SOWING FOR APOCALYPSE
The quest for a global seed bank
From The New Yorker
August 27, 2007
A cold drizzzle was falling over St. Petersburg last March, and the gray morning light filtered through the grainy windows of the ceremonial rooms of the Vavilov Research Institute of Plant Industry, one of the oldest seed banks—and most storied—in the world, situated on St. Isaac's Square. In one of the rooms, a woman in a smock sat at a table with a brown packet, and its contents, pea seeds, spilled out over the table in front of her. She did not look up from sorting through the seeds as two visitors passed, and, with her lips moving silently, she appeared to be lost in thought, or prayer.
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Copyright © John Seabrook 2007. All rights
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