All language subtitles for SEED.The.Untold.Story.2016.HDTV.x264-W4F

[Wind whistling]

[Whooshing]

Man, voice-over:
When I first came here,

we were, you know,
a hippie, back-to-nature,

self-sufficient thing.

We were watching
too many Davy Crockett,

Daniel Boone movies and--
and reading too much Thoreau.

[Singing in foreign language]

Voice-over: We were trying
to seek a different vision.

[Continues singing]

The first time I saw
bean collections and so on,

it was like, "Whoo,"
a jewelry store lit up,

and, um, I've always just been
dazzled by diversity.

I don't like people
that are all-straight, all-gay,

all-Communist, all Christian--
let them all be there--

and absolutely
the different kinds of seeds.

[Whistling a tune]

My great-grandfather was
a--a farmer.

Looking through
our family photo album,

I just wish that I could, like,
somehow step into that photo,

say, "Hi, Great-Grandma,
it's me, Billy, you know,

and can I have some of these?"
and--because I know for a fact

that 90-something percent
of the things are now extinct.

They are my family,
and they're gone.

I have this horrible vision
of some day

that the Creator would look down
and He'd come look around,

and say, "Uh, where is this?
Well, where'd that go?

I created this. Where did it go?
How come it's not here?"

I see myself as Noah,

not, God.

Noah didn't get to decide
whether the crocodiles

came on the ark or not,
or the black flies.

His job was to load them on, OK?
That's my job.

I have thousands of varieties
that I'm maintaining.

People of the future--
plant breeders and gardeners--

they will decide, "What the heck
did Will save that for?"

I don't get to make
that decision.

I--my job is to keep these
all on the ark,

keep them alive
for 40 days and 40 nights

until the flood's over.

I may discover ten years
from now that that seed will be

in huge demand because it has
in its genes some resistance

to some disease which is
only now evolving.

In many, many cases,
what I've got is not available

anywhere else.

It's my sweetheart.

Voice-over: The year that I fail
to grow a variety

is the year it is lost to me

and, in some cases,
perhaps lost to the planet.

Some of these things are right
on the edge of extinction.

[Birds chirping]

We have this collection

of several hundred
potato varieties:

potatoes that are purple
or black skin with yellow flesh;

some with a purple skin,
hot pink streaks in them.

We have in the collection--
there's a variety of Lumpers.

Most of the Irish, uh,
in the 1830s and 1840s

were growing Lumpers,
big yielder.

And none of those varieties
had any resistance

to late blight.

This is the potato that killed
a million Irishmen

because of the fact
that they are the one or two

or three varieties that were
totally vulnerable.

This is the variety
that explains

why "O" is the biggest section

of the South Boston
phone directory.

Genetic diversity is the hedge

between us and global famine.

[Birds chirping]

Man: The diversity in our seed
stocks is as endangered

as a panda or a golden eagle

or a polar bear right now.

We have the largest
seed shortage

in history.

Man 2: There's this beautiful
dance between the plant

and the humans
that find each other

and make a culture possible.

[Woman giggles]

Chapela: In Mesoamerica

over 10,000 years ago,

corn found humans,

and humans found corn.

Corn really is
this beautiful co-creation

between plants and humans.

The domestication
of corn was centered

in the Oaxacan Valley
of Mexico.

The incredible
evolutionary leaps

that we took with corn

is a miracle.

It ignited the sacred connection
that we had with seeds.

Corn seeds moved along the
entire spine of the Americas.

It became this revolution.

It became this new way
of being able to feed ourselves.

Man: It's what fueled you
from a small tribe to an empire.

It took 4,700 years

to get it to the U.S. border.

Then, about
a thousand years ago,

corn is everywhere
in what we now call

the United States.

[Speaking native language]

Voice-over:
As keepers of the corn,

the corn has come up

with us
through our migrations,

sustaining us.

[Speaks native language]

Our first mothers were
the blue corn

and white corn woman.

This is my grandmother,
my grandfather,

my mom, my dad,
my brother, my sister,

my kids, my grandkids,
and myself.

