Ireland relied so heavily on monoculture of potatoes that when blight caused the potatoes to rot, they lost their staple food source. It’s important to note that other social and economic factors were at play here, but the lack of genetic diversity was certainly a contributing factor. Had the Irish deployed Frank Figge’s portfolio theory to its food economy, the infamous potato famine might not have dealt such a devastating blow. The portfolio theory takes a lesson from the financial industry, where advisers recommend diversifying where and how you invest your money to help minimize risk and build assets. Crop diversity is your “portfolio.” This same concept, Figge argues, should be applied to preserv- ing genetic diversity. “Portfolio theory is usually applied to assets such as shares,” Figge wrote in his 2004 paper, Bio-folio: applying portfolio theory to biodiversity. “Genes, species or ecosys- tems can also be considered assets.” An excerpt reads: “There is considerable research on the contribution of biodiversity to the resilience of ecosystems. Resilience of an ecosystem can be interpreted as the ability to absorb changes and disturbances before it changes from one state to another.” Preserving and even creating genetic diversity is increasingly important as farmers and plant breeders look to deal with climate change and mounting pest and disease pressures. “To have a chance to create new varieties that will perform, we need genetic diversity,” Gouache says. “The more sources of genetics that plant breeders have, the better their chance of mixing, combining and tackling the challenge they set out to address.” “It is virtually impossible to exaggerate the importance of crop diversity,” said Erik Solheim, Norway’s former Minister of International Development in 2007 when the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation made a $37.5 million grant to the Crop Trust and the government of Norway made a matching grant of $7.5 million. These grants were earmarked to secure over 95 per cent of the endangered crop diversity held in developing country genebanks, many of which are under-funded and in disrepair. These dollars were also to be used to fund a comprehensive global information system that would allow plant breeders everywhere to search genebanks worldwide for traits needed to combat new diseases and cope with climate change. While nearly everyone can agree on the importance of preserving genetic diversity, where we are today and how we do it can be highly controversial — fueled by passion, fear, dollars, politics and belief. An estimated 20 per cent of plant diversity is under threat from habitat degradation, invasive species and over-exploitation, according to the Crop Trust. A representative from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation once said: “There can be no food security without first securing the basis of our food production — the genetic diversity of every crop …” All countries are interdependent on one another for vital plant genetic material. To date, there have been a number of efforts to create frameworks to preserve genetic diversity. One is the Nagoya Protocol and the other is the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA). In this article, we will focus on the latter. Formed under the auspices of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the treaty entered into force June 29, 2004, with the guidance of a governing body that is comprised of representatives from all con- tracting parties. SEPTEMBER 2018 GERMINATION.CA 35 The Treaty’s Framework The treaty sets out to accomplish three things. First, it aims to take care of the conservation of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture. Second, the genetic resources should be used in a sustainable manner. And third, access and benefit sharing should be managed. The treaty also recog- nizes that farmers have contributed to the diversity of crops that feed the world; therefore, it works to ensure that recipients share the benefits they derive from the use of these genetic materials. With 144 countries that are now party to the treaty, it has since established a global multilateral system (MLS) to provide farmers, plant breeders and scien- tists with access to plant genetic materials During the Seventh Session of the International Treaty for Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture’s Governing Body, Jean-Christophe Gouache, then president of the ISF, discussed the importance of keeping a multi-optional approach for benefit sharing.