Carl Fowler: One Seed at a Time, Protecting the Future of Food

In his speech Carl Fowler bring up the issue that a mass extinction of crop species is and has been underway. This mass extinction lowers the genetic diversity of our crops which in turn leaves them vulnerable to changes in the environment. With climate change happening, a high biodiversity would ensure that some crops would have unique traits that would allow them to survive and adapt. In case of a global disaster natural or of our own creation where the biodiversity is greatly reduced a backup has been created. A seed bank has been created in Svalbard Norway (picture of entrance in top left) that can store the seeds of most of the crops in the world in a safe secure spot. On their website (http://www.croptrust.org/main/arctic.php?itemid=211 ) they explain their mandates, strategies for the conversation of global crop diversity, how they freeze the seeds, layout of the establishment and more. We haven't gone into much depth in class about the loss of seed diversity. It was touched on when talking about G.M.O.s which are out competing natural varieties. Other than that it was barely talked about and being such a big issue I'm surprised. Besides being a good backup for the environment i think the seed bank is just plain cool. Its a Vault built in the side of a mountain on an island in the north it reminds me of a villains lair in a James Bond movie, but not evil.