Global Effort to Save Endangered Crops Gets $37.5 Million Infusion

The combined pressures of climate change with a growing population could threaten crop diversity and global food supplies. An international effort to save endangered crop seeds, including a global database on plant gene banks, is underway, from Global Crop Diversity Trust and the United Nations Foundation. Weather, neglect and war can eliminate rare strains of barley, coconut, taro, wheat and other plants. The project includes saving aging seeds and growing plants to collect new seeds or cuttings. Trust members will store seeds and cuttings in bunkers on an Arctic island, part of an effort to protect the global food supply in the event of major catastrophe. – YaleGlobal