Talks Cary Fowler: One seed at a time, protecting the future of food
Climate change has become a part of our everyday lives. Because of human activities which have caused global heating, organisms are having to adapt to changes in their environments such as increased temperatures and alterations in the distribution of precipitation. Are we headed for a global crisis if species can’t adapt quickly enough to survive the changes to their environments? The answer to this question remains to be seen. As our planet stands right now, biological diversity is declining at rates much faster than in the past decades. This loss of diversity means the loss of valuable genes that might be necessary for a particular species to adapt to future environmental changes.
Fowler stresses the importance of crop diversity. Agricultural practices are the foundation for food production, and because they are so important to our survival any loss of crop diversity could have significant impacts in the future. Life is based on evolution, or the ability to adapt and change as the surrounding environment changes. This adaptation can only be achieved through genetic diversity that has been passed on between generations and through the process of natural selection.
A large variety of different seeds for crops currently exist, but like other organisms, this diversity is also decreasing. There used to be over 7000 types of different apples in the United States. This number has since been reduced to just over 200. What happened to all the different apples? Well, the majority have become extinct; they have died off and will never be seen again. So why don’t we preserve the best seeds and therefore the best crops? The crop that may be the best adapted to current situations may not be the best suited in the future. All it takes is one good trait to allow a species to adapt, and that one good trait may not be selected through natural selection processes until sometime in the future. It takes generations for adaptations to occur. Therefore, since we are losing crop diversity, and essentially decreasing our ability to produce food for our growing population in the future, we need to begin to preserve what we already have.
Preservation of diversity has begun through the creation of a seed bank in northern Norway. On an international level, countries have gotten together and agreed that diversity must be preserved, if only through the seeds frozen in a vault so that they can be brought out and researched or grown in the future. Climate change will continue, and through this continuation crops will have to adapt to the changes despite the decreases in genetic diversity that are now occurring.
Many people are not aware of the losses associated with climate change in our genetic diversity. When the majority of society does not have a direct part in the food production processes of the world, they do not recognize or care about the struggles that many farmers face. Agriculture has experienced many set-backs as a result of decreases in precipitation, increased evaporation from soil, loss of topsoil because it has dried out and blown away, and pollution from industries that are contaminating the soils. Each of these events has resulted in crop failure. As droughts and floods become more prominent events, more significant crop failures can be expected. Thus, the threat of a global food shortage may be in the near future.
Through the use of herbicides, pesticides, and insecticides, many of the pests that have been damaging crops have now become resistant to measures that used to destroy them. This resistance has led to a further destruction in crop production because crops no longer have natural means to fight off these “super bugs”. Genetically modified organisms are not the answer either. Modifying the genetic codes of plants may only cause further problems in the future because mechanically altering the diversity of plants goes against natural measures that this plant may have adapted over time. Also, many people are unaware of the true affects that genetically modified organisms may have to human health or the synergistic effects associated with the environment. Many of the new genetically modified seeds and crops have not been thoroughly tested or researched to see their affects on not only the people who will be eating them, but also on the other plants that are part of that same community. Pollen created by a genetically modified plant may pollinate a native plant causing negative impacts such as decreased success of that native plant in the future.
People are choosing to play the hand of God when they create their own plant diversities. This method of creating plant diversity is not sustainable and may actually prove harmful to the plant in the future because it has the possibility of removing natural genes on a particular locus that may prove to be beneficial for future survival. All it takes is one gene for a plant to ensure an increased rate of survival to the next generation. After all, genes code for proteins, and these proteins then run the cells of the organisms. Changes in temperature and water availability can severely denature proteins and cause damaging effects to the overall functioning of the cells, and thus the processes and roles of the effected plant in that environment.
As food becomes a larger issue because global populations continue to increase, being able to maintain the quality and quantities of crop productions despite the drastic changes to the environment will be essential to support our hungry planet. We must keep in mind that not only are crops being affected, but so are the other forms of vegetation that we do not rely on for food. These forms of vegetation contain valuable genetic diversity and functions for the environment as well. Also, other species of animals will be influenced when their food becomes in shorter supply, or the patches of suitable habitat begin to dwindle. Climate change doesn’t just affect people, it affects every living and non-living thing on the planet.
Fowler C. Talks Cary Fowler: one seed at a time, protecting the future of food. TED [Online]. Avail from: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/cary_fowler_one_seed_at_a_time_protecting_the_future_of_food.html [2009 Jul]
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CBC. Genetically modified food: a growing debate. [Online]. Avail from: http://archives.cbc.ca/lifestyle/food/topics/1597/ [1994-2004]
