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Speaker 1: Josh, my friend. If you are a listener of ours

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Speaker 1: and you live in Chicago, Toronto, Vancouver, Austin, Brooklyn, Minneapolis, Kansas,

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Speaker 1: or right here in Atlanta, you can come see us

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Speaker 1: on tour starting in August and finishing up in November.

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Speaker 1: Is that right? Yeah, that's right man. It's our two

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Speaker 1: thousand and seventeen North America Monsters of Podcasting Tour. That's

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Speaker 1: what I like the sounds of that. Eddie van Halen

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Speaker 1: is opening, Yeah he is, but not really, no, not really.

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Speaker 1: But you can find out all the information and all

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Speaker 1: the deats at s y s K live dot com

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Speaker 1: are Squarespace Live touring home on the web, and we

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Speaker 1: hope to see everyone out there. Welcome to Stuff you

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Speaker 1: should know from House Stuff Works dot com. Hey, and

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Speaker 1: welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, There's Charles W.

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Speaker 1: Chuck Bryant, Jerry rolland this is us stuff you should know.

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Speaker 1: I'm just trying new stuff. I mean, we're coming up

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Speaker 1: on a thousand episodes. Man, you've got to keep it

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Speaker 1: fresh somehow. So I tried the A team. You've actually

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Speaker 1: done that like seventy six times, the same one. Kidding,

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Speaker 1: It's probably true. Though. Uh, if you were a seed,

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Speaker 1: what seed would you be? I would be a pumpkin seed.

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Speaker 1: Oh wow, because you know you won't get eaten. Oh

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Speaker 1: I don't know. I like pumpkin pie so well, and

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Speaker 1: people toast pumpkin seeds, so yeah, I'm way off base there. Yep,

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Speaker 1: what else you got, however? Mind no pumpkin seed? Bam.

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Speaker 1: I would be a watermelon seed because they remind me

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Speaker 1: of my grandfather. That's sweet. How do they grow those

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Speaker 1: seedless watermelons? Huh uh, you're a watermelon seed, you should know.

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Speaker 1: Or the square ones? Yeah, those are cool too. They

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Speaker 1: cost like sixty dollars in Japan. Really, yeah, they're really expensive.

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Speaker 1: I would have one just that have it. I would

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Speaker 1: like shell lack it so it would never die, right,

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Speaker 1: and just keep it in my fridge for a conversation piece.

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Speaker 1: It's not a bad idea, man. Or actually I took

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Speaker 1: that back. I'm gonna start marketing fake square watermelons as

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Speaker 1: conversation starters or refrigerator magnets shaped like square water mountains.

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Speaker 1: What about that? Hmm? All right, and they call that

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Speaker 1: running running something into the ground. Um, I've got something

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Speaker 1: for you. You in the food Fads episode, asked me

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Speaker 1: what my go to crock pot recipe was, and I

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Speaker 1: told you, and then I was like, okay, moving on,

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Speaker 1: and I upon listening to it because I don't know

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Speaker 1: if everybody knows this or not, but you and I

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Speaker 1: all listened to the episodes and Jerry before we release them, um,

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Speaker 1: and I was like, I didn't ask Chuck what his

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Speaker 1: crock pot recipe? What did you, Chuck? I didn't. What

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Speaker 1: is your go to crock pot recipe? Do you know

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Speaker 1: what it is? No? I don't. If it's not, um, no,

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Speaker 1: I'll tell you what it is. It is a a

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Speaker 1: turkey ghoulsh surprise. That sounds good. So just some ground

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Speaker 1: turkey and some onion and green pepper and red pepper

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Speaker 1: and uh all manner of spices. And you can also

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Speaker 1: throw in like eggplant or squash or you know kind

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Speaker 1: of any veg veggie like that and chunk it up.

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Speaker 1: That sounds good and just spice it up real good,

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Speaker 1: throw it in that crock pot. Uh, maybe add a

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Speaker 1: little chicken broth or something. Uh do they have turkey broth? Yeah?

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Speaker 1: They do? Okay, sure, Well, then don't be weird. I

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Speaker 1: don't check. I don't I don't think chicken broth would

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Speaker 1: clash with turkey too bad, but yeah, probably turkey broth

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Speaker 1: would be better. Well, you may not know something in

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Speaker 1: your mouth might be disturbing and you're just like, something's

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Speaker 1: not quite right. So what's the surprise that you're using

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Speaker 1: chicken broth in a turkey based dish? Is it like

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Speaker 1: a human thumb? The surprise? I tried the thumb, but

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Speaker 1: that's much of us twice twice, yeah, because they only

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Speaker 1: have two thumbs, got you? Now? I know? The surprises

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Speaker 1: is our lentils. Oh yeah, that's nice. So then you

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Speaker 1: dump a bunch of lentils in there. Um maybe, I

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Speaker 1: mean you could throw it all in there at the

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Speaker 1: beginning if you, but they'll get kind of really gushy,

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Speaker 1: but maybe towards the intoso lentils in there, and then

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Speaker 1: it all just cooks up to a big kind of

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Speaker 1: soupy mess and then you can eat it for a week. Well,

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Speaker 1: the next time there's a house Stuff Works weekly book

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Speaker 1: club meeting, you've got to bring that to the pot luck. Okay, right,

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Speaker 1: all right, because I want to try it done our

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Speaker 1: lentils seeds because that'd be a great segue. But I'm

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Speaker 1: almost a hundred percent sure that I would be wrong

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Speaker 1: in saying, well, lentils are seeds. I think it's a legum.

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Speaker 1: It is a lagoon, but it is a laguma seed. Well,

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Speaker 1: you didn't ask me that. I don't have any idea,

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Speaker 1: although they are protecting lagoons and seed banks, so okay, okay,

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Speaker 1: Well then they're probably not seeds, but they're pretty close,

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Speaker 1: so we'll use that as a seguay. How about that? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: And you know what's funny is we uh could have

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Speaker 1: sworn that we did this one, or at the very

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Speaker 1: least did the doomsday vault. And I think we covered

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Speaker 1: the doomsday vault in the video, but we we did

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Speaker 1: touch on it in Well the Moon Safe Humanity. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's a good one. But I went back this is

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Speaker 1: when we had transcripts, and it was a funny one

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Speaker 1: to read because we brought it up without researching it

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Speaker 1: off the top of our head, which always gets us

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Speaker 1: in trouble, and just sort of chatted a minute about

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Speaker 1: the doomsday vault and then said, you know, don't hold

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Speaker 1: us to anything because we this wasn't supposed to be

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Speaker 1: a part of the show, so we didn't really cover it. No,

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Speaker 1: and we certainly didn't do a whole episode on all right,

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Speaker 1: and we're not going to this time. Because even though

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Speaker 1: the Doomsday Vault better known as the small small Bard

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Speaker 1: Global Seed Bank, which is in small Bard, Norway, which

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Speaker 1: is close to Long Year Be in Norway, which is

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Speaker 1: the closest town to the North Pole, right, Um, this

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Speaker 1: seed bank is hands down the most famous seed bank

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Speaker 1: in the entire world. It's run by technocrats who really

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Speaker 1: know how to work the media, right, But it's far

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Speaker 1: from the only one. There are a lot of other

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Speaker 1: seed banks out there, and even the whole concept of

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Speaker 1: seed banking in general is pretty interesting. So it's fall

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Speaker 1: Bard will be the star. If we're a band, would

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Speaker 1: be seed Banks featuring the stylings of small Bard Global

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Speaker 1: seed Bank. That's probably that should be the title of

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Speaker 1: this episode. I thought you could say featuring the stylings

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Speaker 1: of small Bard Globalstein and that sounded like a like

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Speaker 1: a a small time magician that's great, or an accordion act.

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Speaker 1: Good stuff. Um, all right, well, let's get to it.

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Speaker 1: This one, by the way, it was written by my

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Speaker 1: friend Debbie. I noticed you remember Debbie, Debbie Ronka, my

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Speaker 1: buddy from New Jersey and uh so flemental material. You

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Speaker 1: found a really great article on the doomsday vault. What

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Speaker 1: was that from the Guardian or yeah, that was by

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Speaker 1: um Suzanne Goldenberg in the Guardian from May two fifteen. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's one of my favorite kinds of articles is when

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Speaker 1: they profile something and then it's set up as like,

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Speaker 1: you know, the sunrise is early in Norway and and

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Speaker 1: Schfinn gets out of his yurt and trudges across the

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Speaker 1: glacier and so it's sort of couched in this story

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Speaker 1: of the the dude who works there, one of the guys.

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Speaker 1: But then you get all the deats along the way.

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Speaker 1: It's very cool. Yeah, that's that's called a long read

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Speaker 1: or long form. Yeah. And actually there's two really great sites,

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Speaker 1: ones called long form and one's called long read once

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Speaker 1: a dot Common ones a dot Org. I can never

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Speaker 1: remember which, but if you like that kind of writing,

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Speaker 1: that's all those sites are, just page after page after

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Speaker 1: page of links to articles like that. Yes, and in fact,

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Speaker 1: to our buddy, uh Joshua Bearman, uh huh, great writer

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Speaker 1: of long form. He has his own little shingle called

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Speaker 1: Epic Magazine. If you're looking for like those really great. Basically,

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Speaker 1: people mind the that site to make movies. They're such

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Speaker 1: good stories. Yeah, yeah, well he he wrote the magazine

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Speaker 1: article that um uh far yeah, not Fargo. Argo, the

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Speaker 1: Ben Affleck movie was based on. Yeah, we would be cool.

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Speaker 1: The funny part about that slip up is the Coen

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Speaker 1: Brothers at the beginning of Fargo say like this is

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Speaker 1: based on a true story, which is not true at all. Right.

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Speaker 1: He also wrote a really great one um about California

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Speaker 1: surfer gang Um that smuggled pot out of like Coronado

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Speaker 1: Island in the seventies, and it is just begging to

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Speaker 1: be made into a movie. If it hasn't been yet,

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Speaker 1: I think it's optioned. Surely it is that right, Coronado

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Speaker 1: High yep. And I'm pretty sure Barman wrote that back

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Speaker 1: in like two says the internet. Yea, so put down

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Speaker 1: your streaming TV shows for God's saken, I would say,

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Speaker 1: read a book, but at the very least read a

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Speaker 1: long form article. Yeah. Can can I get on a

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Speaker 1: soapbox for a second, We'll talk about seeds eventually, everybody

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Speaker 1: just be quiet. So the whole concept of their being

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Speaker 1: TV everywhere and like you can take TV to the

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Speaker 1: beach now you don't have to talk to anybody. You

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Speaker 1: can like watch TV on the subway. That's That's that

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Speaker 1: bothers me. Chuck it bothers me, like to my core,

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Speaker 1: And I know that makes me very unpopular. I don't care.

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Speaker 1: I stand with Josh. You know, Emily and I have

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Speaker 1: been listening. We've been sitting around in a room at

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Speaker 1: night together in silence and listening to s town Oh Cool,

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Speaker 1: which I've I've forgotten how fun it is because I

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Speaker 1: usually listen to podcasts on my own, like in my car.

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Speaker 1: But just to sit around, like with your loved one

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Speaker 1: and listen to something that's kind of neat too, yeah,

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Speaker 1: you have somebody to look at and be like, oh

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Speaker 1: can you believe that? Man? All right, I'll bet everybody

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Speaker 1: thinks we sit around and listen to podcasts together. Can

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Speaker 1: you believe that? Alright? Alright? Seed banks? Sorry, So, Debbie

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Speaker 1: Ranka makes a really great point that you think of

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Speaker 1: seed banks as this probably something new from you know,

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Speaker 1: the environmental movement, probably something from the nineties, maybe as

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Speaker 1: far back as that, But she says, no, no, seed

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Speaker 1: banks are a concept as old as agriculture. Basically that

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Speaker 1: in the in the cradle of agriculture, Mesopotamia, which is

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Speaker 1: present day Iraq. They have found seed banks um as

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Speaker 1: old as eighties, seven hundred and fifty years. So, UM,

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Speaker 1: the seeds stores back then, we're protecting, uh, the seeds

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Speaker 1: from animals, from weather, that kind of stuff. Pretty basic stuff, right,

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Speaker 1: But the concepts the same. It's that that you need

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Speaker 1: seed from one harvest to create the next harvest. And

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Speaker 1: so even back then, there's evidence that it was highly

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Speaker 1: ritualized collecting seeds and then protecting them in important places. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and UH, whether it is certainly something that we're still

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Speaker 1: guarding against uh to the extreme. That's one of the

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Speaker 1: reasons we we have seed banks today. But UM, one

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Speaker 1: of the main reasons is crop diversity. Um. If you

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Speaker 1: if you think that corn you're eating is just corn,

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Speaker 1: or rice you're eating is just rice, or even you

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Speaker 1: know bosmati rice or jasmine rice or did the Big

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Speaker 1: two or sushi rice. Uh, you'd be in for a

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Speaker 1: big surprise if you knew that there were thousands and

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Speaker 1: thousands of varieties of all of these crops, these staple crops.

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Speaker 1: And UM diversity is the key because we've seen throughout

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Speaker 1: history when bad things happen when there's blight. Uh, with that,

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Speaker 1: there's a fungus. If there's um just anything that can

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Speaker 1: kill a crop. You want something that is diverse on

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Speaker 1: your hands so you can try something new. Right. Remember

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Speaker 1: in the famine episode where we talked about how one

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Speaker 1: of the reasons that Ireland suffered so tremendously was because

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Speaker 1: the potatoes they had were all basically the same throughout

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Speaker 1: the whole country. It was the same variety of potatoes, right,

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Speaker 1: So when that potato blight came, it was it was

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Speaker 1: a pathogen that all of the potatoes in Ireland were

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Speaker 1: susceptible to, where if they had had multiple varieties of potatoes,

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Speaker 1: sure a lot of the potato varieties would have been

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Speaker 1: wiped out, but there would have been some that survived

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Speaker 1: to right, Yeah, you know whose fault that was? Who's

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Speaker 1: the English? Well, they definitely didn't make anything easier on

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Speaker 1: them if I remember correctly. No, of course, but I'm

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Speaker 1: just spoken fun. But But the the idea that there

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Speaker 1: are just tons and tons of different varieties out there,

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Speaker 1: there certainly are. But if you take another order of

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Speaker 1: magnitude step back and look at the global food system,

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Speaker 1: there's really like thirty crops that make up basically all

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Speaker 1: of the food supply, right, and that's not too bad.

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Speaker 1: Thirties fine, we could survive on just one. Really, the

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Speaker 1: problem is if you go the opposite direction and zoom

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Speaker 1: in a little further, those crops are fairly homogenized these days.

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Speaker 1: And it's thanks to our buddy Norman Borlog. So he

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Speaker 1: fathered the green Revolution in large part, which was there

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Speaker 1: were a lot of predictions that the world's carrying capacity

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Speaker 1: was going to be reached by the nineteen sixties and

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Speaker 1: that a billion people were going to starve to death.

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Speaker 1: And that was because the agriculture that we had at

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Speaker 1: the time was capable of producing only so much crop yield.

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Speaker 1: So Norman Borlog took it upon himself to say, I'm

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Speaker 1: gonna save the world. And he came up with these

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Speaker 1: new techniques and new varieties of crops and said, here this,

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Speaker 1: this variety is going to get you way better yields.

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Speaker 1: It can survive flooding, it can survive drought, old plant.

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Speaker 1: This and his his varieties that he bred were so successful.

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Speaker 1: Number one, he won the Nobel Prize and it's widely

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Speaker 1: credited for saving possibly a billion lives with his work.

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Speaker 1: But secondly, it was so successful that it became basically

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Speaker 1: the only varieties of those crops that were planted. And

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Speaker 1: in the nineteen seventies here in the United States, we

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Speaker 1: came just running smack dab into what a problem that

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Speaker 1: can be when this corn blight hit. Yeah, there was

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Speaker 1: a big fungus in the seventies and Uh, I didn't

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Speaker 1: say what I wanted to say, and it cut the

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Speaker 1: corn yields in the United States in half. And luckily, UH,

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Speaker 1: we did have some more varieties at our disposal. We

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Speaker 1: had a relative of it was a wild corn was

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Speaker 1: just crazy paint and it was it was fungus for assistance.

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Speaker 1: So in that case we were able to uh save

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Speaker 1: the day UM, which is kind of the whole point

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Speaker 1: of crop diversity and seed banks is to have something

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Speaker 1: on hand in case the worst case scenario happens, so

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Speaker 1: all your your potatoes aren't in one basket, or all

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Speaker 1: your corn isn't in one basket. So literally with that

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Speaker 1: corn blake too, we learned the hard way. UM. Something

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Speaker 1: like one quarter to one half of the corn yields

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Speaker 1: in the United States were lost UM during the seventies,

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Speaker 1: and it was because something like I think of the

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Speaker 1: corn being grown in the US was identical in this way, Um,

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Speaker 1: that the corn blake could could manipulate and kill. So

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Speaker 1: we said, oh, well, we need to diversify a little more.

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Speaker 1: It was a hard lesson learned, but it was a

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Speaker 1: lesson learned. And since then this idea, like you said,

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Speaker 1: of of crop diversities become more and more important, and

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Speaker 1: people have said, well, we'll start banking seeds so we

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Speaker 1: can protect the genetic line and protect varieties from dying

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Speaker 1: out in the meantime. Yeah, and so that's um, you know,

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Speaker 1: diversity is a big deal. Climate change as another reason

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Speaker 1: we bank seeds because we're not too certain what's going

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Speaker 1: to happen in the future with the weather. Are actually

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Speaker 1: not with the weather with climate because it's two different things. Uh.

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Speaker 1: Nice natural disasters, um, like a tsunami or really kind

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Speaker 1: of any kind of natural disaster could cause great harm

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Speaker 1: to crop yield or disease, Yeah, which you would think

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Speaker 1: would be considered a natural disaster too. Well, now it's disease. Well, sure,

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Speaker 1: you gotta you gotta delineate here, you know, uh, man

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Speaker 1: made disaster. And the point uh, the example deb uses

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Speaker 1: here is um war, which yeah, you really think about war,

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Speaker 1: but there have been uh. And as you'll see even

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Speaker 1: with seed banks during times of war, especially in the

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Speaker 1: Middle East, a lot of the seed banks in the

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Speaker 1: Middle Ease have been looted and rated during war. So

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Speaker 1: that sort of compounds the problem well. Plus also one

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Speaker 1: of the other things that war does is um uproots populations. Right,

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Speaker 1: you have to move because there's a war going on

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Speaker 1: in your town and you can't live there anymore. So

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Speaker 1: if you're a farmer, UM, you may never go back

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Speaker 1: to farming anymore. And you may be one of the

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Speaker 1: few indigenous people who were farming a specific variety of

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Speaker 1: something and now that variety is lost forever because you

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Speaker 1: moved and stopped farming. Yeah, and there's there's that can

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Speaker 1: happen in more mundane pedestrian ways to where say a

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Speaker 1: family that's farming an indigenous variety of crop UM just

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Speaker 1: moves to the city for better work or something like that. Uh.

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Speaker 1: And then the final way that she lists is UM

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Speaker 1: that we might want us to seed bank is for

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Speaker 1: research in the future. Plant based medicine has always been

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Speaker 1: around UM. One and every six wild plants is used

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Speaker 1: for medicine, and we don't know, I mean, we we

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Speaker 1: know so very little still about the uses of plants

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Speaker 1: for medicine, So we don't want to wipe out some

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Speaker 1: thing that could be the cure for cancer one day,

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Speaker 1: you know, right, And that that's kind of like the

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Speaker 1: cornerstone of the idea of seed banks these days is

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Speaker 1: that we need to take the seeds from every plant

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Speaker 1: we can get our hands on today, every variety we

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Speaker 1: can get our hands on, and just store just basically

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Speaker 1: put them in suspended animation and the under the idea

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Speaker 1: that eventually, because of climate change or because of war,

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Speaker 1: or because we may figure something out in the future

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Speaker 1: and need those plants or need access to their genetic information.

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Speaker 1: And so if we have the the seeds stored away

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Speaker 1: in suspended animation dormant um, then we will say thank

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Speaker 1: you people a hundred years earlier for being so smart

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Speaker 1: as to create seed banks. That's right, thousands of years

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Speaker 1: earlier in fact, maybe maybe, But there's problems with seed banks,

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Speaker 1: as we'll talk about. You want to take a break, yeah,

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Speaker 1: let's do that, and we'll get to that alright. So

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Speaker 1: as far as what kind of seeds are chosen, it depends.

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Speaker 1: I mean they were there were more than four hundred

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Speaker 1: or right around fourteen hundred seed banks in the world,

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Speaker 1: So I know, uh smar Bald smar Bald, small Bard,

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Speaker 1: small Bard. I really think you can say it either way.

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Speaker 1: I know, I keep wanting to say key like it

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Speaker 1: just sounds like a dude from there. Oh it does.

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Speaker 1: Who's into like Viking metal? Yeah, he gets all the coverage.

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Speaker 1: Ball Bard got so wasted. There are lost all of

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Speaker 1: the seeds. Uh. There are about four seed banks though,

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Speaker 1: all over the place, and it depends on which one

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Speaker 1: you're talking about, really is to what kind of seeds

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Speaker 1: they're gonna preserve. Um. Smaller seed banks are probably going

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Speaker 1: to concentrate more on more local indigenous varieties. Uh. It

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Speaker 1: seems like in all cases any kind of the endangered

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Speaker 1: plant is probably looked after. Um first, Yeah, they tend

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Speaker 1: to take priority from what I understand, But there's a

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Speaker 1: great group called the Global Crop Diversity Trust, and their

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Speaker 1: whole jam is to concentrate on priority crops that are

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Speaker 1: that benefit everyone around the world the most. So those

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Speaker 1: are the people that runs Vollbard, And from what I understand,

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Speaker 1: they've kind of come in and said we we are,

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Speaker 1: we're going to be setting the standards for seed preservation

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Speaker 1: in the world. Now someone had to. Yeah, and there's

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Speaker 1: a guy that was inter jewed in the guardian Um.

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Speaker 1: He was one of the founders of this trust and

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Speaker 1: one of the I think he was the first director

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Speaker 1: of this wall Bard Global Seed Vault. The names Carrie

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Speaker 1: Fowlers from Tennessee. And he said, we didn't create this

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Speaker 1: seed bank to you know, prevent because we saw this

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Speaker 1: catastrophe coming with like climate change or whatever. The doomsday vault,

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Speaker 1: you know, right right it was. And and but again

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Speaker 1: I think that the media kind of last front of that.

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Speaker 1: He was saying the original intent with why they founded

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Speaker 1: this vall Bard Seed Vault was because the current seed

357
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Speaker 1: banks were doing such a terrible job keeping their their

358
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Speaker 1: seeds like alive or intact, that we were losing varieties

359
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Speaker 1: every day from ones that were stored at seed banks.

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Speaker 1: They were just going away. So he was basically like,

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Speaker 1: let me to it. He was like at the at

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Speaker 1: the I T guy, Yeah, well, it's kind of scary though,

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Speaker 1: Like when when he talked or when he was interviewed,

364
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Speaker 1: he was um to say, like, you know, new clear

365
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Speaker 1: war was in our biggest threat. It's underfunding and sloppy

366
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Speaker 1: work right or yeah, budget cuts, UM, malfunctions and the

367
00:22:08,760 --> 00:22:13,280
Speaker 1: equipment like badly maintained equipment. Uh, there's a lot of

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Speaker 1: stuff they can go wrong with the seed bank and

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Speaker 1: so so the point behind the small Guard seed Bank

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Speaker 1: is to serve as a backup repository to where yeah,

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Speaker 1: you keep your seeds there in your country and will

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Speaker 1: show you the best ways to manage your seed bank,

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Speaker 1: but also put a duplicate set with us and we're

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Speaker 1: just gonna keep it stored. We're not going to do

375
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Speaker 1: the science or anything like that. The whole point of

376
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Speaker 1: the small Guard seed Bank is to just keep it

377
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Speaker 1: stored under the right conditions so that when you need

378
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Speaker 1: it it will be here for you. That is correct.

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Speaker 1: So this Global Diversity Crop Trust, they work under a treaty.

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Speaker 1: It's called the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for

381
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Speaker 1: Food and Agriculture or PA and UH it was ratified

382
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Speaker 1: by in two thousand four by forty different governments. UM.

383
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Speaker 1: Imagine since then they're probably some more on board, right,

384
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Speaker 1: I believe, so, although I wonder how much UM that

385
00:23:11,080 --> 00:23:14,520
Speaker 1: has kind of fallen to the wayside since Crop Trust

386
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Speaker 1: created this small Bard seed vault. They seem to have

387
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Speaker 1: kind of taken over from what I understand. Well, I

388
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Speaker 1: mean I think this treaty is just it's part of

389
00:23:23,920 --> 00:23:28,680
Speaker 1: good practices too, you know. Yeah, So what they do

390
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Speaker 1: is they do permit access for these seeds for research

391
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Speaker 1: and stuff, not from small Bard because like we said,

392
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Speaker 1: that's that's the bank that doesn't allow withdrawal, um. But

393
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Speaker 1: it has to be a benefit to everyone. Basically, you

394
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Speaker 1: can't just go willy nilly on a whim and pull

395
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Speaker 1: seeds out and start experimenting. Right, Well, that's the that's

396
00:23:50,840 --> 00:23:53,959
Speaker 1: that's for the other seed banks. That's kind of like

397
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Speaker 1: the process where those are the ones that they're they're

398
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Speaker 1: keeping so that somebody can come and like grow some

399
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Speaker 1: stuff off and check out the genetic material of the

400
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Speaker 1: plants or whatever. With small Bard, it's like you put

401
00:24:04,240 --> 00:24:07,840
Speaker 1: it in, it stays there and you can't get it out.

402
00:24:07,880 --> 00:24:12,280
Speaker 1: But it's only you, the depositor that has access to us. Correct.

403
00:24:12,640 --> 00:24:15,719
Speaker 1: And so apparently that was they they agreed to that,

404
00:24:15,840 --> 00:24:19,000
Speaker 1: or they set up that rule that only the the

405
00:24:19,119 --> 00:24:22,199
Speaker 1: group or the country that put those seeds into the

406
00:24:22,240 --> 00:24:25,200
Speaker 1: small Barred vault can get them out because there's a

407
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Speaker 1: lot of worry when they were creating the Global Seed

408
00:24:28,280 --> 00:24:31,399
Speaker 1: Vault that the whole thing was basically just a ruse

409
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Speaker 1: for big agriculture to get their hands on heirloom seeds

410
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Speaker 1: from around the world, which I mean, I can kind

411
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Speaker 1: of understand that because from what I understand, the big

412
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Speaker 1: agriculture UM seed companies are fairly shady. Yeah, and we

413
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Speaker 1: should do an episode just on that, sure, love. Right,

414
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Speaker 1: So if you go to one of these banks and

415
00:24:55,200 --> 00:24:57,840
Speaker 1: again they're not They're all can be very different, but

416
00:24:57,880 --> 00:24:59,960
Speaker 1: they all have the same kind of concept at heart.

417
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Speaker 1: UH And I think the one Debbie used as an

418
00:25:02,440 --> 00:25:06,800
Speaker 1: example was UM the Department of Environment and Conservation UH

419
00:25:06,840 --> 00:25:10,679
Speaker 1: in Australia UM. But like I said, they kind of

420
00:25:10,720 --> 00:25:12,879
Speaker 1: all operate in a similar fashion. What you first need

421
00:25:12,960 --> 00:25:16,239
Speaker 1: to do is to decide how much room you have

422
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Speaker 1: and what seeds you want to collect to begin with, right,

423
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Speaker 1: and we mentioned priority goes to threaten plants obviously first

424
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Speaker 1: and foremost. But the again to his vol bar, their

425
00:25:28,000 --> 00:25:32,639
Speaker 1: whole mission is to to preserve every bit of the

426
00:25:32,760 --> 00:25:37,400
Speaker 1: um corrupt diversity of the global crop supply, which that

427
00:25:37,680 --> 00:25:42,159
Speaker 1: Carrie Fowler Dude says is about one point four million varieties,

428
00:25:42,600 --> 00:25:46,440
Speaker 1: and last I saw they were coming up on a million.

