{"id":52,"date":"2019-04-22T11:10:35","date_gmt":"2019-04-22T11:10:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.plantagbiosciences.org\/people\/sarah-watts\/?p=52"},"modified":"2019-07-16T16:48:44","modified_gmt":"2019-07-16T16:48:44","slug":"laying-the-foundation-vavilov","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.plantagbiosciences.org\/people\/sarah-watts\/laying-the-foundation-vavilov\/","title":{"rendered":"Laying the Foundation: Vavilov"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Nikolai Vavilov (1887-1943)<\/a> was one of the founding scientists to champion agrobiodiversity; he was a Russian seed collector and scientist, and with his colleagues traveled much of the world looking for the genetic epicenters of different crops. Vavilov determined that there were eight \u2018centers of origin\u2019 for agrobiodiversity, which is illustrated in this diagram:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Sourced from:
http:\/\/scihi.org\/nikolai-vavilov-cultivated-plants\/<\/a> , Accessed 21 April 2019<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Vavilov\u2019s contribution to agriculture is astronomical, and his seed vault is still in operation today, now known as the Pavlovsk Experimental Station<\/a>. (Much of what is available on the internet about the Station is from 2010<\/a>, when its existence was threatened<\/a> by real estate developers, but Wikipedia <\/a>says that in 2012, the Russian government formally protected it.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vavilov, however, was living in an incendiary time in Russia; the Siege of Leningrad saw 28 of his colleagues starve to death<\/a> rather than eat any of the specimens in the seed vault. Vavilov himself was condemned by the Russian government because Stalin identified with another scientist\u2019s theories; Vavilov was brutally and extensively interrogated, sentenced to prison, and died of starvation behind bars. Vavilov didn\u2019t back down on the strength of his convictions, which is good for the world, considering that his seed vault has gone on to save the lives of millions in the face of crop collapses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is all to say that agrobiodiversity is vitally\nimportant; it serves as a safeguard in case diseases or pests destroy crops, a\nmanifestation of culture, and a source of varying and nutritious foods. Vavilov\nand his colleagues may have made the ultimate sacrifice, but it was in the\nnoblest of causes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The research I will conduct will not be so fraught with\nperil \u2013 but it\u2019s good to start a blog with a bang.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=l0mYTndj8Yo\n<\/div>
The Decemberists, \"When the War Came\"
This song was written about the scientists in the vault during the Siege of Leningrad.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nikolai Vavilov (1887-1943) was one of the founding scientists to champion agrobiodiversity; he was a Russian seed collector and scientist, and with his colleagues traveled much of the world looking for the genetic epicenters of different crops. Vavilov determined that there were eight \u2018centers of origin\u2019 for agrobiodiversity, which is illustrated in this diagram: Vavilov\u2019s ...continue reading \"Laying the Foundation: Vavilov\"<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[11,4,5,10,12,8,6,9,7,3],"class_list":{"0":"post-52","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-background-on-agrobiodiversity","7":"tag-agriculture","8":"tag-agrobiodiversity","9":"tag-centers-of-origin","10":"tag-crops","11":"tag-decemberists","12":"tag-pavlovsk","13":"tag-russia","14":"tag-siege-of-leningrad","15":"tag-stalin","16":"tag-vavilov","17":"h-entry","18":"hentry","19":"h-as-article"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.plantagbiosciences.org\/people\/sarah-watts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.plantagbiosciences.org\/people\/sarah-watts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.plantagbiosciences.org\/people\/sarah-watts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.plantagbiosciences.org\/people\/sarah-watts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.plantagbiosciences.org\/people\/sarah-watts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.plantagbiosciences.org\/people\/sarah-watts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":166,"href":"https:\/\/www.plantagbiosciences.org\/people\/sarah-watts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52\/revisions\/166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.plantagbiosciences.org\/people\/sarah-watts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.plantagbiosciences.org\/people\/sarah-watts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.plantagbiosciences.org\/people\/sarah-watts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}