Food Safety

Dan Agri View, General, Seeds

seeds of mustard, flax, coriander and sunflower are spilled from linen sacs-foodEverett Griner talks about science protecting our food future in today’s Agri View.


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I knew there was a global seed-bank somewhere. I had just forgotten about it. Well, it is in Norway. It was built in 2008 to hold seed in the event some catastrophe should destroy our crops. What I didn’t know is, this is just one of many global seed-banks. In fact there are over fifteen hundred of them in many different countries. They are holding seed in the event something like global warming affect our current crops. Now, these stored seeds are kept frozen, as much as eighteen degrees below zero. And some seed banks have as many as two billion seeds. And, they include about one-hundred thousand different plants. Now, I have a question. Will they grow? The answer is yes. Nobody knows where, but some have been tested. And they did sprout. What I have told you is just from the first paragraph of that experiment.

That’s Agri View for today. I’m Everett Griner.