Plant Varieties Disappearing—Why?
IN China, nearly 10,000 varieties of wheat were cultivated in 1949. By the 1970’s, however, only 1,000 were still in use. In the United States, of the 7,098 apple varieties reportedly used between 1804 and 1904, about 86 percent have been lost. Additionally, according to the Report on the State of the World’s Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, “95 percent of the cabbage, 91 percent of the field maize, 94 percent of the pea, and 81 percent of the tomato varieties apparently no longer exist.” Similar statistics are reported in countries the world over. Why the sudden drop? Some say that a chief cause is the spread of modern commercial agriculture and the subsequent demise of the small family farm, which has resulted in the loss of traditional, highly variable varieties of crops.
The loss of plant varieties can make crops increasingly vulnerable to failure. For example, consider Ireland’s great potato famine of 1845-49, during which some 750,000 people died of starvation when a plant disease wiped out most of the potato crop. The biological trigger for this tragedy? “Genetic uniformity,” says a United Nations report.
Over 1,000 gene banks were built worldwide during the 1970’s and 1980’s to amass and preserve plant genetic resources. But a number of these gene banks are deteriorating rapidly, and some of them have already closed. Reportedly, only about 30 countries now have facilities suitable for secure long-term storage and conservation of plant seeds.
The Bible promises that under Christ’s Kingdom rule, Jehovah “will certainly make for all the peoples . . . a banquet of well-oiled dishes, a banquet of wine kept on the dregs, of well-oiled dishes filled with marrow.” (Isaiah 25:6) How thankful we can be that Jehovah God, “the One giving food to all flesh” and the Creator of genetic diversity, will satisfy man’s every food requirement!—Psalm 136:25; Genesis 1:29.