429
00:25:46,720 --> 00:25:49,040
Speaker 1: I think they had like about nine hundred and forty

430
00:25:49,119 --> 00:25:53,600
Speaker 1: thousand varieties in their in their care correct. So once

431
00:25:53,640 --> 00:25:55,560
Speaker 1: you've decided what you need in your in your little

432
00:25:55,600 --> 00:25:59,480
Speaker 1: local seed vault seed bank, you collect seeds um. It

433
00:25:59,480 --> 00:26:02,439
Speaker 1: seems like the most of these places start uh, and

434
00:26:02,560 --> 00:26:07,080
Speaker 1: when when vegetables and fruits are ripe is probably the

435
00:26:07,080 --> 00:26:10,760
Speaker 1: best time to collect and store these seeds UM. As

436
00:26:10,960 --> 00:26:13,000
Speaker 1: fruits they release their seeds when they ripe, so that

437
00:26:13,040 --> 00:26:15,960
Speaker 1: usually works out pretty well. But then you know, it

438
00:26:16,040 --> 00:26:17,880
Speaker 1: kind of depends on the plants. Some plants don't give

439
00:26:17,920 --> 00:26:21,840
Speaker 1: up their seeds so readily so UM, which can be

440
00:26:21,840 --> 00:26:23,199
Speaker 1: a good thing and a bad thing. Maybe to have

441
00:26:23,200 --> 00:26:26,159
Speaker 1: a longer time to retain their seeds which allows for

442
00:26:26,280 --> 00:26:29,560
Speaker 1: longer collection time. UM. But you know, if you're in

443
00:26:29,560 --> 00:26:32,600
Speaker 1: that position, you know when the best time is to

444
00:26:32,600 --> 00:26:35,400
Speaker 1: get the seed from each plant. Sure, and then when

445
00:26:35,440 --> 00:26:39,439
Speaker 1: you're collecting it, you're also making notes of the um

446
00:26:39,640 --> 00:26:46,320
Speaker 1: soil quality and type, the growing conditions UM, the the ecosystem,

447
00:26:46,359 --> 00:26:48,840
Speaker 1: like what kind of ecosystem is growing in. That's like

448
00:26:48,880 --> 00:26:52,720
Speaker 1: the most important part, almost besides the seed it's extremely important.

449
00:26:52,760 --> 00:26:55,000
Speaker 1: We read this one article. Let you see the one

450
00:26:55,119 --> 00:27:00,960
Speaker 1: from um Berry Bay very point, you know, the one

451
00:27:01,000 --> 00:27:06,119
Speaker 1: Importland very botanic garden. I wanted to add something extra,

452
00:27:06,240 --> 00:27:08,959
Speaker 1: but they basically had a rundown of how they do it,

453
00:27:09,480 --> 00:27:13,879
Speaker 1: um and and they were saying important record keeping is

454
00:27:14,160 --> 00:27:17,040
Speaker 1: about as important as having the seed itself, because if

455
00:27:17,040 --> 00:27:20,760
Speaker 1: you don't have the information you need, including what kind

456
00:27:20,760 --> 00:27:23,879
Speaker 1: of seed is where, it's just basically useless as far

457
00:27:23,920 --> 00:27:26,040
Speaker 1: as the seed bank is concerned. Yeah, well I wouldn't

458
00:27:26,040 --> 00:27:28,040
Speaker 1: say useless, but you would certainly have to grow it

459
00:27:28,080 --> 00:27:30,600
Speaker 1: and take those records and kind of start over. And

460
00:27:30,600 --> 00:27:35,240
Speaker 1: then this be like what is this? It talks? Uh,

461
00:27:35,359 --> 00:27:38,159
Speaker 1: So you recorded all this information. Um, they're gonna assign

462
00:27:38,200 --> 00:27:42,720
Speaker 1: it a sample number, very um specific number obviously for

463
00:27:42,880 --> 00:27:46,919
Speaker 1: that seed. So everything is, you know, it's the record

464
00:27:47,000 --> 00:27:49,199
Speaker 1: keeping is a huge, huge part of it. So you

465
00:27:49,240 --> 00:27:51,560
Speaker 1: know what everything is. You don't want to get stuff

466
00:27:51,600 --> 00:27:55,000
Speaker 1: mixed up in case of, you know, a nuclear apocalypse

467
00:27:55,080 --> 00:27:58,560
Speaker 1: that sucks so bad. You're like, wait a minute, wait

468
00:27:58,560 --> 00:28:02,320
Speaker 1: a minute. I had the wheat in my left hand right,

469
00:28:02,320 --> 00:28:05,640
Speaker 1: I think I just stink or we thought we were

470
00:28:05,640 --> 00:28:11,679
Speaker 1: growing corn, but we're growing papaya and we're having a party. Actually,

471
00:28:11,720 --> 00:28:15,439
Speaker 1: that wouldn't be so bad. That's why you have a party,

472
00:28:15,840 --> 00:28:17,560
Speaker 1: because you'd be like, oh, I thought this is gonna

473
00:28:17,600 --> 00:28:20,080
Speaker 1: be corn, and it's a papaya. What a treat, Thank

474
00:28:20,080 --> 00:28:22,440
Speaker 1: you God. All right, So you've got these seeds, You've

475
00:28:22,440 --> 00:28:25,879
Speaker 1: got all the data recorded, everything super organized. You've washed

476
00:28:25,880 --> 00:28:29,600
Speaker 1: your hands very important part. And then you also want

477
00:28:29,600 --> 00:28:31,480
Speaker 1: to wash You want to clean these seeds. You can't

478
00:28:31,520 --> 00:28:34,919
Speaker 1: just take a wet watermelon seed and throw it in

479
00:28:35,000 --> 00:28:40,560
Speaker 1: a tiny Manila envelope and contest to see who can

480
00:28:40,600 --> 00:28:42,920
Speaker 1: get it in the manilla envelope. No, you have to

481
00:28:42,960 --> 00:28:45,360
Speaker 1: clean everything. You've got to make sure it's of really

482
00:28:45,440 --> 00:28:48,200
Speaker 1: high quality. Um. Some of this is done by hand.

483
00:28:48,320 --> 00:28:51,600
Speaker 1: Some of this is done by machine these days. Uh.

484
00:28:51,640 --> 00:28:55,560
Speaker 1: And then you want to get the moisture out of it.

485
00:28:55,600 --> 00:28:58,920
Speaker 1: Like I said, Uh, moist not only is a gross word,

486
00:28:58,960 --> 00:29:02,600
Speaker 1: but it's not good for storing seeds. No, it's really not,

487
00:29:02,720 --> 00:29:05,640
Speaker 1: because they will start to germinate, which is not what

488
00:29:05,760 --> 00:29:09,440
Speaker 1: you want going on in your seed bank. Only for

489
00:29:09,480 --> 00:29:12,960
Speaker 1: storing seeds. Moisture is really good for seeds, sure, yeah, yeah,

490
00:29:12,960 --> 00:29:16,520
Speaker 1: for storing seeds, it's not good um or they can

491
00:29:16,560 --> 00:29:19,160
Speaker 1: search a rot to depending on the conditions. So you

492
00:29:19,200 --> 00:29:21,200
Speaker 1: want to dry them. And apparently there's a rule of

493
00:29:21,200 --> 00:29:25,040
Speaker 1: thumb when you're preparing seeds for long term cold storage,

494
00:29:25,480 --> 00:29:30,320
Speaker 1: where you dry them at about fifteen degrees celsius at

495
00:29:30,360 --> 00:29:34,480
Speaker 1: about fifteen degrees relative humidity or fifteen percent relative humidity.

496
00:29:35,040 --> 00:29:38,280
Speaker 1: It's so easy a child could remember it, that's right.

497
00:29:38,680 --> 00:29:40,680
Speaker 1: So you're you dry them out like that, usually in

498
00:29:40,720 --> 00:29:42,880
Speaker 1: the presence of like a desk tant or something like that,

499
00:29:42,960 --> 00:29:48,480
Speaker 1: like what is it um and and once they're dry,

500
00:29:48,920 --> 00:29:52,880
Speaker 1: you you put them into cold storage and that's where

501
00:29:52,880 --> 00:29:55,120
Speaker 1: they stay. And in cold storage, I think you get

502
00:29:55,120 --> 00:29:57,960
Speaker 1: it down to zero point four degrees fahreh height, which

503
00:29:58,000 --> 00:30:02,640
Speaker 1: is negative eighteen degrees celsius and um. They can stay

504
00:30:02,680 --> 00:30:08,440
Speaker 1: there for decades, sometimes depending on the seeds sent a century.

505
00:30:09,120 --> 00:30:11,360
Speaker 1: And but we should say a chuck. These are specific

506
00:30:11,560 --> 00:30:14,240
Speaker 1: types of seeds. There's basically two kinds of seeds in

507
00:30:14,280 --> 00:30:18,320
Speaker 1: the world as far as categorizing seeds goes. One is

508
00:30:18,360 --> 00:30:22,640
Speaker 1: the orthodox seed, which can undergo the process we just described,

509
00:30:22,640 --> 00:30:24,720
Speaker 1: and which if you go to a seed bank, those

510
00:30:24,720 --> 00:30:26,520
Speaker 1: are the kind of seeds that are there. It's what

511
00:30:26,600 --> 00:30:30,120
Speaker 1: most people think of as seeds. Right, then there's something

512
00:30:30,160 --> 00:30:35,240
Speaker 1: called recalcitrant seeds, which are things like um a tuber

513
00:30:35,720 --> 00:30:38,920
Speaker 1: or acorns or a lot of the fruit out there

514
00:30:38,920 --> 00:30:42,920
Speaker 1: in the world, typically tropical plants the way that they seed.

515
00:30:43,200 --> 00:30:46,200
Speaker 1: You can't do what we just said to recalcitrant seed.

516
00:30:46,360 --> 00:30:48,560
Speaker 1: It will destroy it and it won't be viable. So

517
00:30:49,280 --> 00:30:53,560
Speaker 1: seed banks don't typically tend to store recalcitrant seeds unless

518
00:30:53,640 --> 00:30:57,600
Speaker 1: that's their specialty. Yeah, and in that case, you can't

519
00:30:57,840 --> 00:31:02,400
Speaker 1: use all these uh, you gotta gotta go low fi. Yeah,

520
00:31:02,440 --> 00:31:05,360
Speaker 1: it seems like a more old world method of storing

521
00:31:05,360 --> 00:31:09,880
Speaker 1: a seed if you're working with the racalcitrants. Um. I

522
00:31:09,960 --> 00:31:12,440
Speaker 1: was just thinking of a Twilight Zone episode or something

523
00:31:13,600 --> 00:31:17,200
Speaker 1: like you break into the doomsday vault because everything has

524
00:31:17,240 --> 00:31:19,800
Speaker 1: been lost, and like, at least we got these seeds,

525
00:31:19,800 --> 00:31:22,040
Speaker 1: like the guy with the the library and he sits

526
00:31:22,080 --> 00:31:26,719
Speaker 1: on his glasses. I love that when that was Burgess Meredith. Yeah,

527
00:31:26,760 --> 00:31:29,880
Speaker 1: but in this case they would find that, uh, they

528
00:31:29,880 --> 00:31:32,480
Speaker 1: had all gotten moist and grown and died. So the

529
00:31:32,520 --> 00:31:36,000
Speaker 1: seed vault is just full of dead plants. That'd be

530
00:31:36,000 --> 00:31:38,840
Speaker 1: the worst. That'd be pretty sad. Man. Why am I

531
00:31:38,840 --> 00:31:42,440
Speaker 1: such a downer. I don't know. Uh, did you talk

532
00:31:42,480 --> 00:31:46,000
Speaker 1: about cryo preservation yet? No, No, that that's actually I

533
00:31:46,040 --> 00:31:50,400
Speaker 1: was gonna say, with recalcitrant seeds, you you might want

534
00:31:50,440 --> 00:31:52,760
Speaker 1: to use cryo preservation, which is where you take the

535
00:31:52,880 --> 00:31:56,160
Speaker 1: living tissue of the plant, like say a banana, and

536
00:31:56,200 --> 00:32:00,880
Speaker 1: actually like freeze the banana and liquid nitrogen. Well that yeah,

537
00:32:00,920 --> 00:32:05,280
Speaker 1: that's in vitro storage. Okay, that's not cryo preserve preservation.

538
00:32:05,480 --> 00:32:09,160
Speaker 1: It's it's using cryo preservation for in vitro storage, Is

539
00:32:09,200 --> 00:32:11,040
Speaker 1: that right, Yeah, because that's like in the case of

540
00:32:11,040 --> 00:32:13,719
Speaker 1: a banana, like you said, there is no seed, so

541
00:32:13,760 --> 00:32:15,920
Speaker 1: you just gotta you gotta get a piece of that

542
00:32:15,960 --> 00:32:20,920
Speaker 1: bad boy, right in vitro style. Right. Because so there's

543
00:32:20,960 --> 00:32:23,800
Speaker 1: this really great, damn interesting article from years ago that

544
00:32:24,040 --> 00:32:28,000
Speaker 1: is about how bananas are all clones of one another,

545
00:32:28,200 --> 00:32:31,520
Speaker 1: that they're all a sexual and like every banana in

546
00:32:31,560 --> 00:32:36,120
Speaker 1: the world is related to other bananas. Yeah, we've talked

547
00:32:36,120 --> 00:32:38,200
Speaker 1: about that before, but um, I feel like we have.

548
00:32:38,440 --> 00:32:41,400
Speaker 1: I think I'm worried about bananas and other people are too,

549
00:32:41,920 --> 00:32:44,960
Speaker 1: about how they're not actually healthy. Yeah, I mean there's

550
00:32:44,960 --> 00:32:48,560
Speaker 1: a banana problem, right, is there? I think so what's

551
00:32:48,600 --> 00:32:51,360
Speaker 1: the problem for some reason, I think there's a shortage,

552
00:32:51,440 --> 00:32:53,280
Speaker 1: or maybe I'm just making that up. I think they

553
00:32:53,320 --> 00:32:55,040
Speaker 1: do that from time and times just gild people pay

554
00:32:55,080 --> 00:32:56,800
Speaker 1: like an extra fifty cents or something, you know what

555
00:32:56,840 --> 00:33:01,959
Speaker 1: I mean. Alright, So with these seed banks, UM, they store,

556
00:33:03,720 --> 00:33:05,400
Speaker 1: like I said, each of them stores different things. But

557
00:33:05,440 --> 00:33:09,040
Speaker 1: you might think they wouldn't store things like, um, poisonous

558
00:33:09,080 --> 00:33:12,840
Speaker 1: plants or base of species. But you can kind of

559
00:33:12,880 --> 00:33:17,440
Speaker 1: find a home for any seed that exists somewhere because

560
00:33:17,480 --> 00:33:20,720
Speaker 1: you just never know. Um katzoo was an example. Debbie

561
00:33:20,760 --> 00:33:23,320
Speaker 1: used that, Um, you know, it's a very famous invasive

562
00:33:23,320 --> 00:33:26,200
Speaker 1: plant species here in the South. But now and you

563
00:33:26,200 --> 00:33:29,120
Speaker 1: know it was always just like nothing but a problem,

564
00:33:29,160 --> 00:33:31,560
Speaker 1: but now there are moves to maybe try and turn

565
00:33:31,560 --> 00:33:34,440
Speaker 1: it into a biofuel. So it's just trying to not

566
00:33:34,480 --> 00:33:38,760
Speaker 1: be so shortsighted things that you think, um, you can't

567
00:33:38,840 --> 00:33:40,640
Speaker 1: use now because you never know what it's gonna be

568
00:33:40,680 --> 00:33:45,600
Speaker 1: like in five years. It turns out they also um

569
00:33:46,280 --> 00:33:49,480
Speaker 1: have marijuana seeds and seed banks as well. Yeah, dog,

570
00:33:49,800 --> 00:33:53,960
Speaker 1: because who's who's to judge? You know, well, plus it's

571
00:33:54,120 --> 00:34:00,280
Speaker 1: medicine and UM, they're there trying to you know, all

572
00:34:00,360 --> 00:34:03,200
Speaker 1: kinds of plant based medicines. So they're not going to

573
00:34:03,240 --> 00:34:06,400
Speaker 1: discriminate against marijuana. You kid me. It probably has its

574
00:34:06,440 --> 00:34:11,160
Speaker 1: own little room with beaded doorways and it's all black light.

575
00:34:11,320 --> 00:34:15,200
Speaker 1: Macromay owls on the wall. Man, Macromay owls are the best,

576
00:34:15,560 --> 00:34:17,319
Speaker 1: So chuck. Once you have all your seeds in the

577
00:34:17,320 --> 00:34:19,759
Speaker 1: bank and everything, you just leave them for decades, right,

578
00:34:19,800 --> 00:34:22,960
Speaker 1: and then then that's it. Maybe they'll stay forever. No,

579
00:34:23,280 --> 00:34:25,520
Speaker 1: you got to manage, and you gotta have a caretaker.

580
00:34:25,880 --> 00:34:27,799
Speaker 1: You do. There's a there's a few things you need

581
00:34:27,840 --> 00:34:31,879
Speaker 1: to do. One thing is that when you um, when

582
00:34:31,920 --> 00:34:34,800
Speaker 1: you let seeds go for a while, like their dormant

583
00:34:34,880 --> 00:34:39,960
Speaker 1: little package waiting to become a plant. Right, But they

584
00:34:39,960 --> 00:34:42,920
Speaker 1: can die, like even though they're basically they're they're in

585
00:34:42,960 --> 00:34:46,560
Speaker 1: a state of suspended animation, especially at zero degrees fahrenheight,

586
00:34:47,040 --> 00:34:49,160
Speaker 1: they can still go bad. They can still die. They

587
00:34:49,160 --> 00:34:52,800
Speaker 1: can still age out of being able to produce crops.

588
00:34:52,840 --> 00:34:55,200
Speaker 1: So every once in a while you want to come in,

589
00:34:55,520 --> 00:34:59,760
Speaker 1: grab your seeds, take them, plant them, grow more seeds,

590
00:34:59,800 --> 00:35:02,759
Speaker 1: and and rebank the seeds from the plants you just

591
00:35:02,840 --> 00:35:06,719
Speaker 1: grew from the seeds you had banked Originally it's kind

592
00:35:06,719 --> 00:35:08,239
Speaker 1: of a it's kind of pain really if you think

593
00:35:08,239 --> 00:35:13,160
Speaker 1: about it. But seeds are seeds are worth it, you know, Yeah,

594
00:35:13,200 --> 00:35:15,759
Speaker 1: that's what they have on their front door. And then

595
00:35:15,880 --> 00:35:18,160
Speaker 1: so when you're also doing it, when you're doing that,

596
00:35:18,239 --> 00:35:21,840
Speaker 1: you're also you want to test the plants DNA. You

597
00:35:21,880 --> 00:35:25,200
Speaker 1: wanna eventually apparently they don't really do this very much,

598
00:35:25,200 --> 00:35:28,120
Speaker 1: which I was kind of surprised. You want to basically

599
00:35:28,160 --> 00:35:31,400
Speaker 1: scan the genome of the plant and maybe store that information.

600
00:35:33,080 --> 00:35:35,279
Speaker 1: You want to create a database so that all of

601
00:35:35,320 --> 00:35:39,000
Speaker 1: that genetic information can be can be accessed, so you

602
00:35:39,040 --> 00:35:41,919
Speaker 1: know what genes are in what plants, and where those

603
00:35:41,920 --> 00:35:45,040
Speaker 1: plants are, and what seed bank. And apparently that's the

604
00:35:45,120 --> 00:35:49,279
Speaker 1: steps that small bards taking, but they're they're nowhere near

605
00:35:49,360 --> 00:35:52,480
Speaker 1: that now. And I was really surprised to hear it's

606
00:35:52,520 --> 00:35:55,759
Speaker 1: really supposedly pretty low tech that the seed banks in

607
00:35:55,800 --> 00:36:00,040
Speaker 1: the world are just tasked with keeping seeds alive and

608
00:36:00,040 --> 00:36:02,799
Speaker 1: and aren't doing terribly much else unless it's like a

609
00:36:02,840 --> 00:36:06,799
Speaker 1: research station that that their seed bank is attached to. Well, yeah,

610
00:36:06,840 --> 00:36:11,520
Speaker 1: I mean, out of i'd say the vast minority of

611
00:36:11,560 --> 00:36:15,640
Speaker 1: the murder these super high tech organizations. You know. Yeah. Um, alright,

612
00:36:15,640 --> 00:36:17,120
Speaker 1: well let's take another break and we'll come back and

613
00:36:17,120 --> 00:36:19,200
Speaker 1: we'll talk a little bit more about small Bard and

614
00:36:19,360 --> 00:36:23,520
Speaker 1: his black metal band, as well as the fact that

615
00:36:24,000 --> 00:36:59,439
Speaker 1: could there be anything wrong with this plan? So check

616
00:36:59,480 --> 00:37:03,399
Speaker 1: that was that was quite a teaser. Should go ahead

617
00:37:03,400 --> 00:37:06,120
Speaker 1: and talk about that then? Yeah, well yeah, I mean,

618
00:37:06,160 --> 00:37:09,360
Speaker 1: like you think, what could possibly be wrong with seed banks?

619
00:37:09,360 --> 00:37:13,680
Speaker 1: What's your problem? Just let small Bard have his seeds, right, Yeah,

620
00:37:13,719 --> 00:37:15,799
Speaker 1: And I kind of was surprised to know that there

621
00:37:15,840 --> 00:37:18,400
Speaker 1: was any downside, but um, there is a school of

622
00:37:18,440 --> 00:37:22,839
Speaker 1: thought that is very much um from people that like

623
00:37:22,960 --> 00:37:27,120
Speaker 1: our hands on with farmers themselves, where they say, like,

624
00:37:27,200 --> 00:37:31,239
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's great that you're doing this, but um,

625
00:37:31,280 --> 00:37:35,759
Speaker 1: in a thousand years, those seeds might be worthless. Right.

626
00:37:35,760 --> 00:37:37,239
Speaker 1: It was like I was saying, you have to come

627
00:37:37,280 --> 00:37:40,160
Speaker 1: in and and plant those seeds and get new seeds

628
00:37:40,160 --> 00:37:44,919
Speaker 1: from those plants, right, You can't just leave them, correct, right,

629
00:37:45,160 --> 00:37:48,000
Speaker 1: but they could also be worthless, chucking that when you

630
00:37:48,040 --> 00:37:52,480
Speaker 1: take seeds out of the world and bank them put

631
00:37:52,520 --> 00:37:56,680
Speaker 1: them in suspended animation, you're halting evolution as well. Well yeah,

632
00:37:56,719 --> 00:37:58,920
Speaker 1: I mean that's kind of the point, Like plants are

633
00:37:58,920 --> 00:38:04,360
Speaker 1: are well, they're literally growing things, but they're also evolving things.

634
00:38:04,560 --> 00:38:07,759
Speaker 1: And like these farmers are saying, you know, they day

635
00:38:07,760 --> 00:38:09,600
Speaker 1: to day and year to year and crop to crop,

636
00:38:09,640 --> 00:38:12,120
Speaker 1: they see changes. So these seeds that you've got for

637
00:38:12,440 --> 00:38:16,160
Speaker 1: decades and decades may end up not being anything like

638
00:38:16,760 --> 00:38:18,880
Speaker 1: the seeds that you're growing or that you may lose.

639
00:38:19,560 --> 00:38:21,000
Speaker 1: I mean, I guess as long as you're keeping it

640
00:38:21,080 --> 00:38:23,280
Speaker 1: up though, I mean I side with the seed vaulters

641
00:38:23,520 --> 00:38:28,000
Speaker 1: for sure. Yeah, yeah, well, okay, so there's two there's

642
00:38:28,040 --> 00:38:31,040
Speaker 1: two schools of thought. One is banking seeds, right and

643
00:38:31,120 --> 00:38:34,800
Speaker 1: just protecting the genetic information of every variety of plants

644
00:38:34,840 --> 00:38:38,680
Speaker 1: you possibly can, right, it can't be for future use, right.

645
00:38:39,120 --> 00:38:41,640
Speaker 1: The other school of thought is, no, we need to

646
00:38:41,680 --> 00:38:45,520
Speaker 1: be working with farmers out in the field to protect

647
00:38:45,640 --> 00:38:51,160
Speaker 1: protect crop diversity and like like protected by making sure

648
00:38:51,200 --> 00:38:54,520
Speaker 1: that those varieties are still being farmed and that there's

649
00:38:54,520 --> 00:38:56,920
Speaker 1: a bunch of different varieties and that these farmers stay

650
00:38:57,000 --> 00:39:00,480
Speaker 1: farming that they can you know, make their living you know,

651
00:39:00,640 --> 00:39:04,680
Speaker 1: doing this this farming, and and that's the way to

652
00:39:04,760 --> 00:39:08,920
Speaker 1: protect bio diversities to keep evolution going, not take the

653
00:39:09,040 --> 00:39:12,520
Speaker 1: seeds and ultimately the plants out of evolution for a

654
00:39:12,520 --> 00:39:16,120
Speaker 1: while and maybe do both, you would think so, But

655
00:39:16,239 --> 00:39:19,399
Speaker 1: as far as um, as Suzanne Goldenberg says in that

656
00:39:19,400 --> 00:39:22,200
Speaker 1: that Guardian article, there's just not the funding to do both.

657
00:39:22,400 --> 00:39:25,839
Speaker 1: So there's a big division in in crop sciences, in

658
00:39:25,840 --> 00:39:29,799
Speaker 1: in botany and in biology about which route do you take.

659
00:39:30,080 --> 00:39:32,799
Speaker 1: And svall Bard has been getting a lot of the

660
00:39:32,840 --> 00:39:35,560
Speaker 1: money lately. So the seed banking way is kind of

661
00:39:35,600 --> 00:39:37,840
Speaker 1: the way that people have been going. But there's a

662
00:39:37,960 --> 00:39:40,560
Speaker 1: there's a lot of people are saying, I don't know

663
00:39:40,600 --> 00:39:42,600
Speaker 1: if that's such a good idea after all, maybe we

664
00:39:42,600 --> 00:39:45,880
Speaker 1: should be protecting crops in situ in the fields and

665
00:39:45,880 --> 00:39:50,279
Speaker 1: in supporting indigenous farmers um instead. So there's a big

666
00:39:50,320 --> 00:39:53,680
Speaker 1: debate about which way to go. Still, yeah, I mean,

667
00:39:53,760 --> 00:39:56,239
Speaker 1: and then like you said at the very beginning, uh,

668
00:39:56,440 --> 00:39:59,080
Speaker 1: seed banks, and of course the one in Norway is

669
00:39:59,200 --> 00:40:03,440
Speaker 1: very um it's kind of a it's about the sexiest

670
00:40:03,440 --> 00:40:06,719
Speaker 1: seeds can get sure as far as the media goes,

671
00:40:06,880 --> 00:40:09,760
Speaker 1: especially when you have backers like Bill and Melinda Gates

672
00:40:10,280 --> 00:40:14,240
Speaker 1: and these you know, very wealthy philanthropists kind of backing

673
00:40:14,280 --> 00:40:18,080
Speaker 1: the idea of these seed banks. Um. You know, I

674
00:40:18,120 --> 00:40:22,360
Speaker 1: think hopefully that doesn't divert so much funding from the

675
00:40:22,400 --> 00:40:25,080
Speaker 1: other that it's you know, a wash. You know, well,

676
00:40:25,200 --> 00:40:27,200
Speaker 1: that's part of the problem. It is very much. So

677
00:40:27,719 --> 00:40:30,440
Speaker 1: it's diverting a ton of funding away from the stuff,

678
00:40:30,560 --> 00:40:33,520
Speaker 1: the campaigns that are carrying out in the field. And

679
00:40:33,560 --> 00:40:35,600
Speaker 1: I think part of the reason is is because there

680
00:40:36,200 --> 00:40:39,640
Speaker 1: this division has become pronounced, you know, it's one or

681
00:40:39,680 --> 00:40:42,520
Speaker 1: the other. Some people are saying, Okay, well I'll choose

682
00:40:42,520 --> 00:40:44,680
Speaker 1: this side over this side or something. I don't like

683
00:40:44,800 --> 00:40:47,160
Speaker 1: a black and white line of thinking. I don't either,

684
00:40:47,239 --> 00:40:49,680
Speaker 1: And it does seem like this is important enough to

685
00:40:49,719 --> 00:40:52,719
Speaker 1: try both approaches. But I guess the will is not there.

