Faults in the Vault - the ice box storing seeds

28 February, 2008 in Biodiversity, Crops by Rachel P Lorenzen | No comments

All that glitters is not gold, says GRAIN an international NGO which promotes the sustainable management and use of agricultural biodiversity based on people’s control over genetic resources and local knowledge. In their latest news article they argue

…this “ultimate safety net” for the biodiversity that world farming depends on is sadly just the latest move in a wider strategy to make ex situ (off site) storage in seed banks the dominant – indeed, only – approach to crop diversity conservation. It gives a false sense of security…

…While it’s true that crop diversity needs to be rescued and protected, as irreplaceable diversity is being lost at an alarming scale, relying solely on burying seeds in freezers is no answer. The world currently has 1,500 ex situ genebanks that are failing to save and preserve crop diversity. Thousands of accessions have died in storage, as many have been rendered useless for lack of basic information about the seeds, and countless others have lost their unique characteristics or have been genetically contaminated during periodic grow-outs. This has happened throughout the ex situ system, not just in genebanks of developing countries. So the issue is not about being for or against genebanks, it is about the sole reliance on one conservation strategy that, in itself, has a lot of inherent problems.

Read the rest of the story on the GRAIN site. Svalbard-seeds-box

Tags: