14 DAY TRIAL // In a bid to preserve well over 100,000 species of plants, researchers are currently mobilizing their efforts and are trying to bring as many types of plants to the Arctic Seed Vault (ASV), a “safe deposit box” of sorts, initiated by the Global Crop Diversity Trust. Reportedly, over the last few months reserves have been constantly growing, with more and more seeds being brought in for preservation. As soon as the effects of global warming will become severe enough to endanger the global food supply, these seeds will be used to replant crops and provide sufficient nutrient sources for the population.
“These resources stand between us and catastrophic starvation. You can't imagine a solution to climate change without crop diversity. Evolution is in our control. It's in our seed bank. You take traits form different varieties and make new ones,” Cary Fowler, who is the executive director at the GCDT, says.
He points out that the main drive behind the ASV is the fact that current crops are predicted not to be able to withstand the fast-changing effects of global warming, including droughts, more intense weather, and soil erosion. Pests and diseases will also severely affect the way in which people now grow their plants. And if, the scientist argues, the large Asian cereal fields are affected by climate change, then the world could see widespread famine without even knowing it.
The expert also adds that there are currently a handful of people in the entire world working on genetic recombination of crops, so as to create new, more resilient ones. “Six people in the world are breeding bananas. Ditto for yams, a major crop in Africa,” he has explained at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), held in Chicago.
“When you lose one of these samples, you're losing something you can't find in a farmer's field. We can't afford to lose this diversity when it's so easy and cheap to conserve it,” he states. In 1903, US authorities planted some 578 varieties of beans, whereas in 1983 just 32 remained. Under these conditions, it makes sense for the ASV team to try to gather as many varieties of plants as they can, to be used later on.