686
00:40:52,840 --> 00:40:57,279
Speaker 1: The finances aren't really right. So um, there there's it's

687
00:40:57,320 --> 00:41:00,880
Speaker 1: becoming a battle. Um. But I'm with you, man. I

688
00:41:00,920 --> 00:41:03,279
Speaker 1: think I think seed banking is good. I also think

689
00:41:03,320 --> 00:41:06,760
Speaker 1: working with farmers is good. Um, so let's try both,

690
00:41:06,840 --> 00:41:10,839
Speaker 1: is my thing? Agreed? Um. The other The other thing

691
00:41:10,880 --> 00:41:13,920
Speaker 1: that I'm starting to kind of see about the Crop

692
00:41:14,000 --> 00:41:17,120
Speaker 1: Trust and small Bard is that they're, like I said,

693
00:41:17,120 --> 00:41:20,400
Speaker 1: they're coming in. They're saying, here's the standards for seed preservation,

694
00:41:20,880 --> 00:41:24,680
Speaker 1: and they're kind of carrying out this some social Darwinistic

695
00:41:25,040 --> 00:41:27,760
Speaker 1: mission where it's like, if you're not up to snuff

696
00:41:28,239 --> 00:41:32,200
Speaker 1: to our standards we're making, you're you're not getting any

697
00:41:32,200 --> 00:41:34,560
Speaker 1: fun anymore. You're gonna wither and die. And we're just

698
00:41:34,600 --> 00:41:37,440
Speaker 1: going to support the ones that we that we feel

699
00:41:37,680 --> 00:41:40,240
Speaker 1: are up to snuff, the seed banks around the world,

700
00:41:41,400 --> 00:41:44,920
Speaker 1: which is fine, but it's also um like, I mean

701
00:41:44,960 --> 00:41:46,759
Speaker 1: I get it on the one hand, right where you're

702
00:41:46,840 --> 00:41:51,760
Speaker 1: just kind of like, um, this works. These standards work,

703
00:41:52,640 --> 00:41:56,040
Speaker 1: But it's the same thing as saying like this, this

704
00:41:56,239 --> 00:41:59,160
Speaker 1: um strip mall works. You put an old navy here

705
00:41:59,200 --> 00:42:01,320
Speaker 1: at t J Max here in a grocery store in

706
00:42:01,360 --> 00:42:05,160
Speaker 1: the middle that works, builded everywhere. Do you lose something

707
00:42:05,200 --> 00:42:07,319
Speaker 1: in the irony of it is that we're trying to

708
00:42:07,400 --> 00:42:14,040
Speaker 1: protect crop diversity by standardizing the way that they're protected,

709
00:42:14,520 --> 00:42:16,759
Speaker 1: and it just seems like one point is missing the

710
00:42:16,800 --> 00:42:19,680
Speaker 1: other in that sense. You know, yeah, yeah, I get it.

711
00:42:20,160 --> 00:42:22,200
Speaker 1: Um so small Bard gets all the headlines, but there

712
00:42:22,200 --> 00:42:25,720
Speaker 1: are some other fairly high profile seed banks around the world.

713
00:42:25,920 --> 00:42:31,719
Speaker 1: Um one uh at Q Gardens in London. Well it's

714
00:42:31,760 --> 00:42:33,919
Speaker 1: a little south London, a few a couple of hours south.

715
00:42:33,960 --> 00:42:36,960
Speaker 1: I think, No, I've been there, buddy, Is it really

716
00:42:36,960 --> 00:42:40,799
Speaker 1: on the map. It looks like it's pretty pretty far south. Well,

717
00:42:40,840 --> 00:42:45,120
Speaker 1: I mean it's it's South London. Well, London is huge, Yeah,

718
00:42:45,160 --> 00:42:46,960
Speaker 1: I mean we Emily and I went and it was

719
00:42:48,080 --> 00:42:50,840
Speaker 1: the Royal Tanical Gardens. It's just one of the loveliest,

720
00:42:51,200 --> 00:42:55,120
Speaker 1: uh loveliest gardens I've ever seen. I posted pictures on

721
00:42:55,160 --> 00:42:56,440
Speaker 1: the stuff you should know while I was just so

722
00:42:56,480 --> 00:43:01,000
Speaker 1: blown away. But there they have the Millennium Seed Bank Project. Um.

723
00:43:01,040 --> 00:43:06,400
Speaker 1: And their goal there is to obviously, um store plants

724
00:43:06,400 --> 00:43:08,640
Speaker 1: for the United Kingdom, but they really want to protect

725
00:43:08,719 --> 00:43:13,840
Speaker 1: the twenty four thousand global species as well. UM. And

726
00:43:13,880 --> 00:43:16,800
Speaker 1: I think right now they have all the native plant

727
00:43:16,800 --> 00:43:21,320
Speaker 1: population covered. It was pretty amazing. England, oh, just of England,

728
00:43:21,360 --> 00:43:23,520
Speaker 1: not the UK as a whole. Maybe it is the

729
00:43:23,600 --> 00:43:25,680
Speaker 1: UK as a whole. It probably is the UK as

730
00:43:25,719 --> 00:43:31,440
Speaker 1: a whole. Careful yeah really. Um. There's one in Russia

731
00:43:31,440 --> 00:43:34,399
Speaker 1: which I believe is the oldest seed bank. Yeah. So

732
00:43:34,480 --> 00:43:38,120
Speaker 1: that one is the Vavilov Institute of Plant Industry. It

733
00:43:38,200 --> 00:43:43,360
Speaker 1: was established in St. Petersburg, right and St. Petersburg was

734
00:43:43,440 --> 00:43:45,880
Speaker 1: known as Lennon Grad for a while while Stalin was

735
00:43:45,920 --> 00:43:50,080
Speaker 1: in power. Um, and if you'll remember correctly, there was

736
00:43:50,120 --> 00:43:53,680
Speaker 1: a siege on Lennon Grad that lasted like three years,

737
00:43:53,719 --> 00:44:00,359
Speaker 1: I think, and plant the plant scientists, like apparently large

738
00:44:00,480 --> 00:44:03,840
Speaker 1: number of the plant scientists who worked at this Institute

739
00:44:03,840 --> 00:44:08,479
Speaker 1: of Plant Industry starved to death, died of starvation rather

740
00:44:08,520 --> 00:44:11,600
Speaker 1: than grow these seeds into food because they were so

741
00:44:11,840 --> 00:44:15,040
Speaker 1: bent on protecting it. And the guy that they that

742
00:44:15,080 --> 00:44:18,600
Speaker 1: they named the place after he was he was a

743
00:44:18,719 --> 00:44:22,200
Speaker 1: great seed banker as well, very smart guy, um who

744
00:44:22,520 --> 00:44:26,640
Speaker 1: figured out that the genetic diversity was of paramount importance

745
00:44:26,680 --> 00:44:30,200
Speaker 1: as far as crops go. Um. He died of starvation

746
00:44:30,239 --> 00:44:33,480
Speaker 1: as well because Stalin made an escapegoat when his collectivists

747
00:44:34,200 --> 00:44:39,000
Speaker 1: policies caused a famine. So imagine being a seed a

748
00:44:39,040 --> 00:44:42,080
Speaker 1: guy who's banking seeds to protect against famine and then

749
00:44:42,160 --> 00:44:47,759
Speaker 1: dying of starvation as a result. No good, No, that's

750
00:44:47,800 --> 00:44:51,680
Speaker 1: no good. So you've got anything else? No, I say,

751
00:44:51,680 --> 00:44:56,719
Speaker 1: hats off to seed vaulters and um good farmers. Yeah

752
00:44:56,760 --> 00:45:00,480
Speaker 1: they got them all. Oh man, we almost left out

753
00:45:00,520 --> 00:45:03,440
Speaker 1: the big, the big thing, the big news about sval Bard.

754
00:45:03,760 --> 00:45:06,560
Speaker 1: What happened? Well back in May there are reports that

755
00:45:06,600 --> 00:45:10,080
Speaker 1: there is this um that due to climate change, the

756
00:45:10,120 --> 00:45:13,960
Speaker 1: perma frost melted and small Bard became flooded and the

757
00:45:14,040 --> 00:45:16,680
Speaker 1: sea bank was threatened. Well, it turns out that that

758
00:45:16,760 --> 00:45:21,920
Speaker 1: was wildly overblown. That the um there's water intrusion just

759
00:45:22,000 --> 00:45:25,720
Speaker 1: about every year in small Bard, but it's so cold

760
00:45:25,800 --> 00:45:28,040
Speaker 1: that the water makes it, you know, a couple of

761
00:45:28,120 --> 00:45:33,000
Speaker 1: meters down towards the vault, which is a hundred meters long,

762
00:45:33,239 --> 00:45:37,080
Speaker 1: the tunnel is and then freezes solid. And the world

763
00:45:37,080 --> 00:45:39,680
Speaker 1: found out about this and they said, no, you need

764
00:45:39,719 --> 00:45:42,439
Speaker 1: to do something about that. So apparently they're waterproofing it.