We all...

are one.

[Speaking native language]

Voice-over: Indian people,
we--we talk in one language...

the language of the seeds.

Now, my grandfather
tell me one time,

"This is very important
for life,"

and he put me, before he died--

[exhales sharply]

Before he died, he put me--
handful of the seeds in my hand,

and he said, "This is life.

"And put it
always in your pocket

"because if you have seeds
in your pocket,

"you can walk
and you can eat the seeds.

But if you have money,
you cannot eat the money."

[Kiss]

We lost our seeds.

We lost our food.

But when you're losing
the seeds,

you're losing completely
your traditional ways of eating.

In all these bags you see,

we have different type
of the seeds.

This is gold.

Voice-over: The seeds,
they're not very happy

because they are one
in--in the top of the other one.

They're beginning to tell us,
"We need a new house,"

a place where they can have

a home like--like us.

Man: Native Seeds/SEARCH
is a seed bank.

Most of the seeds came
to us through Native Americans.

As modern creatures,
we're in debt to them.

They were the last expression
of these stewards going back

thousands of years
that took care of these things

and made sure that we got them.

Had somebody the other day
call this Fort Knox.

Heh! There's just
so much wealth in here.

It's about 2,000
different varieties

of invaluable
agricultural crops.

All 38 generations,

all this energy comes down
into the seed,

you get a hold of it,
and then all the future

and the millions more
that can come out goes out,

and you're at that point

when you hold those seeds
in your hands.

Right here is
the--the mother corn.

This is the ancient ancestor

from which all corn came,

and that's what we're losing.

I mean, we just don't have
the time left, again,

on this small planet,
to re-create all this stuff.

That's why it's so invaluable;
once it's gone, it's gone.

Seeds are living embryos.

They do have a lifespan.

McDorman: We try to grow
everything out every ten years.

That's why we have
the 60-acre farm here.

Voice-over:
We are hugely vulnerable

with all of those seeds.

You think about crimes
against humanity.

Blow up a seed bank,
and whoa!

Becomes an immediate target
to weaken a country.

Woman: When we invaded Iraq,
we destroyed that seed bank.

and we destroyed that garden

and we destroyed
that repository

of the great ancient seeds

that had been collected
by that government

for the benefit of mankind.

Man: During World War II,
Hitler was aiming

to conquer Nikolai Vavilov's
seed bank in St. Petersburg...

[Descending bomb whistling]

and the people associated
with that seed bank

holed themselves up
in the building

and kept those seeds protected,

even though they were
starving to death,

and missiles and bombs
were landing all around them.

McDorman: Svalbard has been
called the doomsday seed vault.

The idea was to have a backup,
like, the ultimate backup

just in case
the seed bank is destroyed

or there's catastrophic cultural
and economic collapse.

We see all the seed banks
in the world looted

just for food,
and they need their seeds back.

But the problem with it
is that we think

that we don't have
to worry about this now.

It gives a false sense
of security.

Bonsall: All the gene banks,
they are all arks.

Ultimately, life does not
go on on an ark.

I'm not confident that any of us
have got something long-term

in place that can weather
the slings and arrows

of outrageous fortune
that might come our way.

[Wind roaring]

Nabhan: We're now facing
severity of climate change,

the most radical we've had
since the last Ice Age.

This is happening
at an unprecedented rate,

and it's putting pressure
on the diversity of life forms.

Woman: You know, this is
the driest they have seen

since 119 years--

Golden State's drought, the
worst in over a thousand years.

[Wind whistling]

Voice-over:
In northern New Mexico,

we had a series of, um,
drier and drier years.

Normally, this time of the year,

we're going to get ready
for planting,

but, well, there's not
any moisture.

Usually you'll hit a wet spot.

Lot of the animals began to feel
the effects of the drought.

They consumed probably
about a third

of our, uh--our corn
and all of our beans,

so it's--it's tough
for everybody.

[Bird screeches]

Man, voice-over:
Our corn is among the few places

that is environmentally
adapted to drought.

