Friday, March 28, 2008

Colleges deliver basic skills of all kinds. Should agriculture be part of the mix?

Last month the Svalbard Global Seed Vault was officially opened. The seed vault was created as a global effort to protect the world's food source in the event of future natural or man-made disasters. The vault contains 268,000 distinct samples of seeds from across the world.

“With climate change and other forces threatening the diversity of life that sustains our planet, Norway is proud to be playing a central role in creating a facility capable of protecting what are not just seeds, but the fundamental building blocks of human civilization,” said Norway’s Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg.

In an article this month from the Chronicle of Higher Education, some are wondering "even if seeds survive climate change and mass extinction in a bombproof vault, will anyone remember how to cultivate them?"

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