Ukraine helps feed the world – but its farmers, seeds and future are in danger

theguardian.com:

The war in Ukraine has made the food crisis triggered by the pandemic worse. People in Ukraine not only fear for their lives but are facing possible food shortages. Because Ukraine and Russia are major producers and exporters of agricultural commodities, the conflict is also having major impacts on global supply chains. The Ukrainian government has said that 22m tons of grain are stuck in the country due to the Russian blockade of its ports. Traders and financial speculators have further driven up wheat and cooking oil prices.

Not only are Ukrainian farms and fields being destroyed by Russian forces, but we are also very troubled by reports that Ukraine’s national seed bank has been partly destroyed amid fighting in Kharkiv in the north-east, where almost 2,000 crop samples rest in underground vaults. If Ukraine’s farmers cannot farm and the country’s seed banks are destroyed, its future is in peril.

Even in the midst of war, we have to think about recovery. Seeds are what make future life possible. Without seeds, it is very difficult to rebuild a food system.

The crop diversity present in farmers’ fields and seed banks are key to ensure we maintain the biodiversity necessary to respond to the climate crisis and ensure our food systems flourish. The global problem is not just the rising rate of armed conflict. A major problem is that more and more food systems are designed to reduce biological diversity, leaving us more vulnerable to climate change.

Biodiversity is nature’s way of creating as many options as possible to respond to change. The more biodiverse a food system, the more options we have to respond to quickly changing climate conditions. When a farmer selects the most viable plants for these new conditions, saves