"THE GREATEST SERVICE which can be rendered any country is to add a useful plant to its culture." It seems only fitting to open up with the quote from Thomas Jefferson when discussing Cary Fowler, who received the 2018 recipient of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Citizen Leadership. However, Fowler takes this quote to the next level. In February 2008, Fowler helped to open the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. Currently, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault contains 968,557 samples of different crop varieties from 239 different coun- tries. Within each sample, there are about 500 seeds. Fowler believes his love of crop diversity began with trips to his grandmother’s farm outside Jackson, Tenn. His great-grandfather was instrumental in opening the University of Tennessee Experiment Station, which trialed a variety of different crops. “Every year, the experiment station would have a barbeque and we’d look at the different varieties, so my grandmother could decide which different seeds she could get for her farm,” Fowler says. “I believe that the things you grow up with are so deeply important to you on an emotional level, and my profession ended up tapping into that family history.” In the 70s, Fowler began to realize his passion for protecting crop diversity more. “I was drawn to the work of Dr. Jack Harlan, who was president of the Crop Science Society of America,” Fowler says. “He was speaking about the loss of genetic diversity in plant breeding, which really resonated with me.” However, Fowler says that two events helped lead him to his major project: September 11 and Hurricane Katrina. CONSERVING CROP DIVERSITY With climate change looming over our crops, preserving crop diversity is the No. 1 priority for Cary Fowler. Alex Martin amartin@issuesink.com “9/11 taught us that no one place on Earth is completely safe,” Fowler says. “Katrina taught us that even if we know a disaster could happen, there’s always more we can do to prepare for it. It dawned on me during Katrina that I was ‘one of those experts’ that could be doing more. “I thought something quite bad could happen to one of our seed banks, and we needed to get serious about having a safety duplicate of all our collections.” Yet, Fowler wouldn’t call this endeavor a “doomsday” vault, as it was later dubbed. “I was shocked when this title was first used,” Fowler says. “Those of us who worked on the Global Seed Vault never thought of it that way, but it’s had some positive and negative effects.” Fowler says that when Svalbard was dubbed a “doomsday” vault by the media, it got everyone’s attention in a way they never dreamed. “We welcomed the atten- tion because it’s an important topic that policymakers should know about,” Fowler says. “At the same time, it’s, of course, a little doomsday-ish, which isn’t accurate. It makes me wonder, ‘What exactly do you think is going to happen?’” However, Fowler does concede that if there were some type of regional or larger catastro- phe, the seed vault would come in handy. “In reality, while working with crop varie- ties, doomsday can come every day,” says Fowler. “We still don’t have a perfect crop diversity protection system.” For example, Fowler notes that in the U.S., we only have around 5 percent of the world’s wheat collection. “What are the chances that those 5 percent will be sufficient for the world, or would the other 95 percent be useful? We’re our brother’s keepers. We need to be concerned for these other samples in other gene banks.” 6 / SEEDWORLD.COM SEPTEMBER 2018 Cary Fowler puts away samples inside the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. PHOTO: JIM RICHARDSON