The Hopi grow corn
with no irrigation.

One day, our corn

will become very, very valuable
to human survival.

My father said, "Son,

never, never let go
of the corn."

"When I pass on,

carry on the way of the corn."

Crow--crow damage,
but we still bring it in.

Everything is brought in.

The Hopi woman and man say
that even this little one here

is special because
every corn seed has life.

And I'll plant these.
Yeah.

I'll plant this.

We don't
throw them away.

Wow.
We take care of them.

They may be calling me
daddy and say,

"Daddy, I'm glad
I'm here with you,"

you know, 'cause these are
my children.

In the womb,
human people are seeds.

We see the seeds
being planted

into the womb
of the Mother Earth.

Woman: I was very, very
fortunate when I was a child.

There was a--a fantastic tree.

My tree began from
a tiny little seed...

and I spent hours and hours
up in the branches

of that tree.

And how magic that it could
actually grow into a big tree.

That tree is still
in the garden today.

Goodall: Seeds are so crafty.

There is a power.
It's a magic.

To me, it's magic.
It's a life force so strong.

Goodall: There are seeds
that rely on fire.

There are seeds that tangle up
in the hair of an animal.

They get carried for miles.

[Dog howls]

Goodall: There are seeds
that can't germinate

unless they pass through
the gut of an animal.

Goodall: Darwin was amazed

that a seed grew
after it had been 21 hours

in the stomach of an owl.

[Owl hoots]

Man: A seed is a doorway

between the life
of the old plant

and its gift to the new plant.

Man: Our teachers are
the plants,

and they're teaching us
that they have to

sacrifice themselves
in order to be able

to give something
to the next generation.

It's a form of reincarnation.

[Overlapping chatter]

Man: Come on in.

Come on in.

Hello, hello.
Come on in.

Welcome to
my humble home.

Oh, my gosh.
This is amazing.

Check it out,
check it out.

This is how we roll.
That's why they call me--

the corn--they call me
the corn hippie.

Gosh,
this is unbelievable.

There's so much corn here.
I mean--

Right here in--
in these bags right here,

this one has,
uh, 87 different--

Oh, my gosh.
What in the hell is this?

87 different kinds of corn
from Urubamba Valley.

Oh, my God.

This is from
the Sacred Valley.

I get certified with
the phytosanitary

from the Peruvian government,
and once we get it certified,

then we're, uh, ready to ship it
wherever we want to send them.

And some of the beans.
That's astounding.

Look at that fava.

Joe Simcox, voice-over:
For all the crazy people like me

who sit there at night
and look at bags of beans,

it leaves us a mystery.

This is so precious.

No one even has
an idea

how much this--
they're like jewels.

They look like polished agates.
Look at this one.

Joe Simcox, voice-over: Must be
artistic genius of nature

that allows this to happen.

I got to sleep with this,
my best friend right there.

Joe Simcox, voice-over:
When I was six years old,

my parents asked me what I
wanted for my birthday,

and I said,
"Well, I want squash."

I didn't want a G.I. Joe and I
didn't want a baseball bat.

I wanted squash,
and I wanted those

because I wanted to save
the seeds and grow them.

Voice-over: My seeds are
my kitchen table.

My seeds are my way
of sharing food

with people all over the world.

I've been to over
a hundred countries,

collecting thousands
and thousands of seeds.

Here from Bolivia, looking
like a speckled robin's egg,

this bean here from Tanzania,

one that's coming from Zimbabwe,

variety raised by
the West Virginia hillbillies,

and this exquisitely
sculptured seed

of a Trichosanthes gourd
from Vietnam.

The seed is a time capsule.

It's preserving things
from the past,

but it's also bringing things
for the future.

And this is, uh...

Voice-over: I feel I have
an obligation to the world,

whether that's
unbalanced or not,

to bring this appreciation

to as big a swath
of humanity as possible.

This tiny little, skinny tree
with really large leaves

is in the cacao family,

the same plants
that produce chocolate,

and this is just
a distant relative of cacao

that still hasn't been
commercialized.

