National Geographic Documentaries

Seed Hunter (2009x2)

Uitzenddatum: Sep 07, 2009

Unless answers are found quickly to strengthen the genetic base of our food in accelerating climate change, our world could face mass starvation. Solutions to this crisis lie within Mother Nature herself in the form of diverse genes found in the wild ancestors of our staple foods - and the man to hunt them down is Dr Ken Street, the Indiana Jones of agriculture. Ken and his team will travel to the land where agriculture began nearly 10,000 years ago. In the remotest parts of the Middle East and Central Asia, the genetic origins of our daily bread and other food still survive. The crops growing here have taken centuries to develop robust genetic traits that allow them to thrive in the harshest of climates. Scientists around the world want access to these genes so they may be integrated into food crops compromised by global warming.