The Seed Huntress
SEFRAALEXANDRA, THE SEED HUNTRESS
Seed Vaults | Seedbanks | Seed Sovereignty By Sefra Alexandra On the hunt to preserve our global seed biodiversity
I n one of the northernmost towns in the world, where the aurora borealis dance in the sky and the polar bears roam, a million seeds lie hibernating 120 meters inside the sandstone rock of Mount Platåberget. This sleepy town of Longyearbyen, Norway in the Arctic Circle is home to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault… join me, Sefra Alexandra: The Seed Huntress, as we embark on a sojourn to understand how seed conservation systems work internationally, who is safeguarding our collective seed biodiversity and why. Seeds: those magnificent embryos that
sprout the great diversity of our wild and tamed landscapes, delighting our palates with their subtle nuance in every corner of the planet. They are the basis of our collective food security, the source of our medicine and fiber, create the habitats for fauna and germinate the visual magnitude and magnificence that surrounds us all. We are all seed carriers, it is how we co- create our offspring and how genetics and epigenetics are passed from one generation to the next. Throughout natural settings, seeds are being carried by all abiotic and biotic elements and creatures that abound.
Walking through the meadows the pappus of Taraxacum officinale, dandelion seeds, spin all around us–a great example of anemochory or the dispersal by wind. Myrmecochory , the great kingdoms of the ants below our feet transport seed on their great subterranean highways... even we humans carry seeds, anthropochory , on our clothes or in our pockets after a jaunt through the woods. As we walk through the world and the wilds, we may all acknowledge that as in nature, we are living in a constant environment of change, succession and flux. Whether we are discussing climate
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