Voice-over: What if there's
all kinds of other seeds

in nature that have the
potential for food production...

Way down there!
Oh, oh, oh.

Feel the end of it?
Yeah.

[Water sloshes]

You hold them?

This is what we just
harvested.

Where, there?
Right here?

OK, this is called
pichariña,

and it's for being used
on cuts and sores,

and it almost has
the look of iodine.

Voice-over: There's about
300,000 species

of plants on the planet.

We come down to
30,000 different edible plants.

You put them
in your mouth like this,

you just kind of suck
on them, and...

120 are used
on a really regular basis...

and most of humanity
subsists on a mere ten--

beans,

corn,

wheat,

barley,

and rice--

virtually nothing compared
to the bigger picture.

We should put
particular attention

to the seeds of wild plants

and figure out how we can get
those into cultivation

because they're a part
of the biodiversity heritage

that will feed the world.

Pick them out
of there, Patrick.

Joe Simcox: Back in 1700s,

Thomas Jefferson wanted

to get seeds of risotto rice,

and it was thanks to slyness
that he was able to

carry out some
of this contraband seed

and raise it near Monticello
in the New World.

McDorman: In the 1890s,

over a billion packets

of seed were
distributed for free

to farmers around the country.

The American Seed
Trade Association hired

the very first lobbyist to stop
the federal seed giveaway,

as they called it.

By 1924,

the federal government
seed program would cease.

Man: These great industrialists
said, "The only way we can

"really make profit
on American agriculture

is to invent a seed
that they can't save."

McDorman: And that gave birth

to the hybrid seed industry.

Bonsall: Farmers took it
for granted

that we go to a shelf
in the store to buy our seeds.

A profound change 'cause seed is
the beginning of all of it.

If you're relying on
someone else for your seed,

then it's like you're relying
for someone else on your soul

or something; this is, like--
this is where it all starts.

To not control that part of it
is a major abdication of control

and responsibility,
and yet we did it wholesale.

It destroyed
the natural seed banks

and the seed practices
of the farmers.

Hybrid corn was
the atom bomb of agriculture.

Man: Right after
the Second World War,

the Green Revolution
starts in Mexico.

When you hear about
the Green Revolution,

the people sometimes think,
well, you know, that's about

windmills and, you know,

tofu-powered sandals
or whatever it is.

The "green"
in the Green Revolution

was never about
environmental consciousness.

The "green" was meant to be the
opposite of a red revolution.

This is about developing kinds
of seed that matter

for large-scale commercial
farmers, wherever they are,

to provide cheap food so that
people would remain capitalism

and not riot
and become communist.

The Green Revolution was taking
this rich knowledge

of peasant farming
that evolved over millennia

and tossing it
into the dustbin of history,

replacing it with, uh,
modern industrial agriculture.

Shiva: The seeds
of the Green Revolution--

what are called
the "miracle varieties"--

they were bred for taking up
more chemicals.

The hungry industry
of war chemicals,

wanting to deploy these
chemicals as agrichemicals,

trying to push chemicals
into agriculture.

Hayes: Ninety percent
of the seed

that we use to grow our food is
owned by chemical companies,

by pesticide
and pharmaceutical companies.

Now there's a huge conflict
of interest.

When the chemical companies
own the seeds,

they not only want you dependent
on the seed as a farmer,

but they also want you
dependent on their chemicals.

We use 80 million pounds
a year of atrazine

just in the U.S.

Atrazine leads to promoting
breast cancer.

It's associated with
miscarriages and birth defects.

We should have learned
this lesson way back with DDT,

and we're just learning it
over and over

and over and over
and over again.

[Woman singing in Hawaiian]

Voice-over: I live
in a community that consists

of pure native,
Hawaiian-native speakers.

Native Hawaiians had this
incredible agricultural system,

able to sustain three times
today's population.

Well, now, I would say,
um, the biotech industry,

um, these chemical corporations
are king in Hawaii.

Biotech chemical
seeds companies came in

and took over agriculture.

