Educational Media Reviews Online

Developing countries depend on just three crops for over 60% of their calories. These crops—wheat, rice and maize—need to remain in a healthy state in order to avoid a global food crisis. Agriculturalists have been trying to reintroduce, ancient, forgotten varieties of fruits and grains into farming communities in order to ensure that food supply chains remain plentiful. Many of these ancient grains, such as millet, tapioca and a few varieties of oranges can easily be cultivated, even in harsh environments and during times of climate change.

The dependence of farmers on governments is discussed in this film. The importance of having governments subsidize crops other than wheat, rice and maize is emphasized so that the viewer can clearly see how it is often nearly impossible for farming families to bring their yields to market and perpetuate the viability of crops. Mixing the minor, ancient crops into the major farming system could be the future for food. This issue will become of greater importance in the next generation. Meanwhile, molecular biologists are aiding in differentiating older varieties of fruits, vegetable and grains from the newer ones in order to create hybrid varieties that are easier to cultivate and sell at market.