, managed, and analyzed with computer software. Interoperability between breeding software tools, systems, and databases can substantially increase the efficiency of a breeding program. The ability to share tools gives each program a boost in computational power. The ability to share data allows the community to leverage access to larger, more complete, datasets; similarly, the community can build more accurate computational models and produce more accurate predictions.
+
+The Breeding API (BrAPI) project is an effort to enable interoperability among breeding tools, systems, and databases. BrAPI is a standardized Representational State Transfer (REST), web service, Application Programming Interface (API), specification for breeding and related agricultural data. [@doi:10.1093/bioinformatics/btz190] By using the BrAPI standard, breeding software can more easily become interoperable, allowing groups to more easily share data and software tools. 
+
+This manuscript will present BrAPI in its latest iteration. This includes a technical description of the standard and a showcase of the applications, services, and tools available in the BrAPI community. BrAPI has become an essential part of the digital infrastructure for breeding applications and related agricultural projects. It is the intention of this manuscript to demonstrate the value of BrAPI to the wider scientific community as an effective and efficient means to collaborate and share resources. 
 
 ### How it works