It alarmed me.

There's hundreds
and hundreds of acres

where these chemical
corporations test their seed.

Then I started
to experience, um,

very bad allergies,
migraines,

and illnesses, just not being
able to get over colds.

My doctor said, "Oh, you have
full-blown adult asthma."

What I started to see, that...

the farmers were
spraying pesticides.

They are spraying things
at night while we're sleeping.

My two daughters wake up
with, um...

blood-soaked pillows.

Eighteen tons
of restricted pesticides

being dumped

right next to schools
and neighborhoods.

I'm a teacher at Waimea Canyon
Middle School

for the past 18 years.

There's, uh, ag lands adjacent
to our campus.

It is literally a hundred yards

upwind of our school.

That's the field
that they were spraying,

and we can actually feel
the mist.

During P.E., a cloud

of gases came over them,

and kids just started dropping.

[Car horn honking]

Hurst: There was chaos
on campus.

It was--it was horrific.

There wasn't enough room
in the health room.

About 140 children were
seeking assistance.

[People shouting indistinctly]

Hurst: Teachers came together
and stood up.

"Stop poisoning our children."

Monsanto, Dow, DuPont
in--in Hawaii and elsewhere,

they've got a blank check
to experiment with any kind

of chemical they want
on these test plots.

You've got the most toxic
insecticides,

virtually unregulated by the
U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Here, you have
agricultural policy

absolutely linked at the hip
to the biotechnology industry

and to Monsanto's interests.

The revolving door
between Monsanto and government

is going so fast,
it--it's almost dizzying.

Cummings: The corporations,
they said,

"We want to really own
these seeds.

We want patents on life."

Kimbrell: Monsanto takes
one gene out of tens

of thousands of genes,
changes that, and says,

"No, no, now we own
the whole plant."

It's one of the most
extraordinary giveaways,

giving corporations
the natural reproduction

of all life forms, saying,
"You can make a profit

on every one
of those reproductions."

So they don't just own
the seeds,

they own all of the offspring
of those seeds

and patent them forever.

Kuwanwisiwma, voice-over:
The threat is there

by conglomerates that--
to patent our seeds,

legally saying they own it
because they were the first

to patent it.

We're the custodians
of this knowledge and the corn,

and how dare others
take it away?

Brascoupe: Once these corns
get contaminated,

there's no way
you can breed it out.

The only safe thing to do is
actually incinerate--

you know, I wouldn't
feed it to animals,

I wouldn't compost it
because it's in the DNA.

It's an abuse to seeds
and to us as indigenous people.

Goodall:
Genetically modified plants.

It's doing something
which isn't natural

in the plant world.

Goodall: Genes from
a completely different species

are being introduced
into these plants,

and the plant fights.

The plant is not happy
to receive an alien species.

Man: The genetic engineers
can take genes from the pig

and force it into the tomato.

They've taken genes from
spiders and put it into goats.

They've taken human genes
and put it into rice and corn.

Kimbrell: You can't see
the difference

between
genetically engineered corn

and non-genetically
engineered corn.

This is not seeable
by a consumer.

Independent scientists were
beginning to see indications

that consuming
genetically engineered foods

could have kidney
and liver damage, uh,

we're seeing possible
reproductive issues

in laboratory animals, and now
we're beginning to see problems

that could come from them.

Kimbrell:
Wheat was the holy grail

for companies like Monsanto.

If they could have had all
the wheat in the United States

be genetically engineered,
that was really the holy grail.

Man: Wheat farmers decided
we did not want them

to release a genetically
modified wheat.

We don't have to take the chance

to fool with the genetic
modified plants.

And we said,
"No, we don't want it,"

and now we've got it.

Kimbrell: We thought
this had been put to bed,

and we thought those wheat seeds
had been destroyed.

Apparently not.

Man: The Department
of Agriculture have told us,

"Don't worry. We can keep
these seed trials confined."

And time and time again,
they have failed to do so

and they have escaped.

Justesen: Once you take that
stuff out of the laboratory,

there's a thousand things
that can go wrong

that lets that seed get away.

