The invitation asked if I’d like to see a documentary on seeds. “Er, no, not especially,” I thought. But like all things you go into in life with your mind made up, the ‘thing’ in question always has a habit of changing your mind.

The restaurant that on entry looks like the dodgiest dive ever is the one on exiting you proclaim to friends as the best in the world e-v-e-r. The sorry excuse of a town you’re only staying in to connect to the train that will take you to the town you really want to be in, becomes the highlight of your trip. So an evening I thought would be as dull as dishwater turned out to be immensely fascinating.

In 2006 director Sally Ingleton heard a radio interview about Dr Ken Street, an Australian scientist on a mission to seek out ancient seeds. So far, I’m bored. But that’s partly because I (and many others) assume that the effects of global warming will first occur in extreme weather, rather than in food shortages and associated cost increases. As the planet heats up, one of the first casualties will be the crops that supply our food.  

In the radio interview, Dr Street explained how many basic crops, like wheat, are under threat from climate change. He believed a solution could be found by going back to mother nature and finding the old ancient farmer varieties – the wild relatives of our food.

The genes in these seeds are becoming extinct as modern agriculture takes over much of the world, and as the scientist states, “People go to war over oil, people go to war over gold and yet oil and gold are actually of lesser importance than food.”

Ingleton was hooked and after securing funding, the production team traversed drought ravaged farms in Australia, the Middle East and the mountains of Tajikistan where Dr Street and his gaggle of ‘gene detectives’ hunted plant genes that will help our food withstand the impact of 21st century global warming.

Today, areas of our planet that were once ‘food bowls’ are now dust bowls and the film shows farmers in Tajikistan suffering from drought, lack of rain and an influx of new pests and diseases that destroy their harvests. Dr Street was convinced that in the remote mountains there were people who still grow the tough, traditional species of our food plants and it’s in these mountains where the main action of the film takes place. Far from wishing I were propping up a bar with a White Lady, I was captivated.

As the climate changes, we need the genes of these same ancient varieties to help develop new varieties that still have the high yield benefits of modern crops, but in addition have the capacity to withstand hotter, drier conditions. Just a fraction of a degree change in average temperatures can be enough to stop many crops from flowering and producing seed and fruit.

The documentary also discusses Svalbard Seed Vault (known as the ‘doomsday vault’). Located in the Arctic, it’s a back up to the world’s supply of seeds. The storage facility is cut into remote, icy cliffs where the permafrost keeps the vital heritage seeds safe in its deep freeze. The vault has been built to withstand almost any disaster we can conceive, and could be the key to the survival of humanity.

As the film passed the halfway point, if a fire spread through the building, I wouldn’t be racing out the fire exit, as this real life Indiana Jones was getting closer in his search for ‘green gold’ – the wild chick pea. Chickpeas are the ultimate food for dry zones, rich in protein and nutrients. The meat that you can grow when you can’t afford meat.

While this ‘seed hunter’ wants to collect traditional farmed varieties, he really wants the mother ship – the wild species that gave rise to the modern farm plant. He wants its toughness, its potential resilience to disease, pests and the climate. With the DNA he can breed new, hardy hybrids that will grow in other places where climate change and poor soils put pressure on agriculture.

But in an almost comical way, everywhere he looks, the villages are growing modern wheat. And as the chase for the elusive chickpea gathers pace, there are all sorts of hiccups and mishaps, then the local farmers say they’ve pretty much given up on the crop and no-one can tell him if any wild chickpea still exists!

Not wanting to give away the ending, ongoing drought in many parts of the world has exposed the vulnerability of our food production. Though spending precious leisure time watching a wild goose chase for a rare legume may seem like a total waste of time, I assure you, it will be anything but.

More information on the documentary can be found here: