10,000 years ago the biggest revolution in human history occurred: we became agrarians. We ceased merely hunting and gathering and began to farm, breeding and domesticating plants that have resulted in the crops we eat today. But the genetic diversity of these domesticated crops, which were developed over millennium, is steadily vanishing. And the consequences of this loss could be dire. As the production of high yielding, uniform varieties has increased, diversity has declined. For example, within U.S. vegetable crop options we now have less than seven percent of the diversity that existed just a century ago. We are confronted with the global pressures of feeding a growing population, in a time when staple crops face new threats from disease and changing climates. Crop diversity pioneer Cary Fowler travels the world, educating the public about the dire consequences of our inaction. Along with his team at The Global Crop Diversity Trust in Rome, Cary struggles to re-invent a global food system so that it can, in his words, "last forever". Cary aims to safeguard the last place that much of our diversity is left intact: in the world's vulnerable gene banks.
