Monoculture-based agriculture is threatening seed genetic pool

by Jonathon Porritt*

The number of people out there today seriously worried about the health of all the plants and seeds on which modern agriculture depends must be very limited, and the number of people actively campaigning to protect them vanishingly few. Making two radio programmes called "Save Our Seeds" forcefully reminded me just how crazy that situation is.

Of the Earth's 250,000 plant species, only 200 are cultivated for food on any serious scale. Even more extraordinary, the vast majority of the world's food comes from just 20 crops, in just eight plant families. Most of these monocultures are dangerously vulnerable to diseases (both old and new), pest infestations, and a rapidly changing climate.

Yet the "genetic pool" on which plant breeders might need to draw to build resistance and adaptability is being constantly eroded as older, non-commercial varieties disappear.

There are two ways of protecting the diversity of plants and seeds. The first is through seed banks, of which there are 1,400 across the world. Some of them survive in almost impossibly tough conditions, others well-funded with strong government support.

But seed banks can only do so much in this massive salvage operation. The seeds they store need to regularly germinated, otherwise they too die. The best way of maintaining an active and vibrant seed bank is to ensure that farmers and gardeners are planting out those "land races"
and rare varieties of plants which are now so endangered.

More often than not, that sets small-scale, subsistence farmers (on whom this kind of "active conservation" depends) in conflict with the juggernaut of industrialised, intensive agriculture.

This battle is far from over, with new efforts now under way to convert much of Africa's land into vast monocultures to produce either food or biofuels for export. And because it's just "seeds" we're talking about here, or nondescript plants for agriculture, the world just stands aside as if this continuing "war on nature" was of little importance.

One suspects that there are some harsh lessons soon to be learned.

*Jonathon Porritt is founder director of Forum for the Future and Chairman of the UK Sustainable Development Commission

Listen to Save our Seeds on BBC Radio 4 on Wednesday 14 November at 2100 GMT

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7082933.stm