Working to Protect Plants for Future Generations

21 February 2012

Paul Wallace of Petaluma Seed Bank looks at heirloom seeds. Many are traditional varieties passed down from generation to generation.

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: I’m Chrisopher Cruise.

MARIO RITTER: And I’m Mario Ritter with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about concerns about plant life, including agricultural crops. And we tell about efforts to keep them growing in the years to come.

(MUSIC)

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: Agricultural experts say crop diversity is important to feed the increasing population of our planet. They say having a large variety of plants also helps to protect against possible crop diseases and future crises.

Hundreds of thousands of different plants now exist. But many experts say the number has decreased sharply during the past century.

One of the world’s largest seed conservation projects has predicted further losses. The Millennium Seed Bank Partnership is warning that up to one hundred thousand plant species could permanently disappear. The rich collection of genes that decide their qualities would disappear with them.

MARIO RITTER: Many experts blame climate change and loss of habitat, normal growth area, for damaging plant life. They say human activities and poorly planned, overly heavy use of land also are responsible.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization says modern business farming is responsible for loss of farmers’ traditional crop varieties. The “Green Revolution” of the twentieth century changed agriculture. Some experts say the use of modern commercial farming methods saved millions of people from starvation. Farmers planted, watered, and fertilized their crops with the help of machines. They treated their fields with chemicals to control insects and diseases. Harvests grew larger and higher quality.