Seeds of Time: a documentary to plant the seeds of change

Have you ever heard about the Svalbard Global Seed Vault? It is a storage located in the Svalbard archipelago, Norway, which safeguards about 1 million seeds coming from all over the world, in order to protect them from possible man-made and natural disasters. It is the world’s most important seed bank, guided until 2012 by

Have you ever heard about the Svalbard Global Seed Vault? It is a storage located in the Svalbard archipelago, Norway, which safeguards about 1 million seeds coming from all over the world, in order to protect them from possible man-made and natural disasters. It is the world’s most important seed bank, guided until 2012 by Cary Fowler, now expert advisor of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, the foundation that manages the storage, together with the government of Oslo.

 

[vimeo url=”https://vimeo.com/73726895″]

 

On 22 May, in occasion of the International Day for Biological Biodiversity, Seeds of Time, documentary directed by Sandy MacLeod, will be premiered worldwide. Fowler, as the main character of the documentary, tries to explain to the audience that the future of agriculture, as well as ours, is in danger, due to the ongoing climate change. Monocultures make the situation worse: they are spread and imposed by multinationals, which are responsible of destroying agricultural biodiversity, whilst dramatically reducing the number of existing species.

 

terreni-agricoli

 

There’s little time left to protect food and future generations. There’s little time left to avoid that food shortages leads to revolts and starvation. There’s little time left to save farmers’ family and indigenous communities, such as in Peru, where farmers are trying desperately to save over 1,500 varieties of native potatoes. Fowler tells the stories of the journeys he embarked, which may save the one resource we cannot live without: seeds.

Translated by

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