Dr. Jeffrey Hawtin of the United Kingdom and Canada and Dr. Carrie Fowler of the United States have been jointly awarded a $500,000 prize for their efforts to preserve the world's seed heritage..
Dr. Jeffrey Hawtin, founding director and executive director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, and Dr. Carrie Fowler, current US special envoy for global food security, were selected by the World Food Prize Winners Selection Committee to Selected for long-standing contribution to the Sex Trust. Seed Saving and Crop Biodiversity, according to a press release. They have been named 2024 World Food Prize Laureates for their work in establishing backup storage for crop seeds critical to global food security.
The two were instrumental in establishing the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, located in an underground facility in the Arctic Circle. Currently, the vault houses his 1.25 million seed samples from over 6,000 plant species. The facility, also known as the “Doomsday Vault”, was opened in 2008 and serves as the last defense against threats to global food security, such as pandemics and the climate crisis.
The award was announced at a ceremony hosted and presided over by Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the U.S. Department of State. The names of the winners were revealed by the foundation's president, Ambassador Terry Branstad.
“The World Food Prize is awarded to individuals for their achievements in combating hunger and food insecurity, one of the most pressing issues of our time,” Secretary Blinken said. “This year’s recipients, Dr. Jeffrey Hawtin and Dr. Cary Fowler of the State Department, have made significant contributions to this cause. The Department of State plays a role in this announcement. Now in its 20th year, we are honored to support the World Food Prize Foundation in recognizing the work of Dr. Fowler and Dr. Hawtin.”
Fowler and Hawtin were also instrumental in creating the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, commonly known as the Plant Treaty. The treaty, adopted in 2001, aims to facilitate the international movement of plant genetic resources. The Convention laid the foundations for Svalbard's Seed Vault by codifying international agreements and mechanisms for seed sharing.
The safe was the brainchild of Fowler, who, during his time at CGIAR, the world's largest publicly-funded agricultural research institute, was involved in the idea of establishing such a facility at the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, according to a statement. He reportedly sent a letter asking him to do so. He was later invited to chair a committee to evaluate the feasibility of such projects and served as the first chair of Vault's International Advisory Board.
“Dr. Fowler's many contributions to food security are truly global and entrepreneurial in scale, scope and design, and are changing lives. One of his many legacies, Norway 's global seed vault in Svalbard will benefit generations to come and his name will live on for a long time,'' said Anne Beate Christiansen Tvinerijm, Norwegian Minister for International Development and Minister for Nordic Cooperation. Told.
Hawtin was a member of the original research team that assessed the feasibility of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault and developed its technical specifications. In 2004, he founded the Global Crop Diversity Trust, also known as the Crop Trust, which now works with the Norwegian Ministry of Agriculture and Food and the Nordic Genetic Resources Center NordGen to provide financial support to the vault.
“Dr. Hawtin has helped shape the Crop Trust’s global work in many ways, and now, as a member of the Board, he is at the forefront of shaping the future of this international organization and its role in agri-food transformation. Dr. Stefan Schmitz, Executive Director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, said: “The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is not only an icon, but also the backbone of a growing global network of genebanks. Drs. Hawtin and Fowler have been instrumental in ensuring that all these genebanks, which are a treasure trove of plant genetic resources, have a definitive backup in the Svalbard Seed Vault, and the crops in these genebanks. It has also paved the way for making the diversity of plants available to others: researchers, plant breeders, and farmers.”
Genebanks such as the Svalbard Vault are vital resources for crop scientists working to breed and develop improved varieties of the world's most important food crops. These genebanks house material containing beneficial traits that may enhance crop climate resilience, disease resistance, nutritional value, and resistance to factors such as increased salinity. This becomes increasingly valuable from a climate change perspective.
“It may seem logical now to create a global seed vault, but at the time people told me the idea was crazy,” said the program director at the National Shareholders Fund in North Carolina. said Fowler, who began his career in 1978. “Since then, we have managed to collect and preserve all the diversity of our major crops, including the 150,000 varieties of wheat currently in storage. However, the diversity of these hardy crops is We need more collections of indigenous crops, especially from regions such as Africa, to provide input for improved plant breeding.These seeds are needed for the food and nutrition security of 10 billion people by 2050. We hope to encourage investment in innovative research and development.”
Early in his career, Hawtin focused on collecting, preserving, and protecting legumes such as chickpeas and fava beans. He traveled to countries such as Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, and Turkey, risking his life in the process. These collections helped establish a genebank managed by the International Center for Agricultural Research in Arid Areas (ICARDA). When civil war broke out in 1975, he oversaw six transfers of plant genetic material, transporting plants from Lebanon to Syria across mined roads and amidst weapons fire.
“Genetic diversity of crops and their relatives is as important to biodiversity as food security, and many of them, like pandas and rhinos, are at risk of extinction.” said Hawtin, former director of the Genetic Resources Research Institute (IPGRI). He said it is now part of an alliance between Bioversity International and CIAT. “In accepting this honor, I would like to thank the more than 1,700 gene banks around the world who work tirelessly to ensure the materials farmers and plant breeders need are preserved and available. We would like to appeal for urgent and sustained funding for the work of crop genebanks, which supports our ability to feed the world today and into the future.”
The first-ever withdrawal from a Svalbard vault took place in 2015 after the Syrian civil war, resulting in the loss of ICARDA's gene bank. The recovered items will be used to replant collections held in Morocco and Lebanon, including legume seeds that Dr Hawtin and his team first collected decades ago. was.
