State of Seed

In the newest season of State of Seed, launching Friday, we examine how our increasingly fragmented world is impacting access to seeds. Recorded at the World Seed Congress in Lisbon, host Laura Rosbrow-Telem talks to farmers and leaders from seed companies, government, the WTO, and the FAO about how they are grappling with this geopolitically complicated moment. But it’s not all doom and gloom. Agricultural trade remained stable last year and crop breeding innovations could help farmers manage various challenges, including better optimizing inputs like fertilizers. State of Seed is a podcast from the International Seed Federation, with production services by FP Studios.

This is a big year for the U.N. International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA), which ensures that seeds in most countries’ public seed or gene banks are widely available to farmers, scientists, and plant breeders everywhere. Negotiators will meet in November in Lima, Peru to try to update the treaty, which first passed in 2001. But this task is proving to be challenging. In our season finale, we learn about the main issues in the international plant treaty talks, why they are so contentious, and how all this impacts seeds and global food security. Host Laura Rosbrow-Telem speaks with key players in the negotiations, including Kent Nnadozie, the treaty's secretary. She also talks to Jasmina Muminovic, the head of genetic resources at Bayer Crop Science as well as the International Seed Federation's Coordination Group on Genetic Resources, which leads the seed industry’s participation in the treaty negotiations. We also get a better understanding of the technological advancements complicating the talks from Dave Bubeck, a research director at Corteva Agriscience. Finally, we hear a lively debate about the negotiations from a World Seed Congress panel moderated by Jean-Paul Judson, the founder of NOWMORE. State of Seed is a show from the International Seed Federation, with production services by FP Studios.

Lately, it can feel as if the world is falling apart, with war, climate change, and global instability rising—to name just a few existential threats. But the world is not ending. And seeds are a big part of ensuring our future. In this season of State of Seed, recorded from the World Seed Congress in Istanbul in May, we will learn how seeds play a critical role in continuing life on this fragile globe of ours. And we will grapple with some of the seed sector’s biggest current obstacles, such as trade and illegal seed practices. We will also hear about U.N. negotiations on sharing the genetic information of seeds and why they are so contentious. But for this first episode, host Laura Rosbrow-Telem interviews Cary Fowler, who gave the World Seed Congress’s keynote address this year. Fowler is a co-winner of the 2024 World Food Prize for co-founding the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. Launched in 2008, the global seed vault holds more than 1.3 million samples of seeds—the largest number of seeds in one place on Earth. Fowler shares in rich detail how he and others created this novel sanctuary for global food security, as well as the importance of seed banks in preserving our biodiversity. State of Seed is a show from the International Seed Federation, with production services by FP Studios.

Two thirds of the people facing the most hunger are farmers themselves, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). We heard about this shocking reality during our first episode. And now, we will hear about solutions to this urgent problem. On today’s episode of State of Seed, our last of the series, we will focus on seed access: how to get quality seed to those who need them most. Host Laura Rosbrow-Telem talks to a range of experts, including smallholder farmers, major seed organization representatives, and researchers. She speaks with Elizabeth Nsimadala, president of the Eastern Africa Farmers Federation and a lifelong smallholder farmer, as well as ISF Secretary General Michael Keller, who discusses ISF’s recently launched Seeds for Food Coalition, among other public-private initiatives. Finally, we learn about farmer-led research from Sonja Vermeulen, Managing Director of Genetic Innovation at CGIAR (the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research), and Andrew Mushita, head of the Community Technology Development Trust in Zimbabwe. They spoke on a panel about public-private partnerships at the World Seed Congress. Special thanks to Alessandra Fajardo, Jorge Fernandez Vidal, and Ebunoluwa Ijeoma Ajobiewe, whose insights helped inform this series. State of Seed is a show from the International Seed Federation, with production services by FP Studios.

More than a third of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions come from food systems. So now, there is a big push to make agriculture more sustainable. And seed technology has an important role to play. On today’s episode of State of Seed, we hear about the science behind three main types of seed innovation: traditional plant breeding, genetically modified seeds (or GMO seeds), and genome editing. What are the benefits and risks of these emerging technologies? And how could they reshape the future of food? Host Laura Rosbrow-Telem speaks with some of the leading innovators in the seed world, including Richard Harrison, managing director of plant sciences at Wageningen University and Research in the Netherlands; Diego Risso, executive director of the Seed Association of the Americas; and Dan Jenkins, vice president of regulatory and government affairs at Pairwise, a U.S. startup genetically editing seeds. Olalekan Akinbo, Senior Program Officer of the Biosafety Program for the African Union Development Agency, also shared his perspective on genome editing during a panel at the centennial World Seed Congress. Special thanks to Thin Lei Win, whose journalism helped inform this episode. State of Seed is a show from the International Seed Federation, with production services by FP Studios.

Could access to high-quality seeds be the secret ingredient to food security? And if so, what are the obstacles to getting there? On State of Seed, you’ll learn how better seeds could feed more people and help us fight climate change. Host Laura Rosbrow-Telem talks to a range of experts at the centennial World Seed Congress, tackling some of the thorniest topics. What is the science behind seed innovation and what are the risks and benefits? How consolidated is the seed industry? And how can we increase seed access to those most in need? State of Seed is a four-part series from the International Seed Federation, with production services by FP Studios.