Gold of the Future
and on having multiple back-ups
During our travels from the UK to our home now in Portugal, we had the fortune to meet a great number of people with unusual stories to tell. One, a young woman, let’s call her Pippa, travelled to find her purpose in life. During one conversation, my partner asked her what she thought the gold of the future might be.
Welcome (back) to The Fiertzeside! And today as the spiky green chestnut shells are about to open and the ‘strawberries’ on the arbutus tree are beginning to ripen, we have roast chestnuts and medronho, a Portuguese liquor made from arbutus berries.
What thoughts did you have about what the gold of the future might be?
I asked ChatGPT what it thought. After informing me this was a highly speculative question and I shouldn’t trust a word it says, it assumed I was an investor. It recommended cryptocurrencies, other precious metals, rare earth elements, clean energy and technology stocks, water-related infrastructure and technologies, art and collectibles like cultural artefacts, land and real estate.
As I’m not an investor, I told it potable water was close to what I was looking for. I asked if it would make a few more suggestions based on being concerned about climate crisis and social injustice. It found it hard to get away from the idea I was an investor. It warned that ethical investments aren’t as lucrative as traditional. If I really wanted to go down this road, then I should consider impact investing, which is a strategy that seeks to generate financial returns while also creating a positive social or environmental impact, or sustainable and regenerative agriculture (good to know).
I DuckDuckGo’d impact investing, not in any more measured and considered depth than the AI language model, and found that ChatGPT could be wrong.
According to the Global Impact Investing Network, more than 88% of impact investors reported that their investments met or exceeded their expectations.
Studies show that the median impact fund realized a 6.4% return, compared to 7.4% from non-impact funds.1
I can forgive the AI - it did warn me not to trust anything it said.
Pippa, like me, didn’t think about the question in those terms. I think both of us were ruminating post-capitally. In my head, it was definitely well after any concept of money existed. She came back the next day, undecided between water (ChatGPT might agree) and seeds. Pippa’s assessment was in terms of human basic needs. She settled for seeds. Her reasoning was we have the technologies to clean bad water and to keep us going in fuel, but that seed diversity had reduced rather than increased with advances in genetic technology.
Is Pippa right?
As much as we are dependent on plants for food, clothing, shelter and medicines, charitable efforts, until more recently, have been plant blind. There are a wide range of highly successful non-governmental agencies dedicated to saving animals and birds from extinction, but less to saving plants.2 With global food supplies being dependent on just 200 different varieties of crop seeds,3 genetic diversity had become severely depleted.
In a remote glacial mountain in Norway, a vast underground vault was built in 2008, specifically for the purpose of preserving food crop seed diversity. It has the capacity to hold 4.5 million seed samples of roughly 500 seeds per sample. Currently, it holds roughly 1.25 million.4
The project was the brain child of Cary Fowler who first conceived of a large vault for seeds much like vaults for gold back in the 1980s. The idea wasn’t new. Many nations have their own gene bank facilities. However, not all facilities are built with the quality needed to ensure future seed viability. After two natural disasters, the Philippines lost much of its own bank. A research station in Aleppo, Syria would have lost its bank if they hadn’t got the seeds out on time and sent to the more politically stable and trusted country of Norway. The centre keeps duplicate copies of the world’s seeds, with the exception of GMOs (Norway is extremely restrictive in the use of GMOs). Svalbard, the location of the global seed bank, is ‘safe’ in that it is remote, but still easily accessible. If there is equipment failure, its location is cold enough for the seeds to survive, something which is not possible in more tropical climates.5
When asked why agricultural diversity is important, Cary Fowler said the implications of not having it are absolutely disastrous and catastrophic.
