Voice 1
Thank you for joining us for today’s Spotlight. I’m Courtney Schutt.
Voice 2
And I’m Ryan Geertsma. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.
Voice 1
In July 2006, five leaders from five different nations joined together. They met on the islands of Svalbard Norway, just one thousand [1000] kilometres from the North Pole. They came together to lay the first stones of a new project - a large vault that will only hold seeds!
Voice 2
Today’s Spotlight is on “Noah’s Ark of Svalbard.” It will hold all the seeds of all the world’s crops.
Voice 1
The air we breathe. The water we drink. The foods we eat. These are the most important resources for human life. They are things we need to protect.
Voice 2
We can keep the air clean in many different ways. For example, we can burn less coal and oil. They pollute the air.
Voice 1
And we can keep water supplies clean too. We can use fewer chemicals. Chemicals sink into the ground into our drinking water.
Voice 2
But how can we protect our food?
Voice 1
People all over the world enjoy many different kinds of foods. All of these foods were at one time very small seeds. All of the world’s seeds represent crop diversity. Crops can be different in their size, height, flower colour, fruiting time, seed size, and taste. But, crop diversity is at risk of disappearing.
Voice 2
For example, in 1949 China grew ten thousand [10,000] different kinds of wheat. By the 1970s there were only one thousand [1000] different kinds left.
Voice 1
In the 1800s, the United States grew seven thousand [7000] different kinds of apples. Now, only three hundred [300] different kinds remain.
Voice 2
Mexico has lost eighty [80] percent of their corn crop diversity. And, India has lost ninety [90] percent of their rice crop diversity. Often this happens when farmers start using new kinds of seeds. The old seeds are lost. They become extinct and disappear.
Voice 1
You see, there are not many ways to protect crop diversity. Climate changes, natural disasters like storms and floods, and disease threaten crop diversity. War threatens crop diversity. Even people threaten crop diversity!
Voice 2
That’s right. World hunger is a serious problem. The earth struggles to supply enough food for people in some areas of the world. And population numbers are rising. There are already about six billion [6,000,000,000] people on earth. Experts believe that by the year 2050 there will be nine billion [9,000,000,000] people on earth. Protecting crop diversity will be important for the future. Crop diversity will be the only way to feed those nine billion [9,000,000,000] people!
Voice 1
But feeding people is just one reason to protect crop diversity. There are other reasons. For example, crop diversity helps protect crops against disease extinction. Imagine if there was only one kind of corn. Now imagine if that corn crop got a disease. We would lose corn forever. Crop diversity protects crops from disappearing.
Voice 2
Also, genetically mixing different kinds of crops together can create new crops. Some of these new crops can resist disease. Some can live in cold temperatures. Others can live during times with no water. And some can grow without using chemicals. These new crops will help fight world hunger in the future.
Voice 1
These are the reasons why the Global Crop Diversity Trust has started a new project. People working with the Trust want to create a “biological basis of all agriculture.” That is, they want to hold some of ALL of the world’s seeds inside of a vault. They want to protect the earth’s crop diversity.
Voice 2
The leader of agriculture in Norway is Terje Riis-Johansen. He explains the purpose of the vault.
Voice 3
“The vault’s purpose is to protect the survival of crop diversity in the event of plant diseases, nuclear war, natural disasters or climate change. It will also offer the world a chance to restart growth of food crops that may have disappeared.”
Voice 2
Their first duty is to collect all the earth’s seeds!
Voice 1
Just imagine trying to collect all of the world’s different kinds of seeds. This would be a very hard job! Did you know that there are more that one hundred thousand [100,000] different kinds of RICE alone? Now imagine collecting all the different kinds of fruits, vegetables and grains. The Global Crop Diversity Trust hopes to hold over three million seeds in their vault. It seems like an almost impossible job.
Voice 2
But, one hundred [100] countries support the idea of the vault. They are interested in storing and protecting their country’s seeds. So, many people are cooperating to collect their seeds. With so many people working together, the job does not seem as difficult.
Voice 1
The Trust decided to put its vault on Svalbard, a group of Norwegian islands. These islands are very far north, near the North Pole. First, people working for the Trust will drill, or dig a tunnel seventy [70] metres into a mountain. The vault will be inside of the mountain.
Voice 2
Second, they plan to keep temperatures at a cool negative eighteen [-18] degrees. But, what if there is a power failure? Then, the seeds may die. But, that is why the Trust chose Svalbard. Even if the power fails, the vault temperature will not rise above freezing. That is because the mountain is covered with permafrost. Permafrost is soil that stays frozen all year. So, it is like the mountain is frozen. Permafrost will help keep the vault cold. In cold temperatures seeds can survive for thousands of years.
Voice 1
Third, the Trust will build two large steel doors to protect the vault. Only a remote control in Sweden can open these steel doors. They will only open if a person in Sweden turns a particular control key.
Voice 2
And finally, the Trust plans to protect the vault in one other way. They plan to let nature take control! You see, Svalbard is home to many polar bears. These large white animals walk free on the islands. They hunt for food. And you can be sure that the bears will chase away people trying to harm the vault.
Voice 1
Each seed that people plant has its own story. The seed will grow into a fruit, into a vegetable, or into a grain. Families will eat their own crops. Or they will sell it in a market for other people to eat. Some crops travel across the world before people eat them. But, every piece of food that you eat started its story as a seed. Protecting crop diversity is important to continue the story of seeds. Not only that, but crop diversity is important to continue the story of people too.
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