DES MOINES, Iowa — (AP) — When Cary Fowler and Jeffrey Hawtin started thinking about how to prevent hunger and protect the world's food supply, they thought Fowler was “the craziest idea anyone had ever thought of.'' He came up with the idea of building what he calls a global seed vault. To the mountainside of the North Pole.
About 20 years ago, Mr. Fowler, now the US special envoy for global food security, and Mr. Hawtin, a British agricultural scientist, envisioned the so-called “doomsday vault” as a reserve for seeds that could be used to breed new varieties. . Crops decline when existing seed banks are threatened by war, climate change, or other cataclysmic changes. On Thursday, Washington officials announced that Fowler and Hawtin will be named 2024 World Food Prize winners for their work.
“To many people today, that sounds like a perfectly reasonable thing. It's a valuable natural resource and we want to provide strong protection for it,” he said in an interview from Saudi Arabia. He spoke at “Fifteen years ago, it was the craziest idea anyone had ever thought of to transport a bunch of seeds to the closest place you could fly to the North Pole and put them in the mountains.”
Mr. Fowler and Mr. Hawtin were selected as recipients of the State Department's annual award, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken praising their “important role in protecting crop diversity.”
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The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, located on the Norwegian island of Svalbard, opened in 2008 and currently holds 1.25 million seed samples from nearly every country. Built into the mountainside, this largely concrete structure provides genetic protection for more than 6,000 types of crops and culturally important plants.
They will be presented with the annual award this fall in Des Moines, Iowa, home of the Food Prize Foundation, and will split the $500,000 prize.
Hundreds of small seed banks have existed in other countries for decades, but Fowler wonders if climate change will disrupt agriculture and make abundant seed supplies even more essential. He said this was motivated by concerns.
Hawtin, director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, said there are many threats to existing crops, including insects, disease and land degradation, as well as political turmoil, but climate change is increasing the need for secure backups. said. Seed storage. Part of the reason is that climate change could make previous problems even worse.
“Under different climate regimes, you're going to encounter a whole new range of pests and diseases,” Hawtin said in an interview from southwest England. “Climate change is creating even more problems than previously important problems.”
Fowler and Hawtin said they hope that being selected as a World Food Prize winner will help drive hundreds of millions of dollars in additional funding for seed bank funds around the world. Sustaining these businesses is relatively cheap, especially considering how essential they are to ensuring an abundant food supply, but the need for capital will continue forever.
“This is an opportunity to get that message across and say that this relatively small amount of money is our insurance, the insurance that will feed the world in 50 years,” Hawtin said.
The World Food Prize was founded by Norman Borlaug, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for his contributions to the Green Revolution, which dramatically increased crop yields and reduced the threat of hunger in many countries. . The food award will be presented at the annual Norman E. Borlaug International Dialogue in Des Moines, Oct. 29-31.