Last night I went to a book club where we discussed Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food, a brilliant manifesto on the commodification of our food industry, and the trouble with reductionist science when it comes to nutrition. The basic thesis: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. Seems straight forward enough.
But when we went around the table to debate whether or not individuals would change their habits after reading the book, the answer was a resounding no. I suppose not entirely surprising, but perhaps a tad soul crushing? I spend my entire day trying to give people the tools and information they need to make the behavioral modifications necessary to alter the crash-course direction our planet is heading in. I’ve always believed that with knowledge comes the ability to change, or at least the ability to make a choice. Perhaps there-in lies the problem – people are lazy, and don’t want to make the more difficult choice. Ah evolution, you fail me again.
Speaking of evolution (and the coming apocalypse) the Svalbard Global Seed Vault is in the news again. For those of you who haven’t heard of the project, it’s essentially a bomb-proof concrete bunker, encased in permafrost and stored way up in the Norwegian Arctic. It’s the Noah’s Ark of seed banks, designed to save us from our untimely Doomsday demise.
Apparently, our Doomsday is closer than we think. Cary Fowler, executive director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust and intellectual father of the Svalbard Seed Vault, recently had this to say:
“By the end of the century, average temperatures during growing seasons in many regions will probably be higher than the very hottest temperatures now. By 2030, we could see a 30 percent drop in maize production in Southern Africa; 2030 is only two crop generations away. We’re not talking about some time in the distant future when we all expect to be dead. We certainly can’t wake up in 2029 and decide to do something.”
Of course, saving seeds these days is easier said than done. Intellectual property rights have crept into all facets of post-industrial life, including mother nature’s own designs. The 2001 UN treaty of Plant Genetic Resources (ITPGR) officially resolved that farmers, breeder and scientists should have open access to the plant genetic resources of 64 species of the world’s major food crops, so long as they agree to return an equitable share of profit from any marketed product they derive.
Equitable share? Marketable products? I thought we were talking about food. Already Pollan’s treaty seems to be shot out the window. Saving our food sources, and global genetic biodiversity, will be a challenging task indeed.
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