Man 2: As far as a duck can fly,
they eat seed,

and they excrete that seed,
and that seed grows,

in a place where it
wasn't intended.

You can't pull it back,

you can't put the toothpaste
back in the tube.

International wheat markets
shut down for months.

That cost farmers hundreds
of millions of dollars.

The USDA opened
an investigation;

they have never been able
to discover how

the genetically engineered wheat
got in the farmers' field.

Tester: If our wheat is
contaminated,

I'm out of business.

Shiva: When seeds
started to become

a patented property sold
by corporations,

you've destroyed seed freedom.

Monsanto started to buy up
Indian seed companies.

Sixty Indian seed companies
can only sell Monsanto's seeds.

The companies will take
video vans into the villages.

Shiva: They had
every Indian epic,

and they would very cleverly
sell the seeds.

So Hanuman is carrying
white gold--

the seeds of Monsanto.

So when Hanuman comes
as a salesman of Monsanto,

they believe in them.

So that was the first strand

through which they took over.

Then they also told the farmer,

"Why are you using these
old seeds? Sell them to us."

In one season,

this thing they call
seed replacement

has destroyed the entire
native seed supply.

You have a seed dictatorship
established.

Then the farmer can't get out.

We could have very, very
large-scale famine,

but unlike all famines
of the past,

no resurrection because
every famine of the past,

seed was always there.

This time's famine
will be based

on a seed famine.

[Geese honking]

[Moos]

[Crying]

[Man speaking native language]

Shiva: We have lost
270,000 farmers

to suicide.

Voice-over: The future of Hawaii
is all at stake.

Everything I love is
being threatened.

[Barca speaks indistinctly]

...has got to go!

Barca: Monsanto
has got to go!

[Speaks Hawaiian]

Voice-over: I'm fighting
for the whole island.

[Speaking Hawaiian]

[All respond in Hawaiian]

Barca, voice-over:
Say something or die.

[Speaks Hawaiian]

[All respond in Hawaiian]

Barca: 6,000 people,

there out of the love
of their heart,

for our children, for our land.

Chun: These chemical
corporations occupy lands

that are--are considered
very sacred to Native Hawaiians.

Our land, our aina, um,

and everything
that comes from it,

that's our ancestor.

There really will be nothing
left for our children

if no one is willing
to speak up.

I met with
the chemical companies.

They would say, "No, we're not
experimenting with pesticides,"

and they'd tell me,
"This is safe,

there's nothing wrong
with this stuff."

"Could you tell me
what you're spraying?"

And they refused to--to tell me.

Then the more these companies
would lie to me,

I had to do something,

and that's when we started
piecing Bill 2491 together.

Could any of you disclose
to me the amount

of general-use pesticides
that you use on an annual basis?

Hooser: I asked you an hour ago

how much general-use pesticides

you're using, and you said no

with your silence.

I would say that I don't think I

would want to comply...

Hooser: OK.

Man: ...with the bill as is.

Woman: My second son here

was born with an extremely rare
heart defect.

Our son was dying.

All I know is
that while pregnant,

I took every precaution to rai--

to--to grow a healthy baby
inside of me.

By not passing this bill,
you're telling me

I don't have the right to know.

If I had known, I would have
chosen not to expose

my unborn child
as I innocently worked

day in and day out
in Kekaha.

My son has a condition
called gastroschisis.

Basically, the stomach's
on the outside.

[Crying]
I just--I don't blame anybody,

but I just want to stop
the poisoning!

Bring a baby into the world

that's got to get
cut open right away!

This is--children don't
deserve this.

[Shouts in Hawaiian]

The trust is gone
for these companies.

The trust is gone.

And I don't know how they're
going to gain the trust back,

other than backing this bill
and working with the community.

Hooser: They are suing
the county of Kauai

for the right to spray poisons
next to schools,

and these are the largest
companies in the world,

so we're going to have,
uh, a huge battle.

Crowd chanting: OMG, GMO...

Man: They're fighting
for a profit!

