Seed Banks Safeguarding Biodiversity Take a look inside the seed banks protecting the world’s biodiversity and safeguarding our future. Humans once ate a multitude of plant varieties, with up to 6000 species being consumed over the course of our history. Today, just three species — rice, wheat, and maize — provide 50 percent of the world's calories. Meanwhile, the seeds that our food comes from are mostly produced by just four corporations; creating a uniformity in our diet like never before. These companies focus on productivity, standardization, and uniformity rather than diversity. However relying on just a small number of seed varieties and crop species makes our food system vulnerable to the effects of climate change, such as droughts or unpredictable weather patterns, as well as problems brought by pests and diseases. The failure of one key crop can have disastrous consequences. In the early 20th century, scientist and explorer Nikolai Vavilov was one of the first to identi...