“All human life, all life, depends on plants,” says Jonathan Drori in his TED talk about the Millennium Seed Bank. This project involves collecting seeds in an underground storage facility strong enough to withstand a nuclear attack. It holds over 2 billion seeds, which represent over 10% of the world’s variety of plants.
Drori points out that plants are important to humans for medicine, fuel, construction, clothing and, of course, food. The world’s oldest seed bank was created by Nikolai Vavilov to protect humanity’s food supply.
Vavilov was born in Moscow in 1887. He grew up in rural Russia in an area that faced crop failure, drought, and famine during his childhood. “According to one source, ‘he was obsessed from an early age with ending famine in both his native Russia and the world.’”
Vavilov determined that the biggest danger to food security was over dependence on single species of crops. If a disease or pest were to wipe out a species of plant, it could cause millions to starve. The solution to world hunger was genetic diversity. With enough seed diversity, scientists would be able to breed new varieties of plants that could withstand drought, pests, disease or whatever the danger might be.
Vavilov traveled the world visiting five continents collecting seeds and founded the world’s first seed bank in Leningrad. Vavilov fell out of favor with Stalin in 1941 and was arrested by the KGB. Vavilov only survived one year in prison due to a poor diet of frozen cabbage and moldy wheat. Ironically, the man who was obsessed with ending famine died of starvation.
Vavilov’s work did not end with his death. Not long after he was arrested, Leningrad was put under siege by the Nazis. It was a 2-and-a-half year siege under which over a million died, many due to starvation. It was under these conditions that the scientists who worked in Vavilov’s seed bank continued their work.
They guarded over 187,000 seeds while the city was being bombed. They didn’t only protect the seeds from being destroyed by bombs, but also from the citizens of Leningrad who were starving by the thousands. The scientists, too, were starving, so they made a rule that no scientist could be in a seed storage room alone for fear that he or she might eat the seeds. Over the course of the siege, nine scientists died of starvation to protect the future of millions of potential lives.
The Vavilov seed bank still continues its work today and is now one of hundreds of seed banks around the world that seek to secure the future of humanity.
Read More:
Starving for Science
How Nikolay Vavilov, the seed collector who tried to end famine, died of starvation
“All human life, all life, depends on plants,” says Jonathan Drori. He was speaking about the Millennium Seed Bank. The bank collects seeds underground. It is in a place strong enough to survive a nuclear attack. It holds over 2 billion seeds. This is over 10% of the world’s variety of plants.
Drori points out that plants are so important to humans. We use them for medicine, fuel, construction, clothes, and, of course, food. Nikolai Vavilov created the world’s oldest seed bank to protect the world’s food supply.
Vavilov was born in Moscow in 1887. He grew up in rural Russia. It was an area that faced many problems. There was crop failure and starvation during his childhood. He was obsessed from an early age with ending world hunger.
Vavilov thought the biggest danger was over-dependence on single types of foods. If a disease or bug were to wipe out a type of plant, it could cause millions to starve. The solution to world hunger was variety. With enough seed variety, scientists could make new types of plants. They could breed plants to survive too little rain, bugs, disease, or whatever the danger might be.
Vavilov traveled the world collecting seeds. He then started the world’s first seed bank in Leningrad. Vavilov fell out of favor with Stalin in 1941. He was arrested by the KGB. Vavilov only survived one year in prison due to a poor diet of frozen cabbage and moldy wheat. Ironically, the man who was obsessed with ending world hunger died of starvation.
Vavilov’s work did not end with his death. Not long after he was arrested, Leningrad was surrounded by the Nazis. Over a million died. Many died due to starvation. During this time, the scientists who worked in Vavilov’s seed bank continued their work.
They guarded over 187,000 seeds while the city was being bombed. They didn’t only protect the seeds from bombs. They also had to protect them from the hungry people of Leningrad. The scientists, too, were hungry. They made a rule that no scientist could be in a seed storage room alone for fear that he or she might eat the seeds. During this time, nine scientists died of starvation. They gave their lives to protect millions of future lives.
The Vavilov seed bank still continues its work today. It is now one of hundreds of seed banks around the world protecting the future of humanity.
Read More:
Starving for Science
How Nikolay Vavilov, the seed collector who tried to end famine, died of starvation
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