765
00:45:42,719 --> 00:45:46,759
Speaker 1: But it wasn't necessary climate change, it wasn't part. But

766
00:45:46,840 --> 00:45:48,920
Speaker 1: it was the fact that they built the seed vault

767
00:45:49,200 --> 00:45:52,080
Speaker 1: into the perma frost. And when you cut into perma

768
00:45:52,080 --> 00:45:55,400
Speaker 1: frost you allow for heat intrusion, which keeps the perma

769
00:45:55,400 --> 00:45:59,919
Speaker 1: apart from becoming well being permanent. So it's not all

770
00:46:00,040 --> 00:46:03,720
Speaker 1: he's frozen. It will freeze in thaw. So by creating

771
00:46:03,719 --> 00:46:08,279
Speaker 1: the seed vault, they messed up the perma frost. But

772
00:46:08,440 --> 00:46:11,200
Speaker 1: it's not It wasn't flooded, the seeds weren't an issue,

773
00:46:11,239 --> 00:46:13,800
Speaker 1: and it's all under control. It's basically just the media

774
00:46:14,480 --> 00:46:18,799
Speaker 1: finding something ironic and running with it. I do have

775
00:46:18,880 --> 00:46:21,120
Speaker 1: one more interesting little tidbit. I don't think we covered that.

776
00:46:21,280 --> 00:46:23,960
Speaker 1: This is about small bard. Uh. It is such a

777
00:46:23,960 --> 00:46:28,280
Speaker 1: serious deal there that like there's there's no one person

778
00:46:28,400 --> 00:46:31,520
Speaker 1: with like the key, like you have to It only

779
00:46:31,520 --> 00:46:33,680
Speaker 1: opens for deposits three times a year, and it's sort

780
00:46:33,680 --> 00:46:37,279
Speaker 1: of like war games, like you have to there. There

781
00:46:37,280 --> 00:46:39,839
Speaker 1: are multiple people that have to be there to even

782
00:46:39,880 --> 00:46:42,520
Speaker 1: access this thing. You have to beat it at tic

783
00:46:42,600 --> 00:46:45,520
Speaker 1: tac toe before it we'll let you in. Pretty neat, man,

784
00:46:46,320 --> 00:46:48,879
Speaker 1: it is. It's very neat, and the idea behind it's

785
00:46:48,920 --> 00:46:51,520
Speaker 1: pretty awesome too. I I say, do it all, do

786
00:46:51,600 --> 00:46:56,040
Speaker 1: everything we can to protect crop diversity. Uh. If you

787
00:46:56,080 --> 00:46:58,839
Speaker 1: want a more about seed banks, you can type those

788
00:46:58,880 --> 00:47:00,919
Speaker 1: words in the search bar how stuff works dot com.

789
00:47:00,960 --> 00:47:03,520
Speaker 1: And while you're at it, go read the Doomsday Vault

790
00:47:03,560 --> 00:47:07,120
Speaker 1: colon the seeds that could save a post apocalyptic world

791
00:47:07,120 --> 00:47:09,799
Speaker 1: in the Guardian. That was a good article as well. Uh.

792
00:47:09,840 --> 00:47:12,640
Speaker 1: And since I said as well, it's time for listener mail.

793
00:47:16,360 --> 00:47:20,120
Speaker 1: I'm gonna preface this email with an offer to you

794
00:47:20,680 --> 00:47:26,920
Speaker 1: to revise your statement on the magnificence of the Aurora borealis. Man.

795
00:47:27,400 --> 00:47:29,920
Speaker 1: I I want to say, I want to preface that

796
00:47:30,200 --> 00:47:35,200
Speaker 1: with I'm never going to read the Independent again. Certainly

797
00:47:35,239 --> 00:47:37,960
Speaker 1: I won't mention anything I read in the Independent again.

798
00:47:38,280 --> 00:47:41,959
Speaker 1: So it turns out I read the one, the one

799
00:47:42,200 --> 00:47:46,839
Speaker 1: article about how the Aurora borealis actually stinks. And it

800
00:47:46,840 --> 00:47:50,319
Speaker 1: turns out that something around nineties seven percent of our

801
00:47:50,360 --> 00:47:54,000
Speaker 1: listeners have seen the Aurora borealis and all of them

802
00:47:54,080 --> 00:47:56,320
Speaker 1: can tell you that it does not, in fact stink

803
00:47:56,360 --> 00:47:58,760
Speaker 1: in real life. That this is just the one article

804
00:47:59,000 --> 00:48:01,640
Speaker 1: on the entire Internet that says that, yes, you are

805
00:48:01,640 --> 00:48:06,120
Speaker 1: well intended, but boy did we hear about it. This one,

806
00:48:06,200 --> 00:48:10,040
Speaker 1: This one ranks up there with emails that we've gotten

807
00:48:10,040 --> 00:48:13,000
Speaker 1: in the past. Uh. So I'm gonna read this one

808
00:48:13,000 --> 00:48:18,799
Speaker 1: example from Maya Uruk and Maya is uh in Minnesota,

809
00:48:19,000 --> 00:48:21,840
Speaker 1: in Minneapolis in fact? All right, so maybe may and

810
00:48:21,880 --> 00:48:23,919
Speaker 1: her husband can come to our show there. I hope

811
00:48:23,920 --> 00:48:26,880
Speaker 1: they will. In fact, Maya write us an email and

812
00:48:26,880 --> 00:48:29,359
Speaker 1: I'll put you on the list. How about that? Yeah?

813
00:48:29,520 --> 00:48:33,160
Speaker 1: You like that? Whoa sand is coming to town? All right?

814
00:48:34,280 --> 00:48:36,200
Speaker 1: I feel like we've all been friends for years, guys.

815
00:48:36,200 --> 00:48:39,000
Speaker 1: After joining your episodes every week, we shared so much together.

816
00:48:39,040 --> 00:48:41,200
Speaker 1: It was definitely time to share something with you. My

817
00:48:41,280 --> 00:48:44,160
Speaker 1: husband and I are in our twenties. Forget it, nothing

818
00:48:44,200 --> 00:48:48,680
Speaker 1: free for you kidding? Living in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He's a

819
00:48:48,680 --> 00:48:50,880
Speaker 1: band teacher and he plays in a funky rock band

820
00:48:51,400 --> 00:48:55,560
Speaker 1: called the Confused Brothers Band. That's a great name. The

821
00:48:55,560 --> 00:48:59,279
Speaker 1: bass and the guitar players are brothers. The brothers, I

822
00:48:59,360 --> 00:49:01,760
Speaker 1: guess so. Uh. The brothers parents have a large tract

823
00:49:01,760 --> 00:49:04,720
Speaker 1: of wild land, A huge tract of land in central

824
00:49:04,760 --> 00:49:08,520
Speaker 1: Minnesota where each year, over Memorial Day, the brothers invite

825
00:49:08,520 --> 00:49:10,960
Speaker 1: three hundred of their closest musician friends camp out in

826
00:49:11,000 --> 00:49:13,200
Speaker 1: the woods put on a music festival. Boy, I want

827
00:49:13,200 --> 00:49:18,839
Speaker 1: to play in this festival. Yeah, man, that sounds great. Uh.

828
00:49:18,840 --> 00:49:20,800
Speaker 1: This year, they were walking from the tent to the

829
00:49:20,840 --> 00:49:23,440
Speaker 1: main stage and a couple of people um asked us

830
00:49:23,440 --> 00:49:25,360
Speaker 1: to look up and said, do you see those flickering lights?

831
00:49:25,760 --> 00:49:28,839
Speaker 1: Or are we just tripping too hard? Uh? Sure enough,

832
00:49:28,840 --> 00:49:31,719
Speaker 1: the northern lights were dancing across the sky the wilderness

833
00:49:31,760 --> 00:49:34,200
Speaker 1: with no large towns nearby. The Aurora borealis is moving

834
00:49:34,200 --> 00:49:37,839
Speaker 1: in sharp relief. Imagine a laser show, but a little

835
00:49:37,880 --> 00:49:41,120
Speaker 1: more alien and way more breathtaking, mesmerizing moment that made

836
00:49:41,120 --> 00:49:44,200
Speaker 1: me really be glad to be alive in this amazing world.

837
00:49:45,000 --> 00:49:48,080
Speaker 1: Your episode on Aurora Borealis and Aurora Australis left me

838
00:49:48,120 --> 00:49:53,080
Speaker 1: so sad that you believe Julia Buckley's experience to be generalizable?

839
00:49:53,440 --> 00:49:56,680
Speaker 1: Is that a word it is? Now? She may have

840
00:49:56,719 --> 00:49:58,839
Speaker 1: had a poor experiencing the Northern lights, but that doesn't

841
00:49:58,880 --> 00:50:01,200
Speaker 1: mean they always appear as a aggie shadow here to

842
00:50:01,239 --> 00:50:03,920
Speaker 1: attest that the site could be powerful reminder just how

843
00:50:03,960 --> 00:50:06,640
Speaker 1: beautiful this planet could be. Thanks for all the knowledge

844
00:50:06,640 --> 00:50:08,239
Speaker 1: and last you give me over the past few years.

845
00:50:08,680 --> 00:50:13,240
Speaker 1: Maya Yurick, Uh So, Maya, it's in me an email.

846
00:50:13,840 --> 00:50:16,000
Speaker 1: Just respond to say I want to go to your

847
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