We're fighting for our lives!

[Cheering and applause]

And those who fight
for their lives

do not give up, do not let down!

Never say no!

Andrew Kimbrell: 64 countries
around the world have some form

of labeling of genetically
engineered foods.

United States does not.

Monsanto and the other companies
are so frightened of labeling

because once people have
a choice,

why would they choose a product
that only offers them risks

and no benefits?

Shiva: No one said,
"Give me G.M. food" anywhere.

This has never been voted for

by any community
anywhere in the world.

Americans are being denied
the right to know.

Shiva, voice-over:
Took inspiration from Gandhi.

Gandhi had dealt with
the smaller imperialism

of the British by taking out
the spinning wheel,

and he said, "We will be free.
We will spin our own cloth."

And I said, "We will save
our own seed."

The seed will be
the spinning wheel of our times.

Shiva: We have launched
a campaign this year,

a--a global alliance
for seed freedom.

Shiva, voice-over: We need
to protect the diversity,

integrity, and freedom of life.

Give seed its own freedom

so that we as humans
can have our freedom.

Shiva, voice-over:
Our community seed banks

are both the networks
of farmers

as well as
the distribution network

for moving seed
wherever it's needed.

[Conversing in native language]

Shiva, voice-over: More than 110
community seed banks

have started.

If there's a drought,
getting drought-resistant seed;

if there's a flood, getting
flood-resistant seed.

So these are seeds of hope.

These are seeds that do not
lock you into debt.

[Applause, laughter,
and cheering]

Joe Simcox:
You know, there's that, uh,

Garth Brooks song, "The Rodeo"?

Well, for me, the rodeo is going
out into the wilderness

and finding things to eat.

It's like an obsession
that never ends.

Big, huge treasure hunt.

Voice-over: When people say,
"How do we feed a hungry world?"

what about the wild things?

Man: The devil's claw.

We don't want
to get the sap.

Holy moley!

This is a male plant,

so this baby is
pollinating somebody else!

Let's see who it's
pollinating!

Look at it, man! Look at
the little watermelons!

I've been waiting
to get these seeds

for probably 15 years,

and you would not imagine

that this would grow
out in the desert.

So a seed in this case
is extremely precious,

and what does that mean?
It's worth as much as gold.

This is called
a Gemsbok cucumber,

and these are one of
the treasures of the desert.

It should be edible;
now, if they're green,

what I've heard is they're gonna
burn the crap out of your mouth.

You gonna try
the first one?

Do we have a spoon?

Oh, look at that.
OK.

Sweet?

What's it taste like?

Tastes terrible.

Does it taste bad?

Yeah.
[Laughter]

[Man speaking foreign language]

Joe Simcox: Oh, he's got
to poke a hole in them

so they don't explode.

Look at that!
Ha ha ha!

[Overlapping chatter]

Joe Simcox: They're--they're the
original botanists, aren't they?

I'm nothing; all I'm doing is
learning it in books

and wanting to find out
about it,

but they're knowing
everything about it.

Joe Simcox: I figured
that he said, probably.

There's a group effort
digging up this monster.

[All cheering]

Joe Simcox, voice-over: This is
the incredible marama bean.

Produces tubers
up to 500 pounds.

About ten pounds?
Easily.

Joe Simcox, voice-over:It is
a future potential food crop

unlike any other
on the planet.

[Applause and cheering]

The people in the Kalahari

depend upon this
for their very survival,

and it doesn't need water
for three years

and it can still survive.

You can go back eons
and be, like, a hunter

walking out here when
he was just surviving

with the elements.

Hey...

Joe Simcox, voice-over:Strange
thing to get impressed with,

but I'm impressed.

We do have a beautiful world...

[Slurping]

and something
like this, to me,

it's just a marvel
of the planet we live on.

[Bonsall singing
in foreign language]

I don't suppose anyone's up

for "The Merry Dwarfs,"
probably, right?

Man: Ja, I suppose.
I don't know.

There's enough
of us.

Timing is
all important.

