The Ultimate Crop Insurance

A new treaty strives to save 10,000 years of plant breeding

In late summer 2002, looters threatened war-engulfed Afghanistan’s agricultural heritage. Unknown pillagers dumped stocks of carefully labeled seeds as they ransacked buildings in Ghazni and Jalalabad, where the material had been hidden for safekeeping. All the looters wanted, apparently, were the plastic and glass jars in which the seeds were stored.