Vol. 220. No.1. July 2011
Food Ark
Author: Charles Siebert
I had been blind about what's going on around me and what will come to us in the future! The article, Food Ark, by Siebert opened my eyes. According to this article, the food supply must be doubled to satisfy our growing population in a few decades, and one of the important keys to accomplish this is to preserve biodiversity. Siebert alerts that a large number of species in plants and animals has been extinct due to a selection of particular species by human beings. These selected species are high-yield crops and easy to be cultivated by humans, but they do not give us only good sides. They are sometimes vulnerable to insects and diseases, so they require high dose of chemical treatments such as insecticides. As a result of this selection, only a small number of species are cultivated on earth, and this will give us a devastating consequence once a disease spread among them, because we have lost so many other species for backups. In order to avoid this disaster, some people store variety of plant seeds, so-called seed banks. Once selected plants are vanished by a disease or a climate change, these seed banks will be able to provide a stored plant that is resistant to the disease and to rescue the possible crisis of famine on earth.
Until I read this article, I did not know the fact that
1) the food production will be required to be doubled in a few decades,
2) a large number of plant and animal species has been already extinct due to a human selection,
and 3) there are seed banks to preserve biodiversity for future.
It first seemed counterintuitive that biodiversity is necessary for increasing a food production for future, but here is an explanation. We know that a natural selection is done by an environment, and only species, which well fit in the environment, can pass on their genes to next generations. Thus, these species tend to be strong and resistant to some diseases. However, selection of species was not only done by the environment but also by human beings in our history. Farmers chose species that are easy to take care of and produce large number of offsprings, but this is not necessarily that these species are strong. In fact, according to this article, there were devastating famines in the past due to stem rust (Ug99) that spread from Africa to China and killed most of wheat. For not only diseases but also for a climate change, preserving biodiversity will give us a big benefit as backups in case when such famine occurs again.
In order to keep biodiversity on earth, the seed bank is a fascinating idea to preserve variety of plant seeds. However, how about animal species? It is easy for plant seeds to be preserved under a cool, sterile condition, but it cannot be the same way for animals. If animal species are stored in a "bank," it should be in a way that is similar to a sperm/egg bank for humans, which requires high cost to maintain freshness under a liquid nitrogen. Have scientists already stored variety of animal species in this way, or in what way? This article did not give us a clear explanation about this, but despite the fact, it does tell us an importance of biodiversity for our future food production of both plants and animals in order to avoid a possible famine.
The following is the edited version:
Vol. 220. No.1. July 2011
Food Ark
Author: Charles Siebert
I had been blind about what's going on around me and what will come to us in the future! The article, Food Ark, by Siebert opened my eyes. According to this article, the food supply must be doubled to satisfy our growing population in a few decades, and one of the important keys to accomplish this is to preserve biodiversity. Siebert warns that a large number of plant and animal species have become extinct due to a/the selection of particular species by human beings. These selected species are high-yield crops and are easy to be cultivated by humans, but they do have a downside. They are sometimes vulnerable to insects and diseases, so they require a high dose of chemical treatments such as insecticides. As a result of this selection, only a small number of species are cultivated on earth. The consequences will be devastating once a disease spread among them, because we have lost so many other backup species. In order to avoid this disaster, some people store varieties/a variety of plant seeds, so-called seed banks. Once selected plants are extinct due to disease or climate change, these seed banks will be able to provide a stored plant that is resistant to the disease, thus preventing the possible crisis of famine on earth.
Until I read this article, I did not know the following facts:
1) the food production will be required to double in a few decades,
2) a large number of plant and animal species have already become extinct due to (a) human selection,
and 3) there are seed banks to preserve biodiversity for the future.
It first seemed counterintuitive that biodiversity is necessary for increasing food production for the future, but here is an explanation. We know that a natural selection is done by the environment. Only those species which can adapt to the environment can pass on their genes to future generations. Thus, these species tend to be strong and resistant to some diseases. However, the selection of species was not only done by the environment but also by human beings throughout our history. Farmers chose species that are easy to take care of and produce a large number of offspring, but this does not mean that the offspring species are strong. In fact, according to this article, there were devastating famines in the past due to stem rust (Ug99) that spread from Africa to China and killed most of the wheat. Preserving biodiversity will give us the big benefit of (having) backup species in the event of disease or climate change.
In order to keep biodiversity on earth, the seed bank is a fascinating way to preserve varieties of plant seeds. However, how about animal species? It is easy for plant seeds to be preserved under a cool, sterile condition, but it cannot be done in the same way for animals. If animal species are stored in a "bank," it should be in a way that is similar to a sperm/egg bank for humans. This type of preservation requires high costs to maintain freshness with liquid nitrogen. Have scientists already stored varieties/ a variety of animal species in this way, or in some another way? This article did not give us a clear explanation about this, but despite the fact, it does stress the importance of biodiversity for our future food production of both plants and animals.
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