It's like with seed-saving;
time is a big deal.

Ready?
Let's hear it now.

♪ "Hi-ho," cried
the merry dwarfs ♪

♪ Dwarf ♪
♪ Short ♪

♪ It's off
to the woods we-- ♪

♪ Dwarfs ♪
♪ Are--mmm ♪

Seed-saving is all about sex,

and humans are all
obsessed with sex,

even if it's rutabaga sex.

You can hire someone
to come fix your plumbing.

I'm--I'm sure we know for a fact

you can hire someone
to make love to your spouse,

for example,
and they'll sure as hell

do a better job than you will.

But no, somehow we feel like,

"Nah, I really want
to do that myself.

Some things are just
too important."

This is right up there

with making love to your spouse.

So this is the office where, uh,
where all my stuff is stored...

and I don't know
quite how many thousands

of variety of samples
of seeds are here.

Voice-over:
I never can seem to get enough.

Rutabagas.

Voice-over: I've tried
to level off in recent years

to something that I can handle.

Sometimes thought that if
the house were to catch on fire,

and I had to do something
very, very quickly, um,

hopefully I would first
make sure that all the family

were out, safely out,
but somehow, deep inside,

I'm afraid that I would
probably rush in here,

smash out the windows, and start
throwing boxes of seeds

out to the firefighters
and hope they understood

what to do with them,
don't turn the hoses on them

or something.

[Grunts]

[Sighs]

Voice-over:
I see no end in sight,

except when I'm cremated.

That concerns me sometimes;

who will--who will
take this over.

[Frog croaking]

[Cow bell ringing]

[Distant cow mooing]

[Drums beating]

[Rumbling]

Huh?

Ah!

McDorman: "Jack and
the Beanstalk" is a true story.

The idea we all laughed at,
that he would trade his pig

or his cow or whatever
for a handful of beans

is, like,
"What a silly thing is that?"

But if you think
about the potential

of the self-replicating system
that's in your hand

and what it could
potentially produce,

we should all trade in
everything we have,

for a handful of beans.

[Giant roaring]

[Jack whimpering]

Hello. Ha ha ha!

McDorman: I woke up one night,
about 3:00 in the morning,

I sat up straight in my bed,
and I went, "Ah! Seed school!"

Voice-over:
We got to teach this stuff.

We got to open up a space
and teach them what we know.

I'm going back to the
10,000-year-old way of doing it,

to have everybody everywhere

saving and storing and sharing
their own seeds.

White: When we teach
about seeds,

we rewrite ourselves back
into that evolutionary dance

between plants and humans.

We initiate
a whole new generation

of people who care for life,

since the seed's asking
to be spoken for again.

As a Mohawk woman,

seeds embody the sense of hope

for the future,
that we could create

something different,
a new paradigm for our children.

We have to make that promise

to the corn, that we will--

we will nourish ourselves from
it, but we will also give back.

We have the house
and the blessing

of the Great Spirit,
the Mother Earth,

all the protectors
and the spirit from this land.

And they say, "You guys, they
have to finish this seed bank."

Stone by stone
or mud by mud,

we have this building.

The seed bank,
it represents life.

All the seeds, they have memory.

They happy in this moment.

[All singing in native language]

Kuwanwisiwma:
Those young men and women

are carrying on a tradition
of our community,

and I see the young people happy

and the corn is happy,

the birds are happy

because that's who we are.

Chun: It's time for us
to take back that mana'o.

It's so important, um, to get
back to our food source...

take back that ability
to self-sustain...

as our ancestors once did.

Barca: This food forest here

could feed hundreds of people.

We could be the self-sustainable

epicenter of the world, and
there's no reason we can't be.

We can grow any fruit
or vegetable on these islands.

Barca: As a team, as a family,
we can accomplish anything.

And we went from
this much diversity,

took 10,000 years to create
down to this pinch,

with only 4% left,
and we're right here, right?

And so we're gonna--we're waking
up, we're gonna do this.

It's knowing that
in each individual seed

is the potential
to change it all back.

♪♪