Our human civilization would truly decline and fall without agricultural diversity. Diversity is the raw material for evolution in our agricultural crops and for adaptation, and this is taking place constantly in the agricultural world. Now we have even greater need for this diversity to help us adapt to climate change and, in the future, to changes in the availability of water, nutrients, and various fertilisers. We do not really have any viable substitutions for this diversity … I would argue that it is the most valuable natural resource on Earth, but it is probably the one we take for granted the most.6
It seems Pippa was right. The trust responsible for ensuring future funding of Svalbard Global Seed Bank and national seed banks across the world worked closely with developing countries to rescue 90,000 different crop varieties which were in danger of extinction.7
It’s a misconception, though, to assume that the bank is the solution to an eventual collapse. You can’t simply source the seeds you need and replant a devastated Earth. Other vital factors are also required. Neither are all seeds bankable. For example, banana seeds can’t be frozen, which is the typical method used.8
Having said that, the bank has already served its purpose in that by storing locally adapted plant species, countries, like Syria and the Philippines, have had the resources to recover food production after war and natural disasters.9
Plant seeds evolve. Large scale seed companies fail to fulfil the requirement of providing plants with local resilience as they offer a limited genetic range of varieties. Heirloom varieties are so sought after smaller localised seed banks have emerged.
In allotment greenhouses and back-garden potting sheds across towns, cities and villages in the UK, communities of local growers are digging deep and planting the seeds for a richer, more diverse and more resilient food system. It is a trend being repeated all over the world.10
One example is the Stroud Community Seed Bank in the south of England. This volunteer led group has 30 seed guardians, i.e. growers and seed-savers. By creating a circle of growers, they are able to exchange surplus seeds for a variety that’s well-adapted to local conditions.11 The endeavour was so successful, they now sell locally evolved seeds online.
Kate McEvoy of the highly successful Real Seeds business in the UK says,
The more you have these things being grown on a local scale and by many people, the more resilient it is. You haven’t got just one point of failure. You’ve got multiple back ups.12
Svalbard, a facility designed to survive earthquakes and equipment failure for centuries, became that single point of failure less than ten years after its foundation. Ice water melt from global warming occurred faster than predicted. The global seed bank flooded.13
Fortunately, no seeds were lost, and additional measures have been put in place to reduce the risk. However, the incident was a lesson in putting all your eggs in one basket at a cost of almost 30 million dollars, with an additional annual maintenance cost of a million.14
A multi-centre research report briefing agrees. Landraces, which are seeds that have become locally adapted in a way that makes them distinct, are more resilient to drought and pests than modern equivalents. For example, in one part of China, maize landraces survived severe drought when maize hybrids did not. While centralised seed banks help toward food security, the report argues we are in dangers of losing a lot of indigenous knowledge which is more valuable as the seeds are continually evolving, whereas centralised bank seeds are not. Localised genetic diversity is still largely undocumented and under-researched. The briefing recommends in-situ conservation, to include community seed banks.15
While larger financially consumptive measures like The Svalbard Global Seedbank serve a purpose and are valuable contributors to enduring food security, local action can’t be ignored. Small steps matter.
By doing something infinitesimally small like this tiny little gesture in a tiny little group, in a tiny little country somewhere, you are working towards something that makes you feel more hopeful. It’s a positive step. I’m not saying this is a magic wand or a cure-all, but it’s a positive step. (Josie Cowgirl, Stroud seed guardian)16
Embers
This week we have good news from Aotearoa/New Zealand.
is written by Cathy, , and . The club demonstrates easy ways for anybody in their area to take action in their spare time, whether it be 5, 15 or 30+ mins, to demand top-down action on the climate crisis. They have me keeping my fingers crossed their October election outcome favours action on climate.The
is a group of over 100 young people with an interest in more food resilience and food equity. Each has a unique food story to tell. If you are burning to know the meaning of Kaitaki, look no further than the short post below.
Up next
To complete the food series next week, I want to consider the power of story. Is there a benefit in stories like the ones I have shared so far, like the ones that the Eat New Zealand Kaitaki share? What do we know about the role of stories for behaviour change? What does it take for someone to learn about, for example the story of the grannies in Todmorden, to go home and do the same?
Take-Away
Have any of the stories shared so far impacted your own behaviour?
Let us know in the comments below!
P.S.
As part of the launch of The Fiertzeside, I have been offering a 40% discount for life on paid subscriptions. I do not intend to ever paywall posts, but any gifts received will aid in the realisation of my food forest project, currently in its second year of development. The offer ends at the end of September. If you’d like to upgrade click on the button below!
ibid.
ibid.
ibid.
So much gold in this 💛 mine! Lot to explore, fantastic:)