As many of you are aware, Wylie House recently sponsored the screening of the documentary, Seeds of Time, at I.U. Cinema, as well as Dr. Cary Fowler’s visit to campus. It was a wonderful success, made a significant educational impact, and was great fun too! View highlights of the film and visit here! And mark your calendars for WFIU’s interview with Dr. Fowler on their Profiles segment: airing May 15th at 6:00 p.m.
If you didn’t make it to the screening on campus, you can still find Seeds of Time on Netflix. The film follows agriculture pioneer Cary Fowler as he races against time to protect the future of our food by building the world’s first global seed vault, deep inside an arctic mountain in Norway. The Svalbard Seed Bank stores copies of seeds from seed banks across the world, providing an unprecedented insurance policy for global crop diversity. This is particularly critical to our future as climate change accelerates and world agriculture is in danger.
Wylie House was honored to host Cary Fowler during his time here in Bloomington. While here, Dr. Fowler visited Wylie House, Bloomington’s Community Orchard as well as multiple I.U. classes and student/faculty discussions with Hutton Honors College, Wells Scholars, Sustainability Scholars and the Ostrom Workshop. The highlight for us, of course, was his visit to Wylie House’s Heirloom Seed-Saving Program and our newly launched Seed Library Program. Plant health, seed-saving, and genetic diversity are important to our interpretation efforts here at the museum, and it is our mission to provide education and unique learning opportunities to I.U. students and local community members. We are especially excited about our new Seed Library which provides opportunities to “check out” a seed packet, grow the plants, and harvest seeds to be returned to us in the fall. Don’t worry – directions and tips are provided! Please visit us or contact us to learn more.
We are confident that the film and Dr. Fowler’s visit provided both inspiration and avenues for productive and meaningful discussion related to the importance of genetic crop diversity, climate change concerns, and global sustainability. The film was sold out and we were thrilled by the audience’s enthusiasm and support. Our campus and local communities are certainly making positive efforts to do their part as we face global climate change!
Wylie House could not have enjoyed the fruits of this effort without the support of I.U. Libraries and the following partners: IU Cinema, IU departments of Public Health, Biology, Human Biology, Anthropolgy, the Integrated Program of the Environment, the Food Institute, Hilltop Campus Gardens, the Office of Sustainability, the Ostrom Workshop, Hutton Honors College, Wells Scholars Program, Bloomington Community/IU Orchard Program, WFIU, Farm Bloomington, and Lennie’s Restaurant.