 The Doomsday Vault |
The final design for a "doomsday" vault that will house seeds from all known varieties of food crops has been unveiled by the Norwegian government. The Svalbard International Seed Vault will be built into a mountainside on a remote island near the North Pole. The vault aims to safeguard the world's agriculture from future catastrophes, such as nuclear war, asteroid strikes and climate change. Construction begins in March, and the seed bank is scheduled to open in 2008. - BBC
Global warming concerns recently pushed the big hand of the Doomsday Clock a couple of minutes closer to midnight, so I guess a 'doomsday vault' for seeds is a logical continuation of thought as our world is heating up. But, ironically, seeds, and therefore our existence, have been under threat for years - and from the same corporations that are the driving force behind climate change.
Traditional varieties of vegetables and grains are a vital heritage: they could be the key to our food security in the future. But, where hundreds of varieties of a crop were once grown, now there may be only two or three, or the crop itself may have been abandoned.
 U.S. Farmers struggle against the might of corporate agribusiness. Third World Farmers have even less hope of winning... |
Plant Patenting Laws have made seeds big business, largely controlled by a handful of big companies.... Varieties that do not have a world market lose their place and may no longer be sold. Soon they vanish, forever. Yet the lack of genetic diversity in food crops greatly increases their vulnerability to pests and disease -- while breeding new resistant varieties requires the germ-plasm of the old varieties which are being lost. And at a time when the global climate is changing in unpredictable ways, nobody knows what sort of crops may be needed in the future -- the meagre number of commercial varieties available could prove useless in the new conditions. The brave new seeds of the "Green Revolution" are hybrids -- so-called HYVs, high-yielding varieties that will not breed true and must be bought anew from the seed companies each year. Others have renamed them HRVs -- high-response varieties, increasingly bred to respond to high levels of chemical fertilizers and for resistance to toxic pesticides. Seldom are the high yields reported in the test fields reproduced on actual farms, less still on the small farms most Third World people depend on for their food supply. And the new seeds lack the nutritional content of the traditional varieties.
 High-yielding hybrid corn, about as nutritious as tissue paper |
Other tests have shown that old varieties, grown with good soil management and NO chemicals, can equal the yields of the hybrids and far surpass their nutritional quality. And, unlike the traditional varieties, the new hybrids do not last long -- even with high levels of chemical protection, they succumb to pest attack after a few years and have to be replaced by another newly bred hybrid. And here lies the problem: the germplasm for the new seeds comes from the old varieties, but the new seeds displace the old -- often where once scores or hundreds of old varieties were grown, now there's only one, the same new variety that now needs replacing. As one expert commented, it's a strange technology that destroys the very foundation it depends on. The development of GE (Genetically Engineered) seeds (also termed GMOs -- Genetically Modified Organisms) that contain genes from quite different plants -- or from life-forms that are not plants at all -- has now taken the erosion of sustainable crop varieties to a whole new level of risk. - JourneyToForever
Through our western interference, people that have survived for thousands of years on the same pieces of land are now struggling with problems caused by our seeds, chemicals, and unsustainable agricultural methods - all of which transform their soils from CO2 sinks, into CO2 generators. Many of these peasant farmers are committing suicide by drinking the very chemicals that caused their desperation:
The Indian government was forced to reform its agricultural policy in the late 1960s when an imbalance in food imports was exacerbated by two years of drought in 1965 and 1966. World Bank, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the U.S. Agency for International Development chipped in assistance to develop high-yield rice and wheat "miracle seeds." These seeds, combined with the Indian government's assistance with modern farm machinery, price incentives and a more efficient food distribution system, resulted in what came to be known as the Green Revolution.
 Thousands of women are being deserted by their husbands through suicide |
The new seeds and fertilizers worked for many: India's food production rose from 72 million tons in 1965-66 to 152 million tons in 1983-84, eliminating the country's dependence on food grain imports. In addition to their planting the new seeds, farmers' use of chemical fertilizers jumped from 1.1 million tons to more than 12.5 million tons in the first decade of the Green Revolution, and irrigated land grew from 74 million acres in 1965-66 to 111 million acres in 1988-89. In the late 1980s, however, the Green Revolution began to fall apart as the chemical fertilizers rendered soil infertile. Farmers who had once diversified risk by growing as many as 30 different crops in their fields were dependent upon just one. As the quality of the soil deteriorated, they faced zero yields and an inability to pay their debts. Three years of drought beginning in 2001 further fueled the crisis. Twenty-five thousand farmers have committed suicide under these circumstances since 1997. In the state of Andhra Pradesh alone, 4,500 farmers have committed suicide in the past seven years. This does not include the number of family members of farmers who have also killed themselves. - Frontline World
Save The World Tip: Examine the source of your seed purchases. Purchase only from smaller reputable companies that promote diversity and eschew genetic modifications. Examine your food purchases, and buy locally produced food from farmers you trust. Post Global Warming Disaster Tip: When you scramble to the thawed North Pole to locate the doomsday vault, try to ensure a Monsanto or Cargill representative doesn't get there first.... Further Reading:
