DYNAVERSITY project is promoting the genetic conservation of plant genetic resources through different in situ and ex situ approaches. This conservation is crucial in modern agriculture, as a considerable amount of plant genetic diversity has been lost over the last century, with a huge reduction of crops adaptability to a changing environment.
Our focus is genetic erosion in Europe, but the same is also happening oversea. To raise awareness about the biodiversity loss in agriculture in the United States, the American news website Vox recently realized the video The race to save endangered foods.
The starting point is quite simple: wild animals aren’t the only ones facing extinction. From this statement, the video shows how we are letting foods we have eaten for thousands of years disappear from farmers’ fields, and from our plates.
For example, in 1903 seed catalogs offered American farmers a choice of 307 varieties of sweet corn. Today, only 12 of those varieties are still commercially available.
“In the next 30 years – the Vox article reads – we’re going to need to learn how to feed more people on a hotter planet, and the more genetic varieties we lose, the harder it’ll be to adapt.”
