The food that we eat today is not the same as people were growing and eating thousands of years ago. When men have moved away from Mesopotamia, they have taken their food, plants and seeds with them. The plants have adapted to grow in the diverse areas to which men have moved, but the original plants are still in Mesopotamia where civilization started.
Scientists have been compiling a
database of the these wild relatives of common food plants. They want
to use the wild relatives of common plants to crossbreed with
domestic plants to pick up some of the favorable genetic traits of
the wild plants. They have discovered that a significant percentage
of the "crop wild relatives" are under threat in the politically unstable areas of Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq. They are concerned that if there is a major
crop failure in a staple such as wheat or sugar cane due to drought
or disease, then the loss of these wild relatives could lead to
world-wide famine without the diversity of the genetically tolerant
wild plants.
Here is an article from the BBC that explains this in greater detail.
Food crop wild relatives endangered
Scientists have released the most
complete database of the wild relatives of common food crops.
These wild relatives are closely
related to our crops, but grow naturally under a wide range of
environmental conditions.
This makes them essential for the
development of more resistant and adaptable food sources.
However, many of them grow in conflict
zones in the Middle East, where their conservation is threatened.
Scientists from the University of
Birmingham have highlighted "hotspots" around the globe,
which are areas where many different types of wild relatives are
concentrated. Here, they could be conserved to secure future global
food resources.
Farmers crossbreed the wild relatives
with existing crops to produce varieties of grains, vegetables,
fruits, legumes and tubers that are more adaptable to local climates.
Lead scientist Dr Nigel Maxted from the
University of Birmingham told BBC News: "Our goal is not only
crop wild relative conservation, but to promote use of the conserved
diversity by farmers and breeders to develop crop varieties with
greater resilience to climate change."
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