Why focus on indigenous seeds?
Apr 12, 2011
ALMOST all African countries, including Uganda and countries from around the world have deposited indigenous and conventional seeds for safekeeping at the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway.
By Dr Opiyo Oloya
ALMOST all African countries, including Uganda and countries from around the world have deposited indigenous and conventional seeds for safekeeping at the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway.
Also known as the “Doomsday Seed Vaultâ€, the unique facility is a modern-day Noah’s Ark that officially opened its doors on February 26, 2008. It was dug deep into the mountain located on Svalbard islands in northern Norway where the cold temperature ensures that seeds could be stored for several decades to hundreds of years and still be able to grow when replanted.
Working just like a bank, Svalbard Global Seed Vault (SGSV) allows institutions, countries and food crop gene banks from around the world to store seeds for safekeeping from “natural disasters, war or the lack of management or finance.†The institution that deposits the seeds can withdraw them at any time. Interestingly, Svalbard does not accept any seed that is genetically modified. The official reason given is that “until changes can be made to the rules or exemptions can be provided from them, long-term storage of GMO seeds in the SGSV will not be approvedâ€.
On March 10, 2010, Uganda’s National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO) deposited 4,244,024 seeds from a variety of Eleusine coracana also known as finger millet. Meanwhile, seeds from other Uganda food crops including soybean, sorghum, groundnuts and blackeyed peas were deposited by the US-based National Plant Germaplasm, Nigeria-based International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, and India-based International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics. Here then is the million-dollar question: If the indigenous seeds are important enough for scientists to fight to preserve in a seed vault deep in the belly of a mountain in Norway, would it not make sense to ensure these seeds survive within their own environments?
It could be that since not much is known about how genetically modified crops will behave five decades from now, the indigenous and conventional seeds at Svalbard are food insurance for the future. It is also possible that the seeds stored at Svalbard could be used in the future by biotech companies to create new genetically modified crops for more profits. It is interesting to note that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation which has teamed up with biotech giant Monsanto to fund genetically modified crop research has also donated considerable sums of money for the running of Svalbard Global Seed Bank. Two other biotech companies Syngenta and Dupont/Pioneer Seeds have also donated some money toward the operational cost of running Svalbard Global Seed Vault. However, regardless of the reasons for the creation of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, lawmakers, environmental groups, farmers and global community groups are sparing no effort to preserve the indigenous and conventional seeds from contamination by genetically modified crops.
Rather than simply stop the GMO juggernaut, tactics include legal battles, mass rallies, petitions and education to preserve indigenous and conventional seeds. Canada, for example, Bill C-474 was an unsuccessful attempt to amend the Seeds Regulation Acts so that potential harm to the market could be assessed before permitting new genetically modified seed. The legislation was aimed at preventing another disaster following the collapse of the Canadian flax export to the European Union when illegal genetically modified flax variety called CDC Triffid contaminated the conventional crop in 2010.
Although the law was voted down after a hard lobby from the biotech industry, Canadian farmers were quick to note that the bill forced a major debate on GMO crops.
In the US, the legal challenges against GMO continue on several fronts including those led by the Center for Food Safety (CFS), a non-profit organisation that has waged battles against the US government and biotech industry.
In January, along with others, CFS successfully fought off attempts to plant GM crops in national wildlife refuges in 12 states. The organisation is now working to get the US government to label all GM products on the supermarket shelves. There is currently no law in Canada and the United States that requires producers of GM foods to label their products to allow consumers to make informed choice.
In South Africa, meanwhile, food producers, importers and packagers will be required to choose one of three mandatory labels for GM foods and marketing materials beginning October 1, 2011. This makes South Africa one of the first African nations to follow the European Union members in requiring the labelling of GM products.
These grassroots efforts to preserve indigenous and conventional seeds within their own habitats ensure that these seeds will always be available to all as they have been for thousand of years.
While the Svalbard Global Seed Vault is a very noble effort that must be applauded, it leaves the important link in the production of food in the hands of the few scientists and researchers and not the farmers. It is for this reason that each country must become its own seed vault by creating legislations, policies and infrastructure that promote the preservations of the indigenous and conventional seed varieties.
Opiyo.oloya@sympatico.ca
ALMOST all African countries, including Uganda and countries from around the world have deposited indigenous and conventional seeds for safekeeping at the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway.
Also known as the “Doomsday Seed Vaultâ€, the unique facility is a modern-day Noah’s Ark that officially opened its doors on February 26, 2008. It was dug deep into the mountain located on Svalbard islands in northern Norway where the cold temperature ensures that seeds could be stored for several decades to hundreds of years and still be able to grow when replanted.
Working just like a bank, Svalbard Global Seed Vault (SGSV) allows institutions, countries and food crop gene banks from around the world to store seeds for safekeeping from “natural disasters, war or the lack of management or finance.†The institution that deposits the seeds can withdraw them at any time. Interestingly, Svalbard does not accept any seed that is genetically modified. The official reason given is that “until changes can be made to the rules or exemptions can be provided from them, long-term storage of GMO seeds in the SGSV will not be approvedâ€.
On March 10, 2010, Uganda’s National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO) deposited 4,244,024 seeds from a variety of Eleusine coracana also known as finger millet. Meanwhile, seeds from other Uganda food crops including soybean, sorghum, groundnuts and blackeyed peas were deposited by the US-based National Plant Germaplasm, Nigeria-based International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, and India-based International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics. Here then is the million-dollar question: If the indigenous seeds are important enough for scientists to fight to preserve in a seed vault deep in the belly of a mountain in Norway, would it not make sense to ensure these seeds survive within their own environments?
It could be that since not much is known about how genetically modified crops will behave five decades from now, the indigenous and conventional seeds at Svalbard are food insurance for the future. It is also possible that the seeds stored at Svalbard could be used in the future by biotech companies to create new genetically modified crops for more profits. It is interesting to note that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation which has teamed up with biotech giant Monsanto to fund genetically modified crop research has also donated considerable sums of money for the running of Svalbard Global Seed Bank. Two other biotech companies Syngenta and Dupont/Pioneer Seeds have also donated some money toward the operational cost of running Svalbard Global Seed Vault. However, regardless of the reasons for the creation of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, lawmakers, environmental groups, farmers and global community groups are sparing no effort to preserve the indigenous and conventional seeds from contamination by genetically modified crops.
Rather than simply stop the GMO juggernaut, tactics include legal battles, mass rallies, petitions and education to preserve indigenous and conventional seeds. Canada, for example, Bill C-474 was an unsuccessful attempt to amend the Seeds Regulation Acts so that potential harm to the market could be assessed before permitting new genetically modified seed. The legislation was aimed at preventing another disaster following the collapse of the Canadian flax export to the European Union when illegal genetically modified flax variety called CDC Triffid contaminated the conventional crop in 2010.
Although the law was voted down after a hard lobby from the biotech industry, Canadian farmers were quick to note that the bill forced a major debate on GMO crops.
In the US, the legal challenges against GMO continue on several fronts including those led by the Center for Food Safety (CFS), a non-profit organisation that has waged battles against the US government and biotech industry.
In January, along with others, CFS successfully fought off attempts to plant GM crops in national wildlife refuges in 12 states. The organisation is now working to get the US government to label all GM products on the supermarket shelves. There is currently no law in Canada and the United States that requires producers of GM foods to label their products to allow consumers to make informed choice.
In South Africa, meanwhile, food producers, importers and packagers will be required to choose one of three mandatory labels for GM foods and marketing materials beginning October 1, 2011. This makes South Africa one of the first African nations to follow the European Union members in requiring the labelling of GM products.
These grassroots efforts to preserve indigenous and conventional seeds within their own habitats ensure that these seeds will always be available to all as they have been for thousand of years.
While the Svalbard Global Seed Vault is a very noble effort that must be applauded, it leaves the important link in the production of food in the hands of the few scientists and researchers and not the farmers. It is for this reason that each country must become its own seed vault by creating legislations, policies and infrastructure that promote the preservations of the indigenous and conventional seed varieties.
Opiyo.oloya@sympatico.ca