Fun
Knit to This: A Gift to the World
Dear everyone,
In this season where gifts are in the air, I’d like to share the short movie above, The Seed Vault. It’s about a gift that is waiting for the world, on a remote arctic island off the coast of Norway.
It’s a seed vault—a room of seeds at the end of a long tunnel in a frozen mountain. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault protects samples of just about every plant used for food, sent in by gene banks all over the world. This is the ultimate repository of the seeds that are the key to human survival.
Not long ago, I heard a talk by Cary Fowler, the renowned scientist who has spent years exploring the challenge of preserving biodiversity. I left his talk deeply moved by his selfless work done with such urgency and modesty.
The seeds in there represent the history of agriculture, the experiences that our crops have had over 12,000 to 15,000 years of agriculture. People, plants, environment. These are seeds that have evolved over millennia of people selecting for shape, color, environment.
The scenarios under which our crops would fail are disturbing to contemplate (nuclear disaster and climate change in particular). I tend to have my head down, thinking about the next day or maybe next week. We are fortunate to have people who are thinking far ahead of us about the ultimate gift to humanity: a protected future for our food supply.
Love,
Ann
Amazing video, certainly it will be on my mind
Fascinating! Should be mandated viewing in all schools and shown on Netflix. I order garden seeds from Heritage Seeds in Manitoba, Canada. My variety will be bigger this year.
Amazing. I have heard about the Heritage seeds organization, but this is a gift to furure generations of all nations. It should be shared.
Gee, I must be in a deep freeze of my own because this is the first time but I’m hearing of this wonderful project. Thanks for bringing it to us, Ann.
Thank you so much for sharing. This was very eye opening and plan to share with others.
To Ann, Kay, the contributors, and people whose names we don’t know but who make this site and the content possible,
I just wanted to send a note about how grateful I am for Mason-Dixon in my life….You direct me to thought provoking (like this one) and entertaining films and books and fill my life with colour and inspiration…genuine inspiration. There are colour combinations that if you described them with words I would have said ‘blech!’ but when I see them, I say ‘omg that is brilliant!’ You’ve pushed me to finally try knitting socks…and I’m on my second pair…and you make me slow down and make good choices in life. That’s the most important. From the time I bought your first book, who knows how long ago that was, until now, I realize you’ve been a quiet and most eloquent guide to helping me find me. Thank you. May 2020 bring you what you need.
An admirer
Sonya, you put into beautiful words what I have felt since I connected with MDK. Thank you Sonya and thank you MDK.
I agree. I look forward to every Saturday morning.
Agreed, I’m new to this MDK but recognize the sincerity and quality of the message. I love this connection, mahalo from the Big Island! And much aloha…
Ditto
Very moving and touched my heart this Saturday morning. Yes, we need to publicize and show this movie and make accessible to others for opportunities to give and support in 2020!
Thank you so very much for connecting us all to this vital and beyond important cause and organization. I have been keeping an eye on the diminishing seed diversity through the global actions taken to fight Monsanto. Equally, the same but a little different— As a knitter and spinner I have been connected with farms and farmers who raise sheep for us to have wool for our yarn and fiber making crafts. These farmers are also feeling the challenges of farming with the changes in climate. Sadly, these challenges will continue to grow as we head into the next decade. It is important to find ways that we can support them. Thanks again for sharing the video for the Crop Trust Fund!!! Hugs from Oregon.
Thought provoking. Thanks for bringing it to our attention.
These people give me hope it what is at times a very dark world.
Dear Ann.
Thanks for sharing. Big hope for all of us. There are still wonderful selfless people in this world . Amazing.
Greetings from Pakistan.
Rehana
I’d heard of seed vaults before, but hadn’t heard of this one. So fascinating!
Thank you so much for sharing this. I had heard of this work, but never seen this documentary before. This will be one of the places for my end of year donations. It seems our future health and well-being depends on it. Thanks again!
I have been fascinated by the Svalbard Seed Vault since first reading about it about the time it opened. A simple yet genius idea. It’s like safe deposit boxes where global seed banks can deposit and safeguard their own seeds. A great backup for those banks which are destroyed by fire or accident, lack of funding, natural and catastrophic disasters, climate change, or other such tragedies occur. No genetically modified seeds are allowed. Thank you for sharing this.
On a similar note, I loved Richard Powers Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Overstory. It’s epic fiction with a serious message that the forests must be preserved. Trees communicate with each other!
I love Ice Cake and highly recommend Dersu Uzala if someone can find it to see. Filmed in 1975, set in Siberia. What better setting for a snow film?
I’ve heard of this bunker before, back during the Cold War, and it fell out of my awareness. Thank you, thank you for sharing this informative film. Every human being should be required to watch this.
Wow powerful…scary
Thank you for sharing this very interesting film. I’ve reserved a book and documentary from the library and want to learn more. Happy NewYear to all. Joanne
amazing! thanks for sharing.