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Svalbard Seed Bank and Global Food Histories

Page history last edited by Robert W. Maloy 5 days, 22 hours ago

File:Entrance to the Seed Vault (cropped).jpg

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, Spitsbergen Norway

 

 

"Cary Fowler...and the Vavilov Institute...engaged in the Noah-like task of gathering the seeds of about

two million varieties of food plants,

both the familiar domesticated crops and many of their wild relatives,

in order to create the first global seed bank."

 

(The New Yorker, "Sowing for Apocalypse," August 20, 2007)

 

Table of Contents

 

 

 

    

There are more than 50,000 edible plants in the world today,

but just 15 of them provide 90 percent of the world's food energy intake.

 

10 Fruits, Nuts, and Vegetables You Did Not Know Were Human-Made

 

 

 

 

INTERACTIVE VIRTUAL TOUR: Svalbard Global Seed Vault Tour, Crop Trust (2024) [10-15 minutes]

You can access the virtual interactive tour here or by clicking the title above.

 

 

"Entrance to Seed Vault (cropped)," from Wikimedia Commons, December 22, 2019

 

LISTEN: "Inside The Global Seed Vault, Where The History And Future Of Agriculture Is Stored," NPR (July 24, 2017) [35 minutes]

You can read the transcript here, or by clicking on the title in the embedded player below. 

 

WATCH: "Inside the Svalbard Seed Vault," Veritasium (May 4, 2016) [9 minutes]

You can access the original video here, or by clicking the "YouTube" button at the bottom of the embedded player.

 

 

 

 

WATCH: "What's the Doomsday Seed Vault Really For?" Tom Scott (June 29, 2015) [2 minutes]

You can access the original video here, or by clicking the "YouTube" button at the bottom of the embedded player.

 

 

Or, watch Motherboard's, "Exploring the Arctic's Global Seed Vault," November 11, 2016 [5 minutes] and CNN's "See inside the 'Doomsday' seed vault," October 22, 2015 [3 minutes]

 

 

 

READ: "A Visit To The Doomsday Vault," 60 Minutes (March 20, 2008) [20 minute read at eighth grade reading level]

You can access the article here. If you have a Paramount+ account, you can stream the 60 Minutes episode on the same webpage. 

 

Or, read BBC's "The Gloomy Arctic Seed Bank That's Key to Future Crops," January 12, 2016 [10 minute read at eighth grade reading level]

 

 

 

READ: "Syria War Forces First Withdrawal from Svalbard Global Seed Vault," NBC, September 25, 2015 [10 minute read at eighth grade reading level]

You can access the article here

 

 

 

 

Famine in History

 

CROSS-LINK: The Irish Potato Famine and Other Famines in World History

You can access this wiki page by clicking the title above.

 

 

 

LEARNING GAME: Food Security Game, Peace Corps (2024) [20 minutes]

You can access the learning game here or by clicking on the title above.

 

 

 

WATCH: "Drought and Famine," Crash Course (September 5, 2014) [10 minutes]

You can access the original video here, or by clicking the "YouTube" button at the bottom of the embedded player.

 

 

 

 

READ: "China's Great Famine: The True Story," The Guardian (January 1, 2013) [10 minute read at eighth grade reading level]

You can access the article here.

 

Or, read "Ten Worst Famines of the 20th Century," The Sydney Morning Herald (August 8, 2015) [10 minute read at eighth grade reading level]

 

 

 

 

Agriculture in History

 

INFOGRAPHIC: View the transfer of goods and diseases from the Columbian Exchange, by Anita Ravi. Khan Academy (2024)


Illustrated map which shows the crops, animals, and diseases transferred in the Columbian Exchange. From left to right, text on a purple arrow says, "The Americas to Europe, Africa, and Asia". From right to left the text on a purple arrow says, "Europe, Africa, and Asia to the Americas.

Infographic showing the transfer of goods and diseases from the Columbian Exchange. By Anita Ravi. Khan Academy (2024)

 

 

Date of First McDonalds Restaurant by Continent
Date of First McDonalds Restaurant by Continent

 

 

Foods and Their Origins

 

MAP INTERACT: Where Our Foods Come From, International Center for Tropical Agriculture (2016)

 

You can view the interactive map here, or view the non-interactive map below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Where Did These Foods Come From? 

 

 

 

Foods Indigenous to the Western Hemisphere

 

 

10 Foods Native to the Americas

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OF AFRICAN ORIGIN

 

 

 

COFFEE: The History of Coffee

 

 

 

 

 

 

OF ASIAN ORIGIN

 


 

 

APPLESAll About Apples: Some History, a Recipe, and Recommendations

 

 

 

OF AUSTRALIAN AND OCEANIAN ORIGIN

 

BANANAS

 

File:Plátanos de Canarias.JPG

from Wikimedia Commons


READ: The Surprising History of the Banana

 

WATCH: "The dark history of bananas," TEDEd (November 3, 2020) [6 minutes]

 

 

OF EUROPEAN AND MIDDLE EASTERN ORIGIN

 


WHEATWheat Domestication--The History and Origins of Floury Grains 

 

 

OF AMERICAN ORIGIN

 

CORN

 


CORN: Rethinking the Corny History of Maize

 

WILD RICE

 



 

 

 

 

POTATOES/TOMATOES

 

Origins of Species of Corn, Potatoes, Tomatoes and Some Other Interesting History

 

 

SUNFLOWER

 

How the Russians Saved America's Sunflower

 

COCOA

 

 

History of Cocoa and Chocolate

 

 

 

SQUASH

 

Foods Indigenous to the Western Hemisphere

 

 

 

BLUEBERRIES 

 

 

 

 Elizabeth White: The Woman Who Invented the Blueberry

 

CRANBERRIES

 

 

 

https://extension.umaine.edu/cranberries/cranberry-facts-and-history/

 

Three Sisters as featured on the reverse of the 2009 Native American U.S. dollar coin

Three Sisters Agriculture

 

Meet the Three Sisters Who Sustain Native America

 


Three Sisters . . .and the Fourth Sister No One Really Talks About

  • Bean
  • Corn
  • Squash
  • Sunflower 

 

Corn, beans and squash also complement each other nutritionally.

  • Corn provides carbohydrates;
  • Beans are rich in protein, which balances the lack of amino acids in the corn.
  • Squash yield vitamins and rich oil from their seeds.

 

 

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