Seeds of Time

10,000 years ago the biggest revolution in human history occurred: we became agrarians. We ceased hunting and gathering and began to farm, breeding and domesticating plants. As the production of high yielding, uniform varieties has increased, diversity has declined. We are confronted with the global pressures of feeding a growing population, in a time when staple crops face new threats from disease and changing climates. Crop diversity pioneer Cary Fowler travels the world, educating the public about the dire consequences of our inaction. Along with his team at The Global Crop Diversity Trust in Rome, Cary struggles to re-invent a global food system so that it can, in his words: “last forever.” With a passion few possess, Cary set out to build the world’s first global seed vault – a seed collection on a scale larger than any other. How can we best maintain the diversity that still exists for our food crops? How do we create new diversity to adapt our fields to a changing climate? The answers are as complex as the system they intend to fix. And it will require a combination of efforts: from scientists, plant breeders, researchers, farmers, politicians, and even gardeners.