![]() “We focus on sending material that’s unique to the United States,” she said. It was there, in the chilly recesses of a beige building on the Colorado State University campus, that Greene-the facility’s supervisory plant physiologist and seed curator-and her colleagues prepped seeds for Svalbard. Its impressive repository holds about 80 percent of the plant, animal, and microbial material stored in 17 genebanks spread across the 50 U.S. Greene works at the National Laboratory for Genetic Resources Preservation, the security backup system for all domestic collections-the Svalbard Seed Vault of the United States. For Greene and many of her colleagues, one example in particular underscores the importance of their work. The stakes are extremely high-which is why, for decades, conservationists have gone to great lengths to preserve these diverse varieties. What Greene and her conservationist colleagues deposited during the historic event in Svalbard is genetic material that’s now protected and will, hopefully, help ensure food security for generations to come. These seeds are precious, the foundations of every meal we eat-from produce, pulses, and grains to the feed that nourishes livestock. ![]() Co-managed by the Norwegian government, the Crop Trust, and the Nordic Genetic Resource Center (NordGen), the facility is intended to back up important seed collections from the world’s roughly 2,000 seedbanks. Scientists, farmers, and food companies rely on genetic diversity to breed new varieties that increase yields, make crops more nutritious or climate-tolerant, and mitigate the pests and diseases that ravage plant and animal populations-the sudden, devastating outbreaks that are not dissimilar from our current human pandemic.Īlthough entities throughout the world conserve a wide range of materials for food and agriculture (ranging from baker’s yeast to honeybee semen), seeds are the foundation of most stored collections, and the only material stored at the Global Seed Vault. Over centuries, these efforts have gotten more sophisticated, but a single theme endures: Having access to a broad range of genetic traits allows us to meet the challenges we face in growing and raising food. ![]() Since the dawn of agriculture, humans have saved seeds, roots, and other kinds of genetic material, modifying them in attempts to make the foods we consume more prolific, resilient, and delicious. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |