50 images Created 7 Feb 2018
Heirlooms: Seed & Breeds
Extinction threatens many species of wildlife on Earth, But our world is also facing another, different extinction: that of our heritage of domesticated livestock and crops. Without them and their rich biodiversity built up over 10,000 years of domestic breeding, we face great danger in feeding the world’s growing population -- with potentially catastrophic results.
Generations of painstaking breeding has produced supreme adaptations which allowed mankind to prosper in wildly differing environments and improbable places. Intensive agriculture (and its modern incarnation, industrial agriculture) striving for high yields inevitably casts aside diversity in favor of maximum uniformity and production. The danger comes when new diseases or climactic disasters threaten our food supply. Then the forgotten diversity becomes mankind’s last lifeline. And the possible loss would be more than just economic, but the loss one of mankind’s greatest legacies.
Around the world, scientists and farmers alike are racing to save our domesticated heritage for future generations depending on them to feed our ballooning world population. This is a story of that shared heritage in peril, of the people working to save it, and of the richness and beauty that has been entrusted to us.
Generations of painstaking breeding has produced supreme adaptations which allowed mankind to prosper in wildly differing environments and improbable places. Intensive agriculture (and its modern incarnation, industrial agriculture) striving for high yields inevitably casts aside diversity in favor of maximum uniformity and production. The danger comes when new diseases or climactic disasters threaten our food supply. Then the forgotten diversity becomes mankind’s last lifeline. And the possible loss would be more than just economic, but the loss one of mankind’s greatest legacies.
Around the world, scientists and farmers alike are racing to save our domesticated heritage for future generations depending on them to feed our ballooning world population. This is a story of that shared heritage in peril, of the people working to save it, and of the richness and beauty that has been entrusted to us.