Seed: The Untold Story Page #2

As modern creatures,

we're in debt to that.

They are the last

expression of these stewards

going back thousands of years

that took care of these things

and made sure that we got them.

I had somebody the other day

call this Fort Knox. (laughs)

There's just so

much wealth in here.

There's about two thousand

different varieties

of invaluable

agricultural crops.

All 38 generations,

all this energy comes

down into the seed,

you get to hold it and

then all the future

and the millions more that

can come out goes out.

And you are at that point

when you hold those seeds

in your hands.

Right here is the mother corn.

This is the ancient ancestor

from which all corn came.

And that's what we're losing.

I mean we just don't

have the time left again

on this small planet to

recreate all this stuff.

That's why it's so invaluable.

Once it's gone, it's gone.

Seeds are living embryos.

They do have a life span.

(calm but melancholy music)

We try to grow everything

out every 10 years,

that's why we have

the 60 acre farm here.

We are hugely vulnerable

with all of those seeds.

You think about crimes

against humanity,

blow up a seed bank in war.

(loud explosions)

It becomes an immediate

target to weaken a country.

(loud explosions)

When we invaded Iraq,

we destroyed that seed bank

and we destroyed that garden.

And we destroyed that repository

of the great ancient seeds

that had been collected

by that government

for the benefit of mankind.

(machine gun clanks and fires)

(bomb explodes)

(cannons explode)

(metal creaks)

During World War II,

Hitler was aiming to conquer

Nikolai Vavilov's seed

bank in Saint Petersburg.

And the people associated

with that seed bank

holed themselves

up in the building

and kept those seeds protected,

even though they were

starving to death

and missiles and bombs were

landing all around them.

(moves into soft and

relaxing strings music)

I remember gardening

with these little hands.

Now they have

gardens of their own

and children of their own.

If there's no one to

pass that seed onto,

that living link and

that living seed is lost.

These are grandpa's

Morning Glories,

the seed that started

the whole movement.

When we started Seed

Savers in the 70's,

we didn't have anything,

we just had an idea and a dream

so we had thousands of

beans in my living room.

It was now our responsibility

to keep all those

bean varieties alive

what we've saved over those

years is irreplaceable

and if we hadn't started then,

we would've lost a lot more.

It's always amazing to me

when I started out with

two varieties of seed

and now I'm here looking at

over 24,000 accessions of seed

that we're permanently

maintaining at the seed vault.

All of our seeds are in

air tight foil packs,

so they're not

maintaining any moisture.

We also store a backup

collection at the seed vault

off the coast of

Norway, at Svalbard.

Svalbard has been called

the doomsday seed vault.

The idea is that if one

of these asteroids hits,

and causes a tsunami that

wipes out part of the world

or there's catastrophic

cultural and economic collapse.

You know, we see all the seed

banks in the world looted,

just for food.

The idea was to have a backup,

like the ultimate

backup just in case

the seed bank is destroyed and

they need their seeds back.

But the problem with it is that

we think that we don't have

to worry about this now.

It gives a false

sense of security.

All the gene banks,

they're all arks.

Ultimately, life does

not go on in an ark.

I'm not confident

that any of us.

Have got something

long term in place

that can weather the slings and

arrows of outrageous fortune

that might come our way

(rain pours intensely)

We're now facing

severity of climate change,

the most radical we've had

since the last ice age.

This is happening at

an unprecedented rate

and it's putting pressure on

the diversity of life forms.

You know this is the

driest they have seen

since 119 years.

The Golden state's drought

the worst in over 1000 years.

In northern New Mexico,

we have a series of

drier and drier years.

Normally, this time of the year,

we're going to get

ready for planting,

but there's not any moisture.

Usually, you'll hit a wet spot.

Lot of the animals begin to

feel the effects of the drought.

They consumed probably

a third of our corn

and all of our beans.

It's tough for everybody.

(calm but somber

woodwinds music)

Our corn is among

the few places

that is environmentally

adapted to drought.

The Hopi grow corn

with no irrigation.

All of our ceremonies

are for rain.

(drums beat in unison)

You petition the clouds

to come and bless us.

We say in our prayers,

may the cloud people come.

(thunder claps)

May the Cachina people come

and visit us and bring us rain.

May the corn grow up and

produce their young ones.

You never lose faith

in the cloud people.

This is a way that my

prayers have been answered.

One day,

our corn will become very, very

valuable to human survival.

I was very, very fortunate

when I was a child,

there was a fantastic tree.

My tree began from

a tiny little seed

and I spent hours and hours up

in the branches of that tree.

And how magic that it could

actually grow into a big tree.

That tree is still

in the garden today.

(moves into calm, upbeat music)

Seeds are so crafty.

There is a power, it's a magic.

To me it's magic.

It's a life force is so strong.

There are seeds

that rely on fire

There are seeds that tangle

up in the hair of an animal

They get carried for miles

There are seeds

that can't germinate

unless they pass through

the gut of an animal.

Darwin was amazed

that a seed grew

after it had been 21 hours

in the stomach of an owl.

A seed is a doorway

between the life

of the old plant

and its gift to the new plant.

Our teachers are the plants.

And they're teaching us

that they have to

sacrifice themselves

in order to be able

to give something

to the next generation.

It's a form of reincarnation.

(moves into serene

and calm violin music)

[Patrick] Come on in.

Come on in.

Hello Hello.

Come on in, welcome.

Oh my gosh.

Oh my gosh this is amazing!

Check it out, Check it out.

This is how we roll.

That's why they

call me the corn,

they call me the corn hippie.

Guys, This is unbelievable.

There's so much corn here,

I mean, right here in

these bags right here.

This one has 87

different kinds of corn

- from Urubama Vale.

- Oh my God.

This is from

the sacred valley.

It has to get certified

with the phytosanitary

with the Peruvian government.

And once we get it certified,

then we're ready to ship it

wherever we want to send it.

That's astounding.

Look at that fava.

For all the crazy people like

me who sit there at night

and look at bags of beans,

it leaves us a mystery.

This is so precious.

No one even has an idea

how much they look like jewels